Z Special Unit

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Z Special Unit
Active	1943-1945
Country	Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand
Nickname	Z Force
Battles/wars	Operation Rimau, Operation Jaywick
Commanders
Colonel of the Regiment	Lt Col Lyon

Z Special Unit, usually known as Z Force was a joint Australian, British and New Zealand commando unit, which saw action against the Empire of Japan during World War II. Z Special Unit carried out 284 covert operations in the Pacific. The most publicised of these were the successful canoe raid on Singapore Harbour from the Krait, and the subsequent Rimau raid in which all 23 participants were either killed in action or executed.

1 Formation and training
2 Plans for an attack on Singapore
3 Operation Scorpion
4 Raid on Townsville
5 Operation Jaywick
6 Operation Rimau
7 New Zealand recruits
8 Borneo
9 Vessels allocated to Z Special Unit <ref>Register of Army Small Craft covering the period 1943 to 1946, held by the the Navel Historian at Navy Office, Canberra. </ref>
10 Z Special Unit in popular culture
11 See also
12 References
13 Bibliography
14 External links/references

[edit] Formation and training

Special Operations Australia or SOA, a military intelligence unit, was established in March 1942, at the suggestion of the commander of Allied land forces in the South West Pacific Area, General Thomas Blamey, and was modeled on the British Special Operations Executive in London. SOA operated under the cover name Inter-Allied Services Department (or IASD).

It contained several British SOE officers who had escaped from Singapore, and they formed the nucleus of the IASD, which was based in Melbourne. In June 1942 the unit was organised as Z Special Unit.

Several training schools were established in various locations across Australia, the most notable being Camp Z in Refuge Bay, an offshoot of Broken Bay to the north of Sydney, Z Experimental Station (also known as the "House on the Hill") near Cairns, Queensland, Fraser Commando School (or FCS) on Fraser Island where a commemorative monument stands on the mainland overlooking the island, Queensland, and Careening Bay, on Garden Island, Western Australia. As a training exercise, one group paddled canoes between Fraser Island and Cairns.

[edit] Plans for an attack on Singapore

In 1943, a 28-year-old British officer, Captain Ivan Lyon of the Allied Intelligence Bureau and Gordon Highlanders, and a 61-year-old Australian civilian, Bill Reynolds, devised a plan to attack Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour. Z Special Unit would travel to the harbour in a disguised fishing boat. They would then use collapsible canoes to attach limpet mines to Japanese ships. General Archibald Wavell approved the plan, and Lyon was sent to Australia to organise the operation.

Men of Z Special Unit train with canoes in Refuge Bay

Bill Reynolds was in possession of a 21.3 meter long Japanese coastal fishing boat, the Kofuku Maru, which he had used to evacuate refugees out of Singapore. Lyon ordered that the boat be shipped from India to Australia. Upon its arrival, he renamed the vessel MV Krait, after the small but deadly asian snake. Lieutenant-Colonel G. S. Mott, the chief of Z Special Unit's reconnaissance department suggested that they should test the effectiveness of the plan by making a mock raid on a tightly guarded allied port. Townsville, Queensland was chosen for the location of the attack.

[edit] Operation Scorpion

In January 1943, Lieutenant Sam Carey of the AIF, a Z Special Unit Officer based in Z Experimental Station, Cairns, Queensland, and the liaison officer between Z Special Unit, which came under the control of the Commander-in-Chief of the New Guinea Force, Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Herring and Blamey (Commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area).

At the suggestion of Major Ambrose Trappes-Lomax, Z Special Unit's commander, Carey approached General Blamey with a proposition for a raid on the Japanese port at Rabaul. One submarine, with a small group of commandos aboard, would be involved. The commandos would be dropped 16 kilometres off Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. They would then use collapsible canoes to travel into the harbour, attach limpet mines to as many enemy ships as possible, and then retreat to Vulcan Island, where they would hide out until they could safely rendezvous with the sub. Blamey was sure that the unit would be captured and shot, but he authorised the operation, and issued Carey carte blanche authority to perform whatever actions he deemed necessary during the planning of the operation, which was to be codenamed Operation Scorpion.

[edit] Raid on Townsville

By the end of March 1943, Carey had assembled a team of nine men on their base at Magnetic Island. Lyon and Mott arranged to have Carey's unit perform the mock-attack on Townsville, however were careful not to commit anything to paper. Townsville was a busy harbour full of troop transports, merchantmen and naval escort vessels, and tight security was maintained due to the constant threat of Japanese air and submarine attack.

At midnight on June 22, 1943, the unit left their base on Magnetic Island and paddled through the heavily mined mouth of Townsville harbour. Dummy limpet mines were attached to ten ships, including two destroyers. The men rowed into Ross Creek, hid their canoes and traveled into Townsville to find a place to sleep. At around 1000 hrs, the limpets were discovered, and panic ensued. Carey was arrested, and despite producing Blamey's letter and earnest assurances that the mines were dummy's, they refused to allow him to leave or to allow the removal of the mines, which the RAN feared were real and may accidentally detonate. Mott was able to arrange Carey's release, but only on the condition that he left Z Special Unit. Operation Scorpion was scrapped, but Mott and lyon had learned many valuable lessons from the raid.

[edit] Operation Jaywick

Main article: Operation Jaywick

On September 2, 1943, the Krait, with a crew of four British and eleven Australian personnel, commanded by lyon, left Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia. It arrived off Singapore on September 24. That night, six men left the boat and paddled 50 kilometres, to a small island near the harbour, where a forward base was established in a cave. On the night of September 26, they rowed into the harbour and placed limpet mines on several Japanese ships.

The crew of the Krait during Operation Jaywick

The limpet mines sank or seriously damaged four Japanese ships, amounting to over 39,000 tons. The raiders waited until the commotion had died down, before returning to the Krait. On October 19, 1943, the Krait arrived back at Exmouth Gulf, having achieved a great success.

[edit] Operation Rimau

Main article: Operation Rimau

Follow up to Operation Jaywick led by Lyon to attack Singapore harbour on October 10, 1944. Abortive, but three targets believed destroyed. All men, including lyon were killed or captured and executed.

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[edit] New Zealand recruits

During the southern winter of 1944, 22 young New Zealand soldiers, based at Trentham military camp, 30 km north of Wellington were sent to train with Z Force in Melbourne, Australia. From there, they made their way to Fraser Commando School, on Fraser Island, Queensland, to be trained in using parachutes, unarmed combat, explosives and the Malay language.

[edit] Borneo

In 1945, behind Japanese lines in Borneo, Z Special Unit conducted surveillance, harassing attacks and sabotage, as well as the training of Bornean people in resistance activities. Few details of these operations have been officially released, although details have emerged from the personal accounts of some Z Force personnel. In his memoirs, Blood on Borneo, Sgt Jack Wong Sue claimed that Z Special Unit commandos in Borneo killed 1,700 Japanese for the loss of 112 commandos.[1] Wong Sue also reported that Z Force trained 6,000 Bornean guerrillas. The commandos laid the ground work for the Allied invasion of Borneo in 1945