Retracing the Route of Operation Jaywick 1943

by Sarah Cann on 6 Jun 2008 The re-enactment of the Voyage of the Krait, a 36 week, 40,000km secret mission Operation Jaywick 1943, will arrive in Southport Yacht Club’s Marina on Sunday 15th June at 3:30pm, as the Sydney to Singapore route is retraced.

A pilgrimage for peace, Operation Pilgrimage Group’s re-enactment is in honour of not only the boat and the operation but the 14 heroes who sailed her into Australia’s military history 60 years ago.

In 1943 a captured Japanese fishing boat was used to transport a group of Z Force commandos from Australia to Singapore on a secret mission codenamed Operation Jaywick.

Today Krait is an Australian floating maritime military museum and a reminder of the sacrifice made by Australia during war in the quest for freedom and peace.

Upon departure of Southport Yacht Club, the Operation Pilgrimage Team will proceed up the East Coast of Australia to Cairns, Far North Queensland to where the team members of Operation Jaywick trained then boarded Krait.

Their voyage will continue through Torres Strait to Darwin then on to Exmouth Gulf, their final port in Australia before heading up to Bali, through the Lombok Strait then along the northern coastline of Java and Sumatra to Singapore, arriving in Singapore Harbour 65 years after the attack was launched.

This time, instead of explosives, the Operation Pilgrimage Team will present to the Government of Singapore, a Pilgrimage for Peace greeting containing letters from Australian Government departments, politicians, WWII military Associations and POW survivors.

Departing Singapore the team will call at Jakarta to present a similar Pilgrimage for Peace greeting to the Indonesian Government and before returning to Exmouth Gulf the team will visit Bali and place a Plaque of Remembrance on granite rock to the Bali bombing victims as well as meeting local authorities.

Operation Jaywick officially ended in Exmouth so the Operation Pilgrimage Team will return to Sydney via Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne completing their second circumnavigation of Australia

The Operation Pilgrimage Team’s vessel will be on display in Southport Yacht Club’s Marina from Sunday 15th June until Thursday 19th June.

www.southportyachtclub.com.au

Information about the Krait

Type: Commando Boat
Built: 1934 in Japan

Length: 70 feet
Beam: 11 feet
Draft: 5 feet
Displacement: 68 tons
Speed: 6.5 knots


Kofuku Maru was a fishing tender commandeered early in WW II. After the fall of Singapore, she was employed in the rescue of evacuees from ships which had been sunk along the east coast of Sumatra. Some 1100 people were transported in renamed, Krait, during this period. When the Netherlands East Indies surrendered, Krait was sailed to India by a civilian Mr. W.R. Reynolds. She eventually reached Australia and because it was a former Japanese vessel it was selected for an audacious attack deep into Imperial Japanese held territory.

Operation Jaywick was conducted by the Z Special unit, Australian Services Reconnaissance department. She sailed from Western Australia in 1943 with 14 Australian and British special forces personnel disguised as Japanese fisherman. After a 22 day trip she arrived near Singapore on 24 September. Six men in three folboats (folding two man canoes) were launched from Krait under cover of darkness and travelled 50 kilometers to a small island near the harbor. On the evening of 26 September they entered Singapore Harbor undetected. Using limpet mines the commandos sank or damaged over 37,000 tons of Japanese tankers and freighters.