10. Behind Enemy Lines

Japan entered WWII in December 1941 and rapidly advanced through South East Asia. As the Allied bases fell to the Japanese, Allied ships and submarines were moved further south. Fremantle and Albany were chosen as major submarine bases with Fremantle becoming the largest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere.  The movements of Allied submarines and even the fact that Fremantle was a sub base was top secret.

While Fremantle was operating as a secret sub base, even more secretive training was taking place on Garden Island and in Cockburn Sound. Commandoes from Z Force were training for very high-risk secret missions. Using Folboats, a type of collapsible canoe, and midget submarines, Z force carried out several top-secret missions.

One of these missions was Operation Jaywick, a raid on Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour. Using a Japanese fishing boat to avoid detection, the team of commandoes travelled 2,000 miles to their start point close to Singapore. Using their folboats, the Z Force commandoes entered Singapore harbour paddling amongst the moored ships and attaching “limpet mines”. They successfully sank or damaged 7 Japanese ships totalling 37,000 tonnes.

Jack Sue was a member of Z Force and was involved in Operation Jaywick and Rimau. Jack was awarded the Distinguished Combat Medal for his involvement in these and other operations.