It was December 1941. World War II was raging and Japanese forces were advancing down the Malay Peninsula towards Singapore. Tied up at the dockside in Singapore's Keppel Harbour was a row of Japanese fishing boats which had been impounded at the outbreak of hostilities. One of them, Kofuku Maru, was to play a vital role in rescuing many hundreds of refugees fleeing the Japanese and later in attacking and sinking Japanese ships.

The British in Singapore were living in a fools paradise, not taking the Japanese threat at all seriously. At a time when civilians should have been urgently evacuating the island, supply ships were allowed to leave Singapore empty. It wasn't until the Japs were practically knocking at their door that the true situation dawned on the Brits. Possibly the bombs and shells raining down on them helped in this awakening.

A forty nine year old Australian civilian, Master Mariner Captain William Roy Reynolds - Bill to his friends - had lived in Malaya for many years and was very familiar with the waters in that part of the world. Seeing what was coming, Bill offered his services to various British authorities but was pompously rebuffed. Knowing of the impounded Japanese fishing boats tied up at the dockside, Bill carefully inspected each of them, selecting the Kofuku Maru (meaning 'Happiness') as the best of a bad bunch. Hiring a crew of Chinamen, Bill fuelled and provisioned the boat and, as the Japanese began pushing into Singapore, without fuss quietly slipped away.

Meanwhile, panic had overtaken the residents of Singapore and there was a mad dash to board everything that would float and to escape the island. As flotillas of mixed boats sailed south, the Japanese bombed and strafed them into oblivion. Thousands of men, women and children escaped the sinking ships and made it to nearby islands where they were stranded. Many were badly wounded, needing urgent medical aid.

Bill Reynolds made it the Kofuku Maru's mission to rescue as many as possible of the refugees under the very noses of the Japanese. He ferried boatloads from the islands up the Indragiri River in Sumatra from where they could continue west to the port of Padang and from there be rescued. Time and again he returned to enemy controlled waters to bring back more refugees. On one occasion the Kofuku Maru was challenged by a Japanese patrol boat and Bill had no alternative but to fight. Fortunately he had had the foresight to equip the boat with some defensive weapons. When the fishing boat opened up on the patrol boat with a Lewis gun, a Thompson machine gun and rifles, the patrol boat fled for cover. However, while Bill found this exchange exhilarating, his Chinese crew did not and deserted at the first opportunity. Bill had a constantly changing crew.

With Japanese forces now invading Sumatra it was time for Bill to leave. He followed the coast of Sumatra north west, travelling by night, putting into Dutch controlled ports by day. The Dutch port controllers were very upset by his arrival since the Japanese were expected within hours. The presence of an armed fishing boat in their harbour would not endear them to the invading force. However, the Kofuku Maru stayed ahead of the Japanese and escaped into the vast waters of the Indian Ocean, steering for India. As a navigation aid, Bill had a compass and a map, and that was all. However, he arrived close to his destination and headed for Bombay (now Mumbai).

Back in India, when the deadline came for Bill to sail, the boat was nowhere near ready. Bill was tearing his hair out. Everything that could go wrong with the engine overhaul, did go wrong. Her main bearings and big end bearings were shot, her cooling pump needed repair, her inlet manifold needed welding and her clutch required attention. In addition her air compressor (used for starting the main engine) and auxiliary engine needed to be replaced. The boat was transferred from a shipyard to the railway workshops and then on to another shipyard.

Training in Australia was completed, but still there was no sign of the Krait. Plans were considered to replace her with, perhaps, a pearling lugger or a trawler. News from India came through just in time that the Krait was loaded on board a P&O steamer and would be in a state of readiness on arrival in Sydney. The very next day that statement was retracted! The next news from India was that the steamer's departure had been delayed by two weeks. It finally arrived in Sydney on Christmas Day only to find that, war or no war, the docks were closed for Christmas until 4th January. Finally she was unloaded and it was found that her hull had been damaged in transit. The RAN engineers quickly repaired the damage and refitted her interior to accommodate stores and equipment.

At last the Krait sailed from Sydney, only to find - after all that work on her engine - that her cylinder head was cracked! Back she went for that to be rectified, then she tried again. Now it transpired that the engine's timing was all wrong. Eventually all was fixed and she sailed for Camp X where a rapturous welcome awaited her. Final preparations were rapidly completed and the Krait sailed at six o'clock the next morning captained by Lieutenant Hubert Edward Carse (RANVR) with (promoted) Major Ivan Lyon as mission commander.

With all the necessary modifications carried out to accommodate the new engine, and with a new propeller fitted, the Krait sailed on to Thursday Island then across the north of Australia to ‘Potshot’, the U.S. submarine base in Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia.

On 2 September 1943, the Krait left Exmouth Gulf and set course for the South China Sea. Her crew, now numbering fourteen - Bill Reynolds was not among them - were dressed as Japanese fishermen and their skin was dyed brown. They took great care not to discard overboard any garbage that might give them away. Labels were removed from cans of food and even the name ‘Gardner’ had been ground off the engine and all the spare parts.

Twenty two days later, Krait arrived off Singapore. As soon as it was dark, three folboats – collapsible canvas and rubber two-man canoes – each manned by an officer and a rating, left the Krait and began paddling to Pandjang Island, just outside Singapore Harbour. There the six men set up an advanced base. Two nights later they paddled silently into the harbour under cover of darkness, their canoes heavily loaded with mines. Avoiding detection, they attached limpet mines to seven Japanese vessels, then retreated quietly back to the island to watch the explosions. When the mines detonated an estimated 37,000 tons of Japanese shipping was sunk or badly damaged. The commandoes set off to paddle fifty kilometres back through enemy waters to rendezvous with the Krait.

Some time after midnight on 2nd October the first two commandoes were picked up by the Krait. Several anxious hours followed as the boat waited for the other four men to reach the rendezvous point. As the sky lightened the crew of the Krait were forced to sail. The four missing canoeists, who had somehow missed the Krait in the darkness, were on the wrong beach. They saw the Krait sailing off and resigned themselves to being stranded deep in enemy territory. However, their mates on the Krait were not ready to abandon them despite orders to the contrary. Returning the following night, they found the missing four and retrieved them. Jubilant, the raiding party began the homeward voyage. The commandoes believed they had certainly sunk one ship and either sunk or badly damaged six others. As happens in wartime, other reports of the damage varied greatly.

On her return voyage to Australia the Krait successfully avoided the attention of Japanese patrols, aircraft and even other fishing boats which might have reported a suspicious vessel. Only in Lombok Strait did the crew have some very anxious moments when approached by a Japanese patrol boat. For a reason they never discovered, they were not challenged and the patrol boat turned away and made off. The Krait arrived safely back in Exmouth Gulf on 19th October 1943 without a single death or injury.

Amazingly, intelligence reports from Singapore revealed that the Japanese had no idea that they had been attacked by Allied commandoes from Australia. Believing the mines were the work of local saboteurs they rounded up and imprisoned suspects, torturing and executing some. But . . . they took no precautions against a similar attack. To Major Lyon this must have seemed too good to be true - the way was still open for another attack. Consequently Operation Jaywick was followed a year later by Operation Rimau. This operation too, was planned by Major Lyon.

Operation Rimau was bigger and more sophisticated than Jaywick, employing a submarine to transport the raiding party to Singapore. The sub successfully dropped the commandoes off but during the raid things went terribly wrong. The Z Force was detected. Though three ships were sunk, all the raiders, including Major Lyon, were either killed, or captured and later executed. Among the dead were six of the men from the earlier Operation Jaywick.