Commando News Magazine edition 4 2020

A SEAMSTRESS GOES TO WAR IN A BATHTUB
Pseudo Operations – Aussie Style in 1943
By Ms Lynette Silver AM and MAJ Jim Truscott (Retd) ACA VIC
When approval was given for Operation Jaywick to sail
under the enemy’s flag in 1942, Mrs Manderson, the
wife of SOE-Australia’s Harry Manderson, was
entrusted with the making, in total secret, of two Japanese flags.
They were to be flown or displayed on an ex-Japanese fishing
vessel, Krait, allowing the small ship to penetrate enemy waters
with a special forces’ raiding party, in order to attack enemy
shipping in Singapore.
Before Mrs Manderson could create the flags, by stitching a
red circle to a white background, she had to dye some fabric red,
using the family bathtub in Melbourne’s suburban Camberwell.
The dye must have been of excellent quality, because it left a red
tidemark, or ring, in the tub, which took months to disappear.
Mrs Manderson’s flags were far too pristine to be flown on what
was a supposedly scruffy, run down Japanese fishing boat. Before
entering enemy waters, the Jaywick team applied liberal amounts
of engine oil and scuffed the flags around the deck, until they
resembled filthy rags.
One flag was then flown from the stern. The other was laid flat
on the roof of the wheelhouse, where it could more easily be seen
by Japanese reconnaissance aircraft.
After Krait returned from Singapore in October 1943, she was
assigned to the Allied Intelligence Bureau’s Lugger Maintenance
Station in Darwin. Before the crewmembers left the ship, Jaywick’s
2IC, Lieutenant Commander Davidson, told them that they could
take everything off the ship except her chronometer and her
compass. Navigator Ted Carse souvenired one of the Japanese
flags. Telegraphist Horrie Young took a small vice from the engineroom
hatchway, which his son, Brian, still has.
We have no idea what has happened to the second flag but
Brian Young seems to recall that his father also had a flag and that
it may have been donated to the Australian war Memorial. If so, it
is not recorded as being one of the 166 Japanese flags listed in
the memorial’s collection.
The only flag catalogued as having any connection with the
ship is a white ensign flown on HMAS Krait. It was presented to
the Memorial by Able Seaman Robert H Easom, who joined the
naval component of SOA in late 1944 and was assigned to Krait in
June 1945. When he left Krait, following her decommissioning at
war’s end, he took the ensign with him. It can be see at
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1011697
The Japanese flag that Carse souvenired, along with his
medals, are now in Blue Burridge’s safe in Swanbourne. It appears
that the artefacts were acquired by a Sydney collector before
Carse’s death there in 1970. The flag is signed in two of the
corners by Arthur Jones, DSM, and Horrie Young, Leading
Telegraphist, RANR.
Brian Young (L) and John Burridge, 11 August 2020,
holding one of the two Japanese flags that were aboard
the MV Krait.
Signature of LS Telegraphist Horrie Young on bottom
right of Japanese flag.
Signature of Arthur Jones, DSM on bottom right of
Japanese flag.
Henry (Harry) Manderson, an exceptionally well-travelled and well-connected journalist/ publisher/ inventor/
aviator who also had interests in Timor Oil, was associated with SOE-Australia from its inception, and then SOA. He
was on headquarters’ staff and was head of the Timor Section, having extensive knowledge of that country.
Mrs Manderson’s sewing skills were brought into the fore once more in 1944, for Operation Rimau. Once more
using the family bathtub to dye the fabric, staining it again, in the process, she produced another Japanese
‘‘poached egg’ flag, along with a Port of Singapore Registration flag - a white pennant with grey lines, a red star
32 COMMANDO ~ The Magazine of the Australian Commando Association ~ Edition 4 I 2020