What do you think?
Rate this book
Deadly secrets : the Singapore raids 1942-45
A sobering aspect of many of the special operations carried out by Australian forces during World War II is that many fine men who volunteered for hazardous service died while carrying out missions that were politically, rather than militarily, motivated. In telling the story of both these raids, author Lynette Silver reveals a number of deadly secrets, and gives an insight into the world of covert operations and lays to rest a number of myths which have arisen in the sixty-five years since the Singapore raids took place.
464 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2010
15 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 31, 2022
It took me more than a year to finish this book. That’s not because of the writing, which is excellent, rather it was because I was reluctant to read about the tragic outcome of Rimau. We know how that operation ended, but knowing the author, I know she would take us through the details of the screw ups, missed opportunities, and most heartbreakingly, the sufferings inflicted on each of the members involved in the mission, leading to their death.
This book is about the two raiding operations caried out by the SOE/SOA in the Singapore harbour called Jaywick and Rimau. The first one successfully sunk six ships with all members of the raiding party successfully retrieved. The second one, on the other hand, while managing to sink three ships, resulted in the loss of all members.
If you are reading this book to learn about the facts of the missions, you will not be disappointed. The author is a truly meticulous and diligent historian. Triangulating from different primary sources, she managed to re-create the events convincingly. Coupled with an ability to write history like a thriller, the reader is constantly engaged with the fate of the operations.
These alone would have made the book worth reading, but Mrs Silver is more than that. I can’t help feeling that she is a historian with a strong sense of justice and conscience. She is driven by a desire to give the families of those who did not return a proper closure, to give due honours and recognition to the deserving, and to expose the sometimes-unpalatable truth behind a botched mission. Why else would someone, half a century later, so painstakingly seek out witnesses not just for interviews but to also locate burial grounds for the ones brutally killed and then hurriedly buried? We are not talking about digging through the archives but also digging over large areas in the ground with no guarantee of success.
If one is looking for a historian who does her best to uncover and present the facts without bias, he will find her in Mrs Silver. Her assessment of people and events transcends nationality. Whether one (or an agency) is worthy of praise of criticism, she does not shy away from it whether he/she/it is Australian, British, Japanese, Chinese or Indonesian. She only pays attention to what they have done. But my greatest respect is reserved for her treatment of the Double Ten Incident.
I, being Singaporean, is aware of it, but ashamedly, until reading this book, did not know that it was ironically, a consequence of the success of Operation Jaywick. I only associated it with the Kempeitai’s penchant for random acts of cruelty. I appreciate her dedicating a chapter to it, but when I was reading it, I didn’t get her own opinion of the unfortunate event. It was in one of the later chapters where she recounted her experience at the event commemorating the 60th of Operation Jaywick at which the Singapore High Commissioner to Australia conveyed his gratitude to the author for her efforts in helping everyone to acknowledge the sufferings of the locals when she said “[A]lthough touched by this tribute, my reaction was one of acute embarrassment that it had taken so long for these brave people to be honoured.” (p.g., 355).
In that same chapter, she also spoke about the actual research she did when writing the book. Ten of the operatives imprisoned at Outram Gaol were executed at what was Warren Golf Club at the time of the research in 1993. I was then a university student whose campus was on the other side of the Ayer Rajah Expressway. Today the site is where the expanded university (called UTown) is. When I met the author in 2017, she mentioned it but I was too ignorant for it to ring a bell. A couple of times when I drove along Dover Road, I did tell myself “Something happened here.” I need to go back.
In the Epilogue, she talked about the aftermath of the operations, how the need to maintain secrecy led to the loss of information, deluge of misinformation, and most of all, how we are willing to live with misinformation despite being presented with facts. Here, the dramatization of the events in movies or dramatized docuseries have much to be blamed for. I recently visited Kanchanaburi and was surprised at how little my friends knew about the Death Railway beyond the title of the movie The Bridge Over River Kwai. It just attests to how little we laymen care about facts, especially now that they are eighty years away. I have not come across another person with a more dogged and uncompromising attitude towards the search for the truth than Mrs Silver.
I have one more book of hers to read and it is with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension that I look towards it. Anticipation because I know it will be another excellent read; trepidation because it is a research into another painful event that was covered up, and will undoubtedly involve much unnecessary sacrifices, pain, suffering, and infuriating incompetence and cockups.
Anyway, I shall end with this question: Were either of the operations worth it?
I invite readers to find the answer for themselves in this truly excellent book.
This book is about the two raiding operations caried out by the SOE/SOA in the Singapore harbour called Jaywick and Rimau. The first one successfully sunk six ships with all members of the raiding party successfully retrieved. The second one, on the other hand, while managing to sink three ships, resulted in the loss of all members.
If you are reading this book to learn about the facts of the missions, you will not be disappointed. The author is a truly meticulous and diligent historian. Triangulating from different primary sources, she managed to re-create the events convincingly. Coupled with an ability to write history like a thriller, the reader is constantly engaged with the fate of the operations.
These alone would have made the book worth reading, but Mrs Silver is more than that. I can’t help feeling that she is a historian with a strong sense of justice and conscience. She is driven by a desire to give the families of those who did not return a proper closure, to give due honours and recognition to the deserving, and to expose the sometimes-unpalatable truth behind a botched mission. Why else would someone, half a century later, so painstakingly seek out witnesses not just for interviews but to also locate burial grounds for the ones brutally killed and then hurriedly buried? We are not talking about digging through the archives but also digging over large areas in the ground with no guarantee of success.
If one is looking for a historian who does her best to uncover and present the facts without bias, he will find her in Mrs Silver. Her assessment of people and events transcends nationality. Whether one (or an agency) is worthy of praise of criticism, she does not shy away from it whether he/she/it is Australian, British, Japanese, Chinese or Indonesian. She only pays attention to what they have done. But my greatest respect is reserved for her treatment of the Double Ten Incident.
I, being Singaporean, is aware of it, but ashamedly, until reading this book, did not know that it was ironically, a consequence of the success of Operation Jaywick. I only associated it with the Kempeitai’s penchant for random acts of cruelty. I appreciate her dedicating a chapter to it, but when I was reading it, I didn’t get her own opinion of the unfortunate event. It was in one of the later chapters where she recounted her experience at the event commemorating the 60th of Operation Jaywick at which the Singapore High Commissioner to Australia conveyed his gratitude to the author for her efforts in helping everyone to acknowledge the sufferings of the locals when she said “[A]lthough touched by this tribute, my reaction was one of acute embarrassment that it had taken so long for these brave people to be honoured.” (p.g., 355).
In that same chapter, she also spoke about the actual research she did when writing the book. Ten of the operatives imprisoned at Outram Gaol were executed at what was Warren Golf Club at the time of the research in 1993. I was then a university student whose campus was on the other side of the Ayer Rajah Expressway. Today the site is where the expanded university (called UTown) is. When I met the author in 2017, she mentioned it but I was too ignorant for it to ring a bell. A couple of times when I drove along Dover Road, I did tell myself “Something happened here.” I need to go back.
In the Epilogue, she talked about the aftermath of the operations, how the need to maintain secrecy led to the loss of information, deluge of misinformation, and most of all, how we are willing to live with misinformation despite being presented with facts. Here, the dramatization of the events in movies or dramatized docuseries have much to be blamed for. I recently visited Kanchanaburi and was surprised at how little my friends knew about the Death Railway beyond the title of the movie The Bridge Over River Kwai. It just attests to how little we laymen care about facts, especially now that they are eighty years away. I have not come across another person with a more dogged and uncompromising attitude towards the search for the truth than Mrs Silver.
I have one more book of hers to read and it is with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension that I look towards it. Anticipation because I know it will be another excellent read; trepidation because it is a research into another painful event that was covered up, and will undoubtedly involve much unnecessary sacrifices, pain, suffering, and infuriating incompetence and cockups.
Anyway, I shall end with this question: Were either of the operations worth it?
I invite readers to find the answer for themselves in this truly excellent book.
April 8, 2020
Lynette Silver is a phenomenal researcher. She digs very deep to find the truth where most others rest on the official record. This book is outstanding.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews