What do you think?
Rate this book
Return of the Tiger
1st Digit R524 1960 edition paperback vg book In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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
August 12, 2021
This is a solid 5 stars.
This is a non-fiction account of two World War II operations that were conceived by Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders who had been in the Singapore area, stationed on islands in and around Malaya when Singapore was overrun by the Japanese. He was restless and had little tolerance for the small talk of other officers and for frivolity in general. He was a thinker and planner. From the factual accounts chronicled in this book, he was a brilliant and innovative strategist.
It would be difficult to even begin to do this account of events justice in this review. In his spare time while stationed in Malaya, he bought a sailboat and sailed the islands and learned about them and the waters he would later traverse on his conceived mission. During that time he got married and had a son. His wife was captured by the Japanese and taken as a prisoner to Japan where she remained through the rest of the war in a prison camp. When Singapore fell to the Japanese, he helped evacuate residents from nearby islands to Ceylon and India.
He became a member of Force 136 which carried out sabotage and provided coast watchers among the islands. He devised a plan to use limpet mines to attach to ships in the Singapore harbors to sink them. He had a difficult task ahead of him to convince the higher authorities to approve the mission. When he finally got approval for this top secret mission, he was provided a training base in Australia where his operatives trained for the mission. With a mixture of British and Australian operatives, the first mission was carried out.
With a small, decrepit, battered ship that would fit in with the local shipping in the Japanese controlled waters around Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya, they traveled, after many difficulties were encountered and resolved, from Exmouth Bay in Australia up to small islands near Singapore. They had what were called folboats which were similar to a two seat kayak in size and shape. They had bamboo frames stretched with rubberized canvas and were collapsible for transport. There were collars that one fit into that fastened around the waist to keep the inside dry. The six operatives, in pairs, took three sets of three limpet mines each and paddled into the harbor and channels around Singapore during a night raid, set three mines each on the ships, and then returned to their rendezvous locations. This is all detailed in this account. Limpet mines were designed to attached to a ship's hull by a magnetic enclosure about 5 ft below the water line. Three were enough to sink a merchant ship, which were the targets in efforts to impede the Japanese supply chain. They had enough mines to sink nine ships; due to the locations, they were successful in sinking seven, a great accomplishment. There were no casualties in their team of operators and ship's crew during the first mission. This was an amazing feat, considering that they traveled 1000 miles within the Japanese controlled waters to perform it.
This operation was so secret, carried out in the autumn of 1943, that it was kept top secret until 1949.
Lyon went to England after this operation and eventually met with the S.O.E., the Special Operations Executive, an organization that developed innovative weapons and gadgets for spies, saboteurs, and coast watchers. There he learned of the "Sleeping Beauties" which were one man metal, underwater, battery powered canoes. The operator would wear a wet suit and breathing tanks. These would be perfect for the second operation he had planned for returning to Singapore.
Again, the account of the trials, approvals, methods, and means of the second operation were even more interesting than the first. They even had the exclusive and unlimited use of a mine laying submarine for the second operation.
This was so richly filled with the details of the elements of the operations, heroism, fearlessness, and determination of the men who devised and carried out these operations that it is a fascinating and touching book to read.
I would highly recommend this book if you can find it.
This is a non-fiction account of two World War II operations that were conceived by Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders who had been in the Singapore area, stationed on islands in and around Malaya when Singapore was overrun by the Japanese. He was restless and had little tolerance for the small talk of other officers and for frivolity in general. He was a thinker and planner. From the factual accounts chronicled in this book, he was a brilliant and innovative strategist.
It would be difficult to even begin to do this account of events justice in this review. In his spare time while stationed in Malaya, he bought a sailboat and sailed the islands and learned about them and the waters he would later traverse on his conceived mission. During that time he got married and had a son. His wife was captured by the Japanese and taken as a prisoner to Japan where she remained through the rest of the war in a prison camp. When Singapore fell to the Japanese, he helped evacuate residents from nearby islands to Ceylon and India.
He became a member of Force 136 which carried out sabotage and provided coast watchers among the islands. He devised a plan to use limpet mines to attach to ships in the Singapore harbors to sink them. He had a difficult task ahead of him to convince the higher authorities to approve the mission. When he finally got approval for this top secret mission, he was provided a training base in Australia where his operatives trained for the mission. With a mixture of British and Australian operatives, the first mission was carried out.
With a small, decrepit, battered ship that would fit in with the local shipping in the Japanese controlled waters around Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya, they traveled, after many difficulties were encountered and resolved, from Exmouth Bay in Australia up to small islands near Singapore. They had what were called folboats which were similar to a two seat kayak in size and shape. They had bamboo frames stretched with rubberized canvas and were collapsible for transport. There were collars that one fit into that fastened around the waist to keep the inside dry. The six operatives, in pairs, took three sets of three limpet mines each and paddled into the harbor and channels around Singapore during a night raid, set three mines each on the ships, and then returned to their rendezvous locations. This is all detailed in this account. Limpet mines were designed to attached to a ship's hull by a magnetic enclosure about 5 ft below the water line. Three were enough to sink a merchant ship, which were the targets in efforts to impede the Japanese supply chain. They had enough mines to sink nine ships; due to the locations, they were successful in sinking seven, a great accomplishment. There were no casualties in their team of operators and ship's crew during the first mission. This was an amazing feat, considering that they traveled 1000 miles within the Japanese controlled waters to perform it.
This operation was so secret, carried out in the autumn of 1943, that it was kept top secret until 1949.
Lyon went to England after this operation and eventually met with the S.O.E., the Special Operations Executive, an organization that developed innovative weapons and gadgets for spies, saboteurs, and coast watchers. There he learned of the "Sleeping Beauties" which were one man metal, underwater, battery powered canoes. The operator would wear a wet suit and breathing tanks. These would be perfect for the second operation he had planned for returning to Singapore.
Again, the account of the trials, approvals, methods, and means of the second operation were even more interesting than the first. They even had the exclusive and unlimited use of a mine laying submarine for the second operation.
This was so richly filled with the details of the elements of the operations, heroism, fearlessness, and determination of the men who devised and carried out these operations that it is a fascinating and touching book to read.
I would highly recommend this book if you can find it.
March 8, 2017
Non-fiction story of an unsung British hero in WWII, war in the pacific.
If you have seen movies about the British or Australian shore watchers, this gives some good context.
If you have seen movies about the British or Australian shore watchers, this gives some good context.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews