Commando News, the Queensland Commando Association newsletter, April 1964
DateApril 1964
Object numberANMS1380[001]
NameNewsletter
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 253 x 191 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from J Millane
DescriptionA copy of the Commando News, the newsletter of the Queensland Commando Association, April 1964. The photograph on the front page is of KRAIT being lowered from SS NELLORE onto the Brisbane River. Caption above reads "THE NOW FAMOUS FORMER AUSTRALIAN COMMANDO SHIP KRAIT ARRIVES AT BRISBANE". Beneath reads "Three hearty cheers rang out from the Queensland Commando Association as the KRAIT floated back into Brisbane River after her famous heroic wartime exploits...".History"SYDNEY—The executive of the KRAIT fund say they are overwhelmed by the eagerness of Brisbane interests to assist in restoring the famous allied war-time raider as a floating war memorial.
The 79-fcot former Japanese fishing boat will get VIP treatment. The P & O Company (Aust.) Pty Ltd will be delivering KRAIT as deck cargo in Brisbane on the SS NELLORE on approximately April 9 — a gesture worth £2,500.
The Brisbane Stevedoring and Wool Dumping Co Pty Ltd will do the £400 unloading job free of charge.
When KRAIT is unloaded from NELLORE, she will be taken to a Bulimba boat yard, where the company will overhaul her free of charge.
When KRAIT is put on the slips in Brisbane, she'll be scraped, painted'— two paint companies donating the paint — and superstructure will be built on to restore her wartime appearance. She will be re-equipped electrically throughout and crew's quarters and galley will be re-built.
KRAIT's skipper-to-be, Lieutenant H. W. G. Nobbs, R.A.N.V.R. (Retired) has flown up to Sandakan and will travel down with the old raider.
Lieutenant E.Carse, now in his mid-sixties, who commanded KRAIT on her 5,000-mile "Z" force raid behind the Japanese lines in 1943, will have the honour of bringing her into Sydney Harbour on Anzaql Day, April 25.
STOP PRESS
COMMANDO SHIP IN BRISBANE
The now famous former Australian Commando ship KRAIT arrived at B.H.P. wharf on the deck of the Eastern and Australian Line ship NELLORE on Friday, 10th April, at 8 a.m.
She was unloaded 30 minutes later and was towed across the Brisbane River to Mill Kraft Boatyard, Bulimba, by a Regular Army vessel.
KRAIT, 18 ft. long with a beam of 1 0 ft. 6 in., will be sailed to Sydney from Brisbane on April 1 8 by a special crew of 15. On September 26th, 1943, commandoes from KRAIT sank 40,000 tons of Japanese shipping in a brilliant raid on Singapore Harbour."
In Sydney, KRAIT will be established as a World War II memorial. She was sailed 5,000 miles by 14 Australians and an Englishman on the Singapore raid. After the war, KRAIT was used as a timber tug in Sandakan.
A special appeal started in Sydney raised several thousand pounds to buy her from her Sandakan owners.
A member of the Sydney appeal committee, Mr. . 1. Brown, said in Brisbane KRAIT would be refitted at Bulimba. She would be sailed to Sydney after a "spring clean."
Mr Brown said the ashes of Leading Stoker Patrick (Paddy) McDowell, would be scattered in Moretcn Bay from KRAIT. Mr McDowell, who won the
Distinguished Service Medal for his courage on the Singapore raid, died in
Brisbane on January 10, aged 73.
It is expected that the Governor, Sir Henry Abel Smith, will see KRAIT off from Brisbane on April 18.SignificanceThe KRAIT has a long history of service in Australia and was very successful in WWII in an attack on Singapore Harbour known as Operation Jaywick. Despite its small size and age, KRAIT came to symbolise the extraordinary courage and resilience that characterised much of Australia's involvement in the war in the Pacific.
