Clair Stewart (Australian) WW2 Z Special Unit

[Gary J]

That was purely to buy time giving nothing to the enemy .....
Standard in modern day anti interrogation training ..

I feel you have been thrown a challenge to clear his name ......
It's up to you to highlight his cause .... and speak on his behalf !
Contact newspapers .... local politicians .... (Publicity is the name of the game !)
Fight his case .... let his story be heard !

[greimers]

Hi Gary,

A challenge yes, but I was an operative myself after service in the RAAF, still too many bedbugs to talk

[greimers]

[Quartzak]

Hi Grant,

I've heard a little about Rimau.

Clair Stewart was amazingly brave, they all were, so tragic.

Was it the Rimau men requesting extraction that the signallers didn't pick up?

[JAE D MACDONNACHAIDH]

Hi there greimers did you get the picture aswell with the commando knife mate Clair Stewart was a brave Z special Unit Soldier and hold off 200 japanese soldier's is a hell of alot it's ashame that the mission failed i heard and was told that someone on the junk fired off the sub machine gun at a Malay petrol boat and one of the got away and sounded the bell to alert the japanese that there were European looking soldier's around the islands off singapore.

[JAE D MACDONNACHAIDH]

Alot of the Z Special Unit Soldier's were Scottish,Dutch,Portuguese,Aussie And Kiwi aswell as Brititsh aswell as the Welsh.

[greimers]

With all due respect, a few were of Dutch, English and Portugese decent; sadly many have come forward claiming to have served in Z Special Unit ,only shown to be fraudsters. Another fallacy is the belief these men were Commandos (something the Australian Commando Associations promulgate) , these men were "specialist intelligence operatives".

[scabdogg]

Hi Greimers , I am Clair`s sisters grandson and remember her talking of him as a small boy growing up and my dad has filled me in on a few details.
Recently my partner took me to the gun tunnels in North Fremantle, I think its called Buckland Hill, there is a nice tribute to him there as you first walk in. Also a nice photo, possibly a print of the one you have there.
Very brave man indeed.

[Ryan Brydon]

Hi,
Stewart Claire Mack is my Great Grand Uncle! I have just done some research and stumbled onto this forum! I would love to find out more information if anyone has any?... So proud of this history that has been held so quiet all these years!

[Ryan Brydon]

On September 11, 1944, the British submarine "Porpoise" slipped quietly from Fremantle Harbour, bound for Indonesia. It was carrying the 23 Australian and British members of Operation Rimau who, under the leadership of the remarkable Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, intended to repeat the successful Jaywick raid of 1943 by blowing up 60 ships in Japanese-occupied Singapore Harbour, 19 days later, the preliminary part of the operation successfully completed, the submarine commander bade farewell to the raiders at Pedjantan Island, promising to return to pick them up in 38 days' time. A handful of Chinese and Malays and the conquering Japanese were the only people ever to see the 23 men again. According to the scant official post-war record, the mission was an utter failure. All of the party were captured of killed - ten of them beheaded in Singapore only five weeks before the Japanese surrender in, it was claimed, a ceremonial execution. The fate of eleven of the others remains officially unknown. After a 31 year search, Major Tom Hall, with the assistance of writer Lynette Silver, has overturned the official version and uncovered the truth. Aided by thousands of Japanese and Allied documents and by the first-hand accounts of several Indonesians and Malays, sole witnesses to the events of 1944, they have established the fate of every member of the party and unravelled the story of "The Heroes of Rimau" - a story that has for 45 years been all but lost, distorted by hearsay and fantasy, by military cover-ups and conspiracy, by official bungling, ineptitude and apathy. This book not only chronicles a feat of extraordinary daring in the face of overwhelming odds - a gripping tale of inspired courage, self-sacrifice and eventual tragedy - it also exposes the appalling sequence of events which has, until now, resulted in the shameful suppression of the truth about one of the most amazing stories to emerge from World War II.

The only survivor in the gunfight on Soreh Island had been Corporal Clair Stewart, who had gone to ground in the darkness. The Japanese had found the Rimaus’ three folboats the following morning and, although unable to get off the island, Stewart somehow succeeded in avoiding capture until 18 October.