Two heroes to be honoured over war raid on Japanese

honours in Singapore's Kranji War Memorial Cemetery alongside the 21

other men who died after a secret raid on Japanese shipping in Singapore

harbour in 1944.

Fifty years after they died trying to secure the escape of six of

their comrades from Merapas Island, off the Indonesian mainland,

Sub-Lieutenant Gregor Riggs of the Royal Navy and Sergeant Colin Cameron

of the Australian Imperial Force, will be laid to rest along with the

other men who took part in Operation Rimau.

Riggs's remains were found on Merapas in June by Major Tom Hall, a

former Australian commando who has spent the past 34 years researching

the fate of the 23 men who died in the operation.

A book, The Heroes of Rimau, written by the Australian author Lynette

Silver and based on the research of Major Hall, includes allegations of

torture and butchery by Japanese soldiers, ineptitude and failure to

obey official orders by the men detailed to pick up the raiding party, a

cover-up by the Australian War Crimes Commission, and suppression of

information by the British and Australian governments.

Assisted in his search of Merapas Island by members of the Indonesian

armed forces, Major Hall was able to hand over Sub-Liuetenant Riggs's

remains to the British High Commission on June 2, 50 years to the day

after the officer's twenty-first birthday. He died in November 1944.

Mr Abdul Achap, an islander who witnessed the death of Riggs and

Sergeant Cameron when they were shot by Japanese forces hunting the

raiding party, also participated in the search of the island in June.

From Mr Achap's testimony, Major Hall was able to trace the events of

the two men's last hours. Mr Achap is also expected to attend the

military funeral.

Cameron's remains were identified last year after Major Hall smuggled

them off the island and into Australia where they could be matched with

old dental records.

Operation Rimau was a follow-up raid to Operation Jaywick, a mission

in 1943 carried out by 14 men, most of them Australians, led by a Gordon

Highlander, Major Ivan Lyon, in which seven Japanese ships were blown up

in Singapore harbour.

The following year, Lyon, then a colonel, led the Rimau raid, this

time using midget submarines. Three ships were sunk, but in the attempt

to escape 13 men died and 10 were captured and later beheaded by the

Japanese outside Outram Road Jail in Singapore a month before the end of

the war.

The ceremony on August 26 in Kranji will mark the end of long and

difficult research on the part on Major Hall, and finally the chance for

Sub-Lieutenant Riggs's family to commemorate him.

Two of his sisters, Miss Barbara Riggs, of Inverness, and Mrs Muriel

Buie and her husband, Andrew, of Bridge of Allan, will represent a third

sister, Mrs Margaret MacIver, of Alves, near Forres, and their dead

brother, Mr Donald Riggs, at the ceremony.

About 70 Royal Navy and Australian Servicemen will provide the

military escort.

A spokesman for the Riggs family said: ''We are all deeply conscious

of the bravery of the Rimau commandos and are mindful that, but for the

determination and meticulous research of Major Tom Hall, their heroics,

perhaps no more noteworthy than so many similar efforts during World War

II, might have gone unrecorded.''

' We are conscious of the bravery of the Rimau commandos and are

mindful that . . . but for Major Tom Hall their heroics might have gone

unrecorded '

Family spokesman