COMMANDO KAYAK
by John Hoehn

Proven both for white-water and sea-going sports, this craft was adopted by the Australian army  and the ‘Z’ Services Reconnaissance Department as the most suitable folboat for raids, patrols and rescue work in and around the islands during the Pacific War.

The book covers its development from 1924 through WWII to the end of the Vietnam war. It has many images of these folboats in action, copies of ‘secret’ documents relating to its procurement, testing and use, plus reproductions of the original and army folboat plans and handy index.

A total of 1024 were ordered during WWII. Due to its performance, it remained the best regarded and had the longest run of wartime folboats. The first two were rushed by Colonel Mott to Major Ivan Lyon’s secret Camp-X on the Hawkesbury River in 1942 to train commandos for Operation Jaywick.. They were also deployed on many operations such as Rimau, Copper (Muschu) and Python.

Many were sent to ZES Cairns and Fraser Island, where they were personally tested by Capts. Sam Carey, Bob Page, Majors Trappes-Lomax & Moneypenny, Lieut. John Sachs and Sgt. ‘Blondie’ Sargent. They were also later used at Mount Martha Training camp. The book recounts the events with those involved.

After 6 years of research by author John Hoehn, this work on Australian built military folboats has now been published. It is now recognised that these Australian built craft played a major role with our commandos for many years. More on site: https://hirschbooks.net where the book can be ordered.

Gloss HD Paperback, A4 size,
106 pages, 77 illustrations, Index

Please contact the Author to order

your copy of Commando Kayak

Please let John know you found out about his book

via Peter Dunn from the "Australia @ War" web site

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 6 September 2011

This page last updated 04 March 2020