Operation Sabre

Operation Sabre was a Royal Navy military operation in World War II. It involved cutting the Japanese submarine communications cable linking Saigon and Singapore. operating from an X-Craft midget submarine in the Saigon River delta on 31 July 1945.
Operation "Sabre" was directed at the Hong Kong to Saigon telephone cable, and carried out by "XE4" , which was towed to within of the Mekong Delta by the submarine HMS "Spearhead". Steered by Vernon "Ginger" Coles "XE4" looked for the two telephone cables by using a towed grapnel. She eventually snagged the first cable, and managed to haul it about off the seabed. "XE4's" diver, Sub-Lieutenant K.M. Briggs, used the net/cable cutter to sever it. The second cable was soon found as well, and was severed by the second diver, Sub-Lieutenant A. Bergius. Two divers were carried due to the operating rule that a diver should not spend more than 20 minutes in depths over and no more than 10 minutes over . "XE4" and "Spearhead" returned to Labuan on 3 August 1945.
Lieutenant Maxwell H. Shean, DSO and bar, Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, was awarded the American Bronze Star Medal in March 1947 for meritorious achievement as the commanding officer of the midget submarine "HMS XE4".