During the Second World War, Operation Zipper was a British plan to capture either Port Swettenham or Port Dickson

Port Dickson

Port Dickson or PD to locals is a beach and holiday destination situated about 32 km from Seremban and 90 km from Kuala Lumpur. It is located in the state of Negeri Sembilan in Peninsular Malaysia...

, Malaya

British Malaya

British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...

 as staging areas for the recapture of Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. However, due to the end of the war in the Pacific, it was never fully executed. Some of the proposed landings on Penang

Penang

Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...

 went ahead as planned to probe Japanese intentions, encountering no resistance. The planned deception for this attack was called Operation Slippery, whilst a small Special Operations Executive

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

 team led by Tun Ibrahim Ismail

Ibrahim Ismail (military)

General Tun Ibrahim bin Ismail, KBE was the Malaysian Armed Forces Chief of Staff from 1970 until 1977.In October 1944 as leader of Special Operations Executive's Force 136, he and two colleagues parachuted onto the western coast of Trengganu as part of Operation Oatmeal where they were promptly...

 which landed in October 1944 managed convince the Japanese that the landings were to be on the Isthmus of Kra, 650 miles to the north.

Operation Tiderace

Operation Tiderace

Operation Tiderace was the codename of the British plan to retake Singapore in 1945. The liberation force was led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command...

 was instead put into action following the surrender of Japan

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...

. The Allied fleet departed Rangoon on 27 August 1945, as part of Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 Harold Walker's force. The fleet sailing for Penang was designated 'Task Force 11', and consisted of the battleship HMS Nelson, escort carriers HMS Attacker

HMS Attacker (D02)

HMS Attacker was an American-built Attacker-class escort aircraft carrier that served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War....

 & HMS Hunter

HMS Hunter (D80)

USS Block Island was an Attacker-class escort aircraft carrier that served during World War II....

, light cruiser HMS Ceylon, destroyers HMS Paladin

HMS Paladin (G69)

HMS Paladin was a P-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during the Second World War. She was built by John Brown and Co. Ltd., Clydebank...

 & HMS Petard

HMS Petard (G56)

HMS Petard was a "P"-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II. She was one of the three "P" class ships, out of the original eight, to survive the war in a serviceable condition....

 and two Landing Ship, Infantry

Landing Ship, Infantry

Landing Ship, Infantry was a British term for a type of ship used to transport infantry in amphibious warfare during the Second World War...

. They arrived in Penang on 28 August. The HMS Nelson was the flagship of the fleet, and the articles of surrender were signed aboard the battleship on 2 September.

With the Japanese surrender, troops of the 25th Indian Division

25th Infantry Division (India)

The 25th Indian Infantry Division was a division of the Indian Army during World War II which fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II.-History:...

deployed to Malaya, Walker's fleet then sailed to Singapore to join up with the main convoy.