Operation Hornbill was a proposed commando operation by Australian forces during World War Two.
It was proposed by Ivan Lyons following the success of Operation Jaywick.
A precursor to Operation Rimau, it was an ambitious plan by Ivan Lyon to sabotage Japanese military operations in the Pacific by using so called 'Snake Boats'; a craft made to look like an Asian junk, which were to be built in Melbourne, Australia. A number of folboats and fifteen one-man submersible canoes, called ‘Sleeping Beauties’ (SBs) were to be deployed from the junks. The operation was to be formed and launched from the Allies’ strategic area of the Nautilus islands.
Whilst the SBs were to be British, they planned to use folboats (Folding kayak)s built in Melbourne, Australia, as Lyon's 2IC, Lieutenant Donald Davidson RNVR, RANVR, was not happy with the British folboats brought over for Operation Jaywick. They had a lot of trouble simply putting them together, then Lyon's was damaged beyond proper repair when he collided with Davidson’s during a try-out. The Melbourne Hoehn design MKIII folboat was very well regarded for performance by Australian Commandos and proved to be very reliable in various sea and river operations.
‘Special Operations Executive’ (SOE), the British clandestine warfare agency, was behind Ivan Lyon’s scheme, but because of the shortage of required submarines to help reconnoiter and deploy the small craft, and the growing complexity of the plan, the project was eventually shelved.