By Allan Miles Whenever a tragedy happens resulting in the lives of young Australians who have chosen a career in service of this country, it is a great loss. Such ...
Who was Jose?
By Walter Burroughs The Bean Connection Most Australians interested in military history will have heard of Charles Bean, the war correspondent with a later responsibility for compiling and editing the ...
Operation DAMASK: RAN Operations Against Iraq During The Gulf War
By SBLT Nathan Willrow, RAN Following completion of secondary education at Melbourne High School Nathan gained entry to the University of Melbourne where he graduated as a Bachelor of Science ...
Simply a Question of Duty: A Coastwatcher in North Australia Part 2: Coastwatching on Groote Eylandt during WWII
By John Harris Japan’s sudden entry into WWII, threatening the whole Pacific region, galvanised Naval Intelligence into immediate action to formalise and expand the old pre-war Coastwatcher program in coastal ...
HMS Vanguard– The Battleship That Never Arrived
By Alf Batchelder On 6 March 1948, the Melbourne Argus reported that ‘…never before in modern times has the sea-going strength of the Royal Navy been so low.’ After recent ...
River Cruises and the Big River
By Leyland Wilkinson There are many rivers in the world with clear access from the open sea for ocean going vessels, and over the years units of the Royal Australian ...
Aurora: the Ship that Started a Revolution
By Walter Burroughs Many great maritime nations have been able to preserve fine examples of their prestigious naval vessels. Most of us have been brought up on tales of the ...
A Disproportionate Consequence: The Significance of Effective Joint Operations Doctrine and Technology on the Battle of Cape Matapan
By MIDN Conor Byrne, RAN This essay from the 53rd New Entry Officer Course intake won the Naval History Society prize. Introduction In modern naval doctrine the importance of maintaining ...
Australian War Brides at Sea
By Liz Colthorpe In the autumn of 1946 the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious undertook possibly her most unusual task, in transporting approximately 700 Australian war brides to their new British ...
The Missing DDG
By John Smith A question was recently posed why hull number 40 is not used by HMA Ships. The DDGs Perth 38, Hobart 39 and Brisbane 41 are to be followed by the ...
‘Simply a Question of Duty’ A Coastwatcher in Northern Australia Part 1: Coastwatching Before World War II
By John Harris Around Australia’s northern coast and islands before and during World War II a small band of civilians in remote locations was asked to volunteer as official Coastwatchers. ...
Naval Historical Review Vol 37 – No 1 March 2016
An assortment of short stories and articles. The Review has been published quarterly since 1970. ...
Commander J. M. Jackson, RN – Sixteen years on the Australia Station
By Leyland Wilkinson On 18 March 1918 the Sydney Morning Herald briefly reported the death in England on 7 March of Commander J .M. Jackson, RN. It stated: He had ...
The Development of Catering in the RAN and the Role of Victualling Allowance
By CMDR Robert McNeill, RAN, Rtd. The role of an effective food service system in navies has been prominent for centuries. That is, a viable fighting force needs to be ...
From Russia with Love – Baron Nickolai Miklouho-Maclay
The late 19th century rumblings of colonial expansion to the immediate north of the Australian mainland gave rise to unease in the Australian colonies.Russian naval expeditions to the South Pacific ...
Operation Praying Mantis
By Scott Dalton Scott Dalton is enrolled in an external studies program for a Master of Arts in military history through the University of New South Wales ADFA campus. The ...
Women in the Royal Australian Navy
By MIDN M. S. SCHIMMEL, RAN – WINNER OF THE NAVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRIZE Midshipman Mariella Savanna van der Riet Schimmel hails from Perth where she commenced a science degree ...
The Awkward Art of Getting Ashore and Off Again
By Geoff Barnes The author, a keen amateur historian and model maker, gathered most of the information used in this article from research undertaken in building a diorama of the ...
Shades of Grey
As Father Time catches up with us all strands of hair turn to lighter shades, perhaps not unlike warship livery which is again changing to a different shade of grey. ...
Thirteen Year Old Entries as Potential Admirals
By John Smith When naval training establishments were first introduced on home soil the system of entry into the Royal Australian Navy closely followed Royal Naval traditions. From the first ...
Book Review: The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils by Mark Felton. Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015. Softback, 320 pages with photographs, rrp $27.99. A fascinating book on the exploits of the XE Midget ...
United States Naval Base Ulithi
By Noel Burgess We might be forgiven for not knowing much about the United States Naval Base at Ulithi, as for a long time its existence was kept secret, but ...
Admiral Sir Percy Scott – Naval Prophet
By Walter Burroughs A recent edition of the Naval Historical Review (Vol 36 No 2 June 2015) contained an article, Winston Churchill and the Navy, addressing Churchill’s relationship with the navy generally ...
HMAS SydneyII vs HSK Kormoran
By MIDN H. F. Roberts, RAN In joining the RAN MIDN Hannah Roberts follows her grandfather’s footsteps. She grew up on a eucalypt plantation in Maryborough, Queensland and received her education ...
John Gore of Lake Bathurst, New South Wales The first Admiral buried beneath the Southern Cross
This fortuitous story arises from the alignment of three generations each of clergy and of naval men. It is doubtful if the earlier generations knew one another but from ...