By John McGrath For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ...
Booby Island and its Post Office
By Peter Brigden An article in the March 2019 edition of this magazine titled They Also Servedcovers the memoirs of LCDR Frank Simon RD, RANR. I was lucky enough to ...
HMAS Reserve in the Liberation of the Philippines and the Not-so-Little Tug that Could
By Paul Baker On Christmas Day 1944, just as the 34 members of the crew of HMAS Reserve celebrated the occasion aboard their ship in San Pedro Bay in the Philippines, ...
An Essay on Autonomous Ships
By Lieutenant M. De Angelis, RFD, RANR Mario De Angelis enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, Melbourne Port Division on 22 January 1974. Initially joining as a Cook, he ...
Matthew Flinders: A personal assessment
Peter Ashley (2005) perhaps encapsulates an apt description of Flinders as a person: Driven, ambitious, sometimes arrogant and occasionally reckless, few navigators had a greater share of misfortune than Captain ...
Occasional Paper 54: The Church Pennant
May 2019 The Church Pennant: A Naval Furphy While researching naval history Society’s Senior Researcher, John Smith regularly encounters mythology which is perpetuated over time unless cation is taken to ...
Occasional Paper 53: Petty Officer Fredrick Harold Harvey and Colombian Naval Service
May 2019 As told by his son CMDR Vic Harvey, RAN, Rtd Fredrick Harold Harvey was a proud Geordie lad, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s suburb of Benwell, on 13 August 1899. ...
Occasional Paper 52: The RAN and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic
May 2019 Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Issue 6 of Semaphore, the publication produced by The Sea Power Centre Australia in March 2006. We are indebted to them ...
Occasional Paper 51: The Attack Class Patrol Boat
April 2019 By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia Patrol boats have proven to be the most flexible and versatile elements of ...
Occasional Paper 49: The Good Times and The Bad Times
April 2019 The following paper describes the experiences of a young Royal Navy conscript, Gordon Cansdale who served in the Fleet Air Arm from 1945 to 1947. Gordon describes the ...
The Royal Australian Naval College’s debt to Admiral Creswell
The following article is based on an address by Robert Hyslop to the Canberra and District Historical Society which appeared in that Society’s journal of September 1986, and still relevant ...
The German Raider HSK Stier and the American Freighter SS Stephen Hopkins
Many volumes have been committed to the deadly encounter between the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German raider HSK Kormoran. Depending on which side of the fence you sit, this ...
The Admiralty Islands
By David Mattiske Recent announcements that the United States will partner Papua New Guinea and Australia on an initiative to further develop a naval base on Manus Island has aroused ...
The Batti-Wallahs’ Society
By John McGrath The President of the Batti-Wallahs’ Society has kindly given us permission to use the following information, with some minor additions, on the history of this unusual maritime ...
Harry’s Café de Wheels
By Ray Vidler The story of ‘Harry’s Café de Wheels’ goes back to the Great Depression years of the 1930s. With the world on the brink of a devastating war, ...
Austal Shipbuilders
Austal is an Australian shipbuilder involved in the design, construction and support of commercial and defence vessels. From corporate headquarters at Henderson in Western Australia it manages an impressive worldwide ...
Australia Day 2019
The following address was recently given at Russ Martin Park, Moruya, on the south coast of New South Wales, by Captain Ward Hack, AM, RAN, Rtd. While it was mainly ...
Occasional Paper 48: HMAS Anzac (II) – the last ‘Battle’
March 2019 The following paper on the distinguished service of HMAS Anzac (II) was first published in the March 2011 edition of the Naval Historical Review available on the Society ...
Occasional Paper 47: HMAS ANZAC III
March 2019 HMAS ANZAC (FFH150) III Al Faw Peninsula Iraq – NGS MISSION By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia It took ...
Occasional Paper 46: Lieutenant Kenneth Robert Hudspeth DSC, RANVR
Lieutenant Kenneth Robert Hudspeth, Distinguished Service Cross and 2 Bars, RANVR, WWII Lieutenant Kenneth Robert Hudspeth, RANVR was one of many Royal Australian Naval personnel whose service in Royal Navy ...
Occasional Paper 44: The Fairey Gannet A/S1
By CMDR (P) R. V. Morritt, RAN Rtd The Fairey Gannet A/S 1 aircraft was introduced into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in 1955. When embarked ...
Occasional Paper 43: The Press vs RAN Cricket Match 25 January 1933
Following the 1932-33 Ashes series held in Australia in which English captain Douglas Jardine employed ‘Bodyline’ tactics to combat the batting skills of Don Bradman a much lighter match was ...
Occasional Paper 42: The day the entire German fleet surrendered – 100 years ago
Armistice Day is remembered as the day World War One ended, but for naval historians Britain’s greatest victory came 10 days later. Operation ZZ was the code name for the ...
The Transition to War: HMAS Perth and the Canadian West Coast Destroyers
By Roger Buxton In the late northern summer and autumn of 1939 HMAS Perth and the Canadian West Coast destroyers HMC Ships Fraser, Ottawa, Restigouche and St Laurent were making the transition from ...
Scapa Flow Revisited
By Walter Burroughs The name Scapa Flow was synonymous with naval operations in both world wars as a safe anchorage for vast fleets seeking to control access to the seaborne ...