Of the heavy ships only the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and the light cruisers Nurnberg and Leipzig remained afloat (the latter a virtual wreck after being accidentally rammed by Prinz ...
Captain Fogarty Fegen VC RN (1891-1940)
Young Endeavour – Challenge for the future
The people who are prepared to challenge their own ideas about their limitations are the people who make the most of their lives. These are the people who are prepared ...
Minehunter – Project Progress News
GASCOYNE launches. The fourth of six Huon Class minehunters ADI is building for the Royal Australian Navy was recently launched at Newcastle. The on schedule, within budget launch of GASCOYNE ...
Obituary: Lieutenant Commander Austin Quince RNVR
Lt. Commander Austin Henry Quince RNVR – 17.2.1894 – 23.3.1984 Fellow members of the wartime staff at H.M.A.S. “RUSHCUTTER” and the many officers and ratings who received their training at that ...
Splice the mainbrace – HMS Urania
In August 1945 HMS Urania had been at sea for 36 days. We were part of Task Force 37, commanded by Admiral Rawlings RN, the strike component of the ...
Huon Class Minehunters – Progress Report
The first of this new class of minehunters, HMAS Huon, was handed over to the RAN on 25 March 1999 after a series of successful sea trials, “the major milestone ...
Inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney by Joint Parliamentary Sub-committee
About HMAS Tingira
HMAS Tingira, often called The Cradle of the R.A.N., lay in the middle of Rose Bay from 25th April 1912 until 1927 as a training ship for lower deck new entries. ...
Nelson’s coffin – Yet another version
Here is another version of the story of Nelson’s Coffin: Captain Hallowell sent a party to salvage wood from L’Orient. Months later, when he was afraid that the adulation being ...
The Greek Campaign 1941
The debate will never cease on the wisdom or otherwise of the decision by Churchilll’s war cabinet to send troops to assist the Greek Army in 1941. Field Marshal Earl ...
The launch of HMAS Warramunga II
[Extracts from a letter from Marsden Hordern: …I was recently on Three Hammock Island with the 87 year old John Alliston – you may have read his book, “Destroyer Man‘ ...
The raid on St Nazaire 1942
1942, and the British were clinging on while their convoys were only just getting enough supplies through to keep the people and the war effort going. But on the Biscay ...
Obituary: Admiral Sir Victor Smith AC, 1913-1998
Named for his uncle, the famous Australian cricketer Victor Trumper, Admiral Sir Victor Smith, who has died in Canberra at the age of 85, was the first RAN officer to ...
SS Queen Mary & the loss of HMS Curacoa 1942
How the USA Flexed its Industrial Muscle in 1941
From December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945, American shipyards constructed 10 battleships, 13 heavy cruisers, 33 light cruisers, 27 aircraft carriers, 110 escort aircraft carriers, 352 destroyers, 498 destroyer ...
The Hammock
The issue hammock, the beloved pusser sack – one of man’s most endearing inventions – has vanished, alas, from Navy messdecks and establishments. It has been replaced by the impersonal ...
CDRE J G Goodenough (1830-1875) – Restoration of Grave
It all began with the monograph of an occasional paper delivered to the Naval Historical Society of Australia, Western Australia Chapter, by Lieutenant Commander G. L. W. Vickridge RFD RANR ...
Memorial Window – RAN destroyers
At the Chapel of Remembrance, Garden Island, Sydney on Sunday, 15th July 1997 a memorial window commemorating the fifteen RAN destroyers which served in World War II was dedicated and ...
Battle of Cape St Vincent bicentenary – an Australian perspective
“Nobly, Nobly, Cape St. Vincent to the North West died away” The Canberra Times I note did not let the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Cape St Vincent on ...
The Legend of Arnold Green RAN – Follow-Up Stories
Further to the article on Arnold Green in the December 1996 edition, more Arnold Green stories: 1. On assumption of his duties as Resident Naval Officer, Hobart, Arnold Green ...
Obituary: Ian Hunter McDonald RAN (1915-1996)
On 25 November 1996, 55 years to the day of the sinking of HMS Barham, in which he was serving and when 862 of his shipmates lost their lives, Captain ...
Huon Class Minehunters – Launching of HMAS Norman
The Australian National Flag
Obituary: Rear Admiral Bryn Mussared (1917-1995)
Rear Admiral Bryn Mussared was born in 1917 in Semaphore SA, and entered the Navy in 1932. On passing out from the Naval College, he was awarded ‘maximum time’ and the ...