BY MAY 1943, Germany had lost the Battle of the Atlantic. U-Boat losses had reached an intolerable level for the Germans with the loss of 38 U-Boats for that month ...
Battles and operations
Australian Naval History on 12 March 2005
The frigate HMAS ANZAC, (CAPT Richard Menhenick, CSC, RAN), departed Australia on a six month world cruise, (Operation Northern Trident). During the cruise the ship was destined to take part ...
90 Years on: Rabaul and Sydney/Emden 1914
This article was originally published in ‘Semaphore’, the newsletter of the Sea Power Centre – Australia. It is republished with the kind agreement of the Sea Power Centre. This year ...
Operation Pedestal and the Tanker Ohio
The Sinking of HMS Glorious – Evacuation From Norway 1940
Special Service
You could say it all began when I pounded on the desk of the elderly Commander at the Admiralty. I was a young officer with a great grievance. Looking back, ...
HMAS Australia – Kamikaze Attack 1944
This year (2004) marks the 60th anniversary of the first kamikaze attack on HMAS Australia. As Roger de Lisle reports, Japanese suicide pilots hurled their aircraft onto Allied ships with ...
The Gift Minesweepers
The first dedicated minesweeping vessels in the RAN made their appearance in Australian waters at the end of WW1 to sweep minefields sown by a German raider during the war, ...
Sydney Memorial to HM Submarine K13
Alongside Pennant Hills Road in Carlingford, a Sydney suburb, is a memorial comprising a pond, rocks, the lettering K13 and brass plates. Of those who have seen it, how many ...
HMAS Vendetta WW2
This is part 3 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
The Great Amphibious Invasion: D-Day, 6 June 1944
One of the clearest demonstrations of sea power occurred on 6 June 1944, when the Allies landed in German-occupied Normandy in the greatest sea-borne invasion in history. Operation OVERLORD was ...
Action off Endau
After the tragic loss of Force Z (HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse) the previous month, HMAS Vampire experienced a short, defiant action against the invading Japanese off the Malayan ...
Australians in Midget Submarines
A short account of British midget submarine operations during WW2 in which Australians participated with considerable success. Previously published in ANWM Wartime Issue 19 and the Naval Officers’ Club Newsletter ...
The Amethyst Incident Recalled
Visit To HMAS Sheean – Garden Island 2003
The Editor managed to score an unexpected conducted tour of one of the RAN’s latest Collins Class submarines, HMAS Sheean, alongside the dedicated submarine berth in Fleet Base East. ON ...
By Dawn’s Early Light
HMAS Hawkesbury and Singapore POWs return
With the unveiling by CDF General Cosgrove at Ballarat on 6 February 2004 of the memorial dedicated to 35,000 Australians who became prisoners-of-war in all conflicts, journalist and Navy veteran ...
HMS Vanessa North Atlantic 1941
HMS Viscount 1940
Ping Wo’s Golden Secret
HMAS Ping Wo was not the most glamorous ship ever requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy. Described by at least one of her crew as a ‘rust bucket’, the 3105grt ...
German U-Boat Surrender 1945 – U-977
A previous article described how surrendering German U-Boats were boarded and taken as prizes into captivity to remote lochs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. One wonders what the German Navy ...
The Great Storm of 1953 – Sheerness Dockyard
The winter of 1953 was marked by severe storms and flooding over vast areas of Kent and the Thames estuary, causing heavy loss of sheep and other livestock, after sea ...