By Peter Nunan Background The N-class destroyers operated in many parts of the globe but HMAS Norman was the only one of her ilk to have made an operational voyage to ...
Battles and operations
HDML 1321 and what she represents
Java is heaven, Burma is hell but you never come back alive from New Guinea – Japanese wartime saying An eagle-eyed member of our Society drew attention to this short ...
Occasional Paper 5: Ken Brown: Service in HMAS Nestor
February 2017 By Warrant Officer Martin Grogan Mr Ken BROWN (aged 95) a retired RAN Lieutenant Commander and World War Two veteran was recently awarded the British Arctic Star. This ...
The Swimmer/Sapper Attack at Vung Tau 23 May 1969
By Hector Donohue and Jake Linton The following article describes the first swimmer/sapper attack involving CDT3 in Vietnam and is drawn mainly from the recently published book United and Undaunted ...
Occasional Paper 3: Tobruk – The Lifting of the Seige
December 2016 December 9, 2016 is the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Tobruk, the port on the north coast of Libya, that proved such a thorn ...
The Battles for Leyte Gulf: where Australian ships fought in one of the greatest battles in naval history
By David Scott David Horace Ford Scott grew up on a soldier-settler block near Holbrook, NSW but his parents were forced to walk off the property during the Depression and ...
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 ...
HMAS Melbourne in WWI – a Diarist’s Perspective
By Kingsley Perry George Henry Iles was born at Norwood, Surrey on 11 December 1883 and later joined the Royal Navy where he became a cook. On 14 October 1912 ...
Japanese surrender at the end of World War II
By Mike Turner A bombing/mining blockade campaign against mainland Japan in 1945 was very successful. By June Japan recognised that she was defeated, and all she could do was negotiate ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Role of the Admiralty in the Loss of HMAS Sydney
By Kim Kirsner Kim Kirsner is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame and from 1972-2006 was Professor at the School of Psychology, University of ...
Book Review: The Digger’s View – WWI in Colour
The Digger’s View – WWI in Colour by Juan Mahony. Published by The Digger’s View Pty Ltd, Newcastle, NSW, 2014. Hardback quarto size, 270 pages of high quality printing and artwork ...
Letter from HMAS Yarra II survivor
After lying dormant for many years a 73 year old letter written by a survivor from HMAS Yarra II has recently surfaced.The original recipient of the letter, George Vooles died in ...
The Battle of the Coral Sea
MIDN Lachlan Montgomery joined the RAN in February 2014 coming from a family of five in Ringwood Victoria. His father is a serving member of the Victorian Police Force and ...
SMS Emden – Painting by Numbers
By Walter Burroughs The final voyage of SMS Emden and her eventual demise when cornered by HMAS Sydney is an action-packed drama which grips the imagination. Emden was a magnificent ship with a ...
Able Seaman Frank Boston: Covering the Gallipoli Landings
This story first appeared in the April 2014 edition of Chatterbox, a magazine published by the Brisbane Water (NSW) Branch of Legacy and is reproduced with their kind permission. Frank ...
Sweeping the Dardanelles – Naval actions prior to the Anzac landing at Gallipoli
By Mike Turner On 18 March 1915 three Allied battleships were sunk by a line of 20 Turkish mines laid by the small Turkish minelayer Nusret in the Dardanelle Straits. ...
Occasional Paper 130: Our First Fleet Commander – Admiral Sir George Patey
By Walter Burroughs A summary of this paper was presented at a conference held from 30 September to 01 October 2014 at the Universidad Andres Bello, Chile on the maritime ...
The Battle of Cape Matapan
By MIDN John McClelland – winner of the Naval Historical Society Prize. John McClelland grew up on a sheep property near Bendigo in central Victoria .His primary and secondary education ...
HMAS Encounter (1905 – 1932)
HMS Encounter served on the Australia Station and was later commissioned into the RAN. She played a vital role in defence of the eastern coast of Australia, and the anti raider patrols in the South West Pacific. She was regarded as “more beloved than any other unit of our fleet”. ...
Lieutenant Commander Arthur Callaway, DSO, RANVR and the courage of HM Trawler Lady Shirley
Courage of HM Trawler lady Shirley Tow hundred miles west-south-west of the Canary Islands the Atlantic rollers surge endlessly eastward towards the African shore. In October 1941, these were dangerous ...
Cry Havoc
Brian Luttrell entered the RANVR in September 1939; a short while later he was off to war as an Ordinary Signalman in HMS Kanimbla. More than two years elapsed before ...