Several events concerning the three HMA Ships Hobart come together with a memorial and commemoration service at the Garden Island Chapel on Sunday 22nd July starting at 10.00am. HMAS Hobart ...
Battles and operations
Occasional Paper 29: Captain Frederick Melbourne Piggott’s Submarine Service
June 2018 Captain Frederick Melbourne Piggott RD RNR was born in the UK in April 1915 and moved to Australia in 1943 where he trained young men to handle a ...
Occasional Paper 26: Salvage of the German Seehunde Midget Submarine
May 2018 Roger Buxton, an active member of the Society’s Victorian Chapter obtained the original, report of the 1945 recovery of a German Seehunde class midget submarine by Lieutenant V ...
Occasional Paper 25: Recovery of German Midget Submarine and Torpedo, Dover, January 1945
April 2018 Report by LEUT J.V.Steele RNVR, DTM(I) Roger Buxton, an active member of the Society’s Victorian Chapter has obtained two original, typed reports of the 1945 recovery of German ...
Occasional Paper 24: Sydney Harbour Minefield
April 2018 Through the Society’s relationship with the Australian National Maritime Museum, stories are shared between the two organizations. The following is an Article from ‘All Hands’ December 2017 edition, ...
Occasional Paper 21: Battle of the Atlantic: Appeal for £2.5m memorial
Artists Impression of the monument The charity needs to raise £2.5m for the planned monument on the Pier Head A campaign to build a national memorial to the estimated ...
Occasional Paper 36: HMAS Sydney (III) Delivery to Australia 1949
Our thanks go to Debbie Irwin for the letter by her uncle, Stoker Mechanician James (Jim) Ashwood of HMAS Sydney (3) to his sister Nancy dated 8 May 1949 about ...
The Unit Citation for Gallantry of the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam Extraordinary and Gallant
By CDR Ian (Max) Speedy, DSC, RANR With the passing of the years, we tend to forget just how defining the Vietnam War was in so many aspects. It was ...
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 ...
Royal Navy Colours of World War Two – Standard Camouflage Colours
Author James Duff Introduction In the final months of and in the years after World War Two, many resources, documents and records relating to Royal Navy camouflage were purposely destroyed. ...
Rear Admiral Claude Lionel Cumberiege and his influence on the RAN
The Naval Historical Society was recently favoured with copies of two volumes of an unpublished five volume set comprising the autobiography of Rear Admiral Cumberiege. The volumes came from his ...
An American at War in the Pacific Memoirs of Chief Radioman John Ottomar Adams, USNR
A long standing member of our Society, David Mattiske, was a friend of John Adams who died early in 2017. David presented us with a self-published memoir of John Adams ...
They Also Served – LCDR Donald R Wilson, DSC, RANVR
Lieutenant Commander Don Wilson had a remarkable wartime career but as this was mostly spent on loan to the Royal Navy, there is little mention of his exploits in our ...
Letter: HMAS Arunta and Operation Hamburger
Dear Editor The December 2017 edition of the NHR contains an article on the evacuation of Lancer Force from Timor by HMAS Arunta in January 1943. As my father was CO ...
Lieutenant (SP) H.L. Billman, DSC, RANVR
By Hector Donohue Harold Leon (Bill) Billman had a relatively short war in the RAN of just three years, but as a bomb and mine disposal officer he was regularly ...
Tales of the South Pacific, Broadway and a South Pacific World War II Museum
The South Pacific has a wondrous reputation as the home of tales from the sea, producing great characters such as Robinson Crusoe and Bligh of the Bounty. In later times ...
HMAS Arunta and Operation Hamburger
Whichever way you looked at a Tribal class destroyer, she was not just handsome, she was beautiful. The balance between hull and superstructure and the proportions of her two funnels ...
Malta Revisited: Wartime Memories of HMAS Vendetta’s Malta Sojourn in World War II
We are indebted to ex Supply Assistant Gordon Hill for this wonderfully illuminating description of his wartime service in the destroyer HMAS Vendetta when based at Malta. The George Cross Island ...
The Last Coastwatchers
Earlier this year your Editor had the pleasure of meeting James (Jim) Burrowes, aged 94, and Beryl, his ex-WAAF wife of 66 years, aged 93. They were married in 1950. ...
Occasional Paper 20: Surgeon LCDR Jack Rupert Law Willis, RAN
December 2017 Surgeon LCDR Jack Rupert Law Willis, RAN 1888-1971 MB BS Melb These biographical notes on LCDR Jack Willis who served in HMS Prince of Wales during World War ...
Book review: Under the Water Under the Wire and the men who sank the Sydney
By Grahame Wilson. Self-published via Publicious P/L in 2015. Paperback, 281 pages with b&w illustrations. Available from Amazon and Booktopia and selected booksellers from $30. EBook version is also available ...
The Sailors of Fromelles
By Commander Tony Vine, RANR In the eyes of the Australian public the Royal Australian Navy’s role in the Great War is generally limited to the capture of New Guinea, ...
‘Mission to Kerguelen’ – An Australian Military Operation in the Sub-Antarctic islands in 1941
By Rohan Goyne I refer to the excellent article Antarctica the forgotten Continent by Hugh Farmer in the Naval Historical Review Vol. 38 No2 June 2017 and offer the following ...
Occasional Paper 15: Battle of Bita Paka 11 September 1914
September 2017 The Battle of Bita Paka (11 September 1914) was fought south of Kabakaul, on the island of New Britain, and was a part of the invasion and subsequent ...
Occasional Paper 14: LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory
September 2017 LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory RAN Ret, (9/02/1922- 27/08/2014) was to my mind a fine example of the qualities a Naval Officer needed to have. He could communicate well, ...