This account records an incident in the Japanese submarine campaign off Australia and the efforts of the RAAF and VAOC to protect coastal shipping. As the attractive blonde 17 year ...
WWII operations
Occasional Paper 35: Loss of HMAS Parramatta (II): First Hand Accounts
Recently the Naval Historical Society of Australia was favoured with two handwritten letters from survivors of the sinking of HMAS Parramatta (II) off Tobruk overnight 27 November 1941. The first ...
Occasional Paper 34: Paddle Steamer PS Weeroona
Recently the attention of the NHSA was drawn to the possibility of a paddle-steamer serving in the RAN. It appears that the closest was PS Weeroona built as a Port ...
Occasional Paper 21: Battle of the Atlantic Memorial
In January 2018 advice was received from a Society member that a Battle of the Atlantic memorial is to be constructed in Liverpool, as there is no dedicated memorial to ...
Occasional Paper 16: HMAS Australia and Atlantic rescue of Coastal CommandSunderland -1940
By LCDR Mac Gregory RANRetired On Monday 28th October 1940. I was serving as an eighteen year oldMidshipman in HMAS “Australia”, an 8 inch gun cruiser. At that time, ...
Occasional Paper 14: HMAS Canberra and the Battle of Savo Island
LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory RAN Ret, (9/02/1922- 27/08/2014) was tomy mind a fine example of the qualities a Naval Officer needed to have. He could communicate well, wasa leader of ...
Occasional Paper 13: LOCAL AUSTRALIAN/USA SUBMARINE INITIATIVE HELPS TURN THE TIDE OF WAR AGAINST JAPAN IN 1942
The following story provided by Commodore Bob Trotter OAM RAN (Ret’d), National President of the Submarine Association is about a little-known part of the shared Australia/USA submarine history which helped ...
Occasional Paper 11: THE REMARKABLE SHORT LIFE OF HMAS NESTOR THE SHIP THAT NEVER CAME HOME
The following address was delivered Commander Walter Burroughs RAN Rtd during the 75th anniversary ceremony conducted by the RAN on Garden Island, Sydney 16 June 2017. I am honoured ...
Occasional Paper 9: THE SINKING OF HMAS ARMIDALE ON 1st DECEMBER 1942
The following address was delivered by Dr Kevin Smith OAM to members of the Naval Historical Society of Australia in Sydney 18 April 2017. In 1798 at the Battle of ...
Occasional Paper 8: THE GUSTAVO STEFANINI STORY
The following story was provided by Commander Stephen Youll, OAM RAN Retd in relation to the matter of the first RAN ship to sink a submarine in World War 2. ...
Occasional Paper 7: HMAS VAMPIRE MEMORIAL ADDRESS 9 APRIL 2017
On 9 April 1942, HMAS VAMPIRE (I) was sunk by Japanese bombers in the vicinity of Batticaloa, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with the loss of eight lives. This action was commemorated ...
Occasional Paper 5: Ken Brown: Service in HMAS Nestor
By Warrant Officer Martin Grogan SBLT Ken Brown, RAN Mr Ken BROWN (aged 95) a retired RAN Lieutenant Commander and World War Two veteran was recently awarded the British ...
Occasional Paper 3: TOBRUK – THE LIFTING OF THE SEIGE
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 in Rommel’s ...
Occasional Paper 1: Battle of Australia Day Commemoration – Sydney 7 Sep 16
By Commander Rebecca Jeffcoat RAN Distinguished Guests, Ladies andGentlemen First I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the Traditional Custodians of this Land on which we are gathered, and ...
Bathurst Class Corvettes
When war looked imminent after the Munich crisis in 1938, the Royal Australian Navy realised it needed a fleet of escort ships to guard convoys and keep the sea lanes ...
The Army’s Defence of Merchant Shipping 1939-45
By Adrian Rose In 1644 the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot was raised to protect the crews of Royal Navy warships from attack by French sharpshooters. ...
Book Review: The Yachties. Australian Volunteers in The Royal Navy 1940-45
The Yachties. Australian Volunteers in The Royal Navy 1940-45. By Janet Roberts Billett. Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd., North Melbourne Vic. 3051 In 1940 the Royal Navy anticipated a shortage ...
Yachties Piece: Lieutenant Peter Smith RANVR Rtd: A ‘Roy-Boy’ at War
By Dr Simon Smith AM FRHSV Dad, what did you do in the war? A question most baby boomers would have posed as they grew up and became conscious of ...
Kingfishers over the Shoalhaven
There is a fascinating small book by Barry Pattison titled Kingfishers in the Antipodes which was published in 1998 and later serialised in News & Views, the magazine of the ...
HMAS Forceful
The coal burning steam tug Forceful was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Govan in Scotland in 1925 for the Australian based shipping company MacDonald, Hamilton & Company (later ...
Occasional Paper 176: A Ship is Burning
By Ken Wright As the attractive blonde seventeen-year-old rode her push bike to work on the cold morning of 22 July 1942, the Japanese submarine I-11 had already torpedoed the American ...
Occasional Paper 174: The Queensland Fraser Coast and Royal Australian Navy Historical Ties
The Queensland Fraser Coast and Royal Australian Navy Historical Ties The Queensland Fraser Coast has a rich maritime history and a long and entwined history, first with the Queensland Maritime ...
Occasional Paper 173: HMAS Magnetic
When in Townsville, a stroll along The Strand is a must. A walkway starts at historic Jezzine Barracks and ends at the current ferry terminal. The path follows the line ...
Occasional Paper 168: The Royal Australian Navy in the Pacific War: 1943
Eighty years ago, in 1943 the tide of the war in the Pacific was at last turning for the better. After four long years of war and significant RAN ship ...
Letter: The Big Guns of Tarawa
I’m reading the latest NHR after having read the latest CTH and Buzz, and the Occasional Papers/articles, and they’re all excellent – of a high standard and an enjoyable read, ...