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You are here: Home / Archives for Article topics / Battles and operations / WWII operations

WWII operations

Letters: Convoy to Suez – 1941

Letter Writer · Mar 6, 1995 ·

I am writing in connection with Mr Hilton’s enquiry in “Navy News” May number of the convoy to Suez which left the Clyde on 22nd May 1941. This was convoy WS ...

Sparrow Force – Timor 1942-1943 – Under false colours?

A.N. Other · Dec 11, 1994 ·

In February 1942 when the Japanese army invaded Timor a small band of Australians – the `Sparrow Force’ – took to the mountains and began a guerilla war against the ...

Letters: HMAS Canberra Memorial

Letter Writer · Dec 6, 1994 ·

I was interested to see in the June 1994 edition a reproduction of a memorial plate for HMAS CANBERRA at Honiara in the Solomon Islands. Having served in this ship ...

Battle of Jutland and Leyte Gulf – A comparison

Date, John C., RANVR (Rtd) · Sep 16, 1994 ·

...

Operation Rimau 1944 – Search For Grave Sites 1984

Ramsay Silver, Lynette, FAIHI · Sep 11, 1994 ·

In September 1944 the British submarine PORPOISE left Careening Bay in West Australia for the enemy controlled waters of South East Asia. On board were 23 commandos, all highly trained ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

Biography of Lieutenant Commander R.W. Rankin RAN, and the loss of HMAS Yarra

Swinden, Greg · Sep 11, 1994 ·

“In the early morning of the 4th March, 1942 the following ships of the No. 2 Fleet were cruising in the area Latitude South 12° 15′ Longitude East 1100 10′; ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7

X-Craft: – X20 in the English Channel

Hudspeth, K.R., LCDR, RANR Rtd · Sep 11, 1994 ·

In September 1943, six X-Craft left Britain in Operation Source, aiming to attack the German battleship TIRPITZ and other capital ships in Altenfjord, some 1,000 miles away in Arctic Norway. ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

HMAS Shropshire – WW2

Yeomans, Jim · Sep 11, 1994 ·

HMAS SHROPSHIRE was a lucky ship! All drafts to the U.K. safely traversed the Atlantic at the height of U-Boat sinkings and not a man was lost through enemy action. ...

Book Review: The Shame of Savo Island

Book reviewer · Sep 11, 1994 ·

The Battle of Savo Island in which HMAS CANBERRA was lost has been the subject of many books, analyses and articles, but in his powerful and enthralling work the author ...

Book Review: Lost ships of Guadalcanal

Book reviewer · Sep 11, 1994 ·

THE LOST SHIPS OF GUADALCANAL By Robert D. Ballard, Published by Warner/Madison Press This is another book by one of the world’s foremost oceanographers and undersea explorers. Robert Ballard is already ...

Convoy System – WW1 and WW2 Comparisons

Gregory, Mackenzie J. · Jun 11, 1994 ·

In World War I the convoy system was not instituted until May 1917, whilst in World War II convoys were quickly organised soon after war was declared in September 1939. ...

Letters: Loss of Lord Kitchener with HMS Hampshire

Letter Writer · Jun 11, 1994 ·

I was very interested in Mr Date’s article, Lord Kitchener Lost with HMS HAMPSHIRE, in the December 1993 “Review”. As many people have considered the sinking of HMS HAMPSHIRE an ...

Book Review: The Battle of the Wine Dark Sea

Book reviewer · Jun 11, 1994 ·

No other sea presents so many mysteries to the naval historian as the Aegean. Battles have been lost and won in this island-studded waterway since antiquity but none were more ...

Book Review: Blue Watch, All the Blue Watch

Book reviewer · Jun 11, 1994 ·

“Blue Watch, All the Blue Watch” By John Allerton I have not read the “1st Impression” of John Allerton’s book but this “2nd Impression” of this record of his service ...

Occasional Paper 187: HMAS Australia – the 1940 Dakar Debacle

Gregory, Mackenzie J. · Dec 12, 1993 ·

In September 1940 I was eighteen and had already served as a Midshipman in H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA for over a year. We had been attached to the Home Fleet based in ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

HMAS Warramunga – Battle For The Philippines 1945

Whyte,Sam · Jun 12, 1993 ·

THAT DAY AT LINGAYEN (6/1/45) By Captain of HMAS Warramunga – Lt. Cdr. John Alliston Normally drills and procedures are done in an orderly fashion, one at a time. Not so ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Battle Of The Bismarck Sea – 1943

Hordern, Marsden · Jun 12, 1993 ·

Outside Rabaul’s Harbour, Rear Admiral Shofuku Kimura looked from the bridge of his flagship at a grey sea and a leaden sky. He hoped it would stay that way. Bad ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Faces of the Past (early 1942)

A.N. Other · Dec 12, 1992 ·

Top Row (l-r) Captain Esdale, Paymaster Capt. Trivett, Lt Cmdr Lewis, Lt Cmdr Wilkinson, Engineer Capt. Doyle. Middle Row (l-r) Commander Clark, Commander Langford, Commodore Muirhead-Gould, Paymaster Cmdr E. Kinesford-Smith, Stubbs Chaplain Bottom ...

Leyte Gulf – the RAN in the Biggest Naval Battle of all time

Pettit, Geoff · Sep 12, 1992 ·

“Last night, in Surigao Strait, the Philippines, the Tokyo Express met the American Limited, and was completely derailed.” “This is the U.S. Armed Services radio in San Diego, California.” Thus, ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

Loss of HMAS Canberra – 9 August 1942

Morris, Kenneth N., Surgeon Lieutenant, RAN · Jul 12, 1992 ·

Extract from a letter written by Surgeon Lieutenant Kenneth N. Morris to a medical colleague following the sinking of HMAS CANBERRA on 9th August 1942. (Citation: AWM PR 82/86) “Doubtless ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

MS Ramses – 1942 – Blockade Runner

Gregory, Mackenzie J. · Jul 12, 1992 ·

After being sunk whilst serving in HMAS CANBERRA on the night of 9th August, 1942, I took several weeks to return to Australia. Two weeks survivors’ leave followed, then, I ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Letters: U Boats in the Atlantic

Letter Writer · Jul 12, 1992 ·

I enjoyed Sub Lieutenant A J Staal’s essay printed in your December 1991 issue of The Naval Historical Review. However, I would take issue with his statement “they continued their ...

Obituary: Commodore Rodney Rhoades – The man who fed Tobruk

A.N. Other · Apr 27, 1992 ·

Commodore Rodney Rhoades RAN, who commanded HMAS Vendetta of the celebrated “Scrap Iron Flotilla” which supplied Tobruk during the World War II siege, has died in Sydney. He was 83. ...

HMAS Sydney – Rottnest Island Guardship

Jeffrey, Vic · Dec 11, 1991 ·

It is a little known fact that HMAS SYDNEY II, one of the Royal Australian Navy’s major warships in World War Two “hid” off Rottnest Island at the approaches to ...

Letters: HMAS Sydney and Kormoran

Letter Writer · Sep 11, 1991 ·

Dear Lex, This will most certainly surprise you but will no doubt bring you peace of mind when I explain this epistle to you. Just one month ago I was ...

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