Right Man, Right Place, Worst Time. By Betty Lee, Boolarong Press, Tingalpa, Queensland, 2019. Paperback, 318 pages, with sketch maps and photographs. Available from booksellers and publisher rrp $32.00. Along ...
WWII operations
A Warship named Bradman
By John Smith One would have thought that the Australian Fleet would have been proud to have a warship named BRADMAN to honour our most famous cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman. ...
HMAS Quickmatch to the Rescue
Also published as Occasional Paper 156, March 2023 By Max Hayles and R.C.H. Mason The first part of this story by Max Hayles appeared in the June 2007 edition of ...
Leonard Roy McLeod – Soldier and Sailor
A recent photograph of some veterans at the 75th anniversary celebrations of the great Battles of Leyte Gulf showed Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths and ex-Able Seaman David Mattiske who both ...
Derek Holyoake and the torpedoing of HMAS Hobart in 1943
Derek Holyoake enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on July 8, 1940 at the age of 16 and was serving onboard HMAS Hobart when she was torpedoed on July 20, ...
The Remarkable Cavaye family
A colleague from the United Kingdom conducting research into wartime submarine losses recently contacted the Society seeking information on the Australia- born captain of HMS Tempest which was lost in ...
Able Seaman Russel Caro RAN: A Survivor’s Story
By Tony Caro The December 2020 edition of this magazine contained a tribute to Teddy Sheean, our Victoria Cross recipient. Also mentioned were survivors rescued by HMAS Kalgoorlie, and amongst ...
The Navy’s Secret War in the Pacific
This article was the first to appear in the very first issue of the Australian Naval Historical Review in 1971. It retains its historical interest, and is very much in ...
Book Review: Believe it or Not – The Bill Ripley Story
Believe it or Not: The Bill Ripley Story. By Stuart Ripley. In two volumes of 800 pages, these hard cover books are produced to a high standard. Available from ripleysturat@gamil.com, ...
Captain Valentina Orlikova – Soviet Maritime Hero
By Alexandra Murtazaeva Readers may remember Alexandra who while completing her studies in Australia helped out as a volunteer at the Boatshed. Now back at home in Moscow, she tells ...
The Solomon Islands Part 2: from WWII to Present
This article forms part of a trilogy covering the history of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island. Part 1, discussing the Solomon Islands from European discovery to the Second World War, ...
Exmouth Gulf – Submariners’ Haven
By Colin Randall Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia In 1618, the Dutch East India Company ship Mauritius, under command of Willem Janszoon, landed near North West Cape and named Willem’s River, ...
A Tribute to Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean VC RANR
After many years of failure to gain recognition for the heroic deeds performed by Ordinary Seaman Edward Sheean, the posthumous award of his Victoria Cross came as a sudden but ...
The Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme – Australian Volunteers in the Normandy Landings, June 1944
By Janet Roberts Billett This article follows from Part 1 by the same author on the contribution made by members of the Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme, which appeared in the December ...
RFA Bishopdale
By Greg Swinden RFA Bishopdale was a Royal Fleet Auxiliary Dale class freighting tanker that saw service during the period 1939-1959. As a freighting tanker her main role was to ...
MV Ramses – Blockade Runner
By Alan Bourne This paper was prepared by Alan Bourne, son of Herbert (Bill) Thomas Bourne. Herbert was christened Hubert, which he disliked, and he enlisted in the RAN under ...
Occasional Paper 86: Royal Australian Navy in the Pacific War
By Richard H Pelvin and Jozef H Straczek This paper was provided courtesy of the Sea Power Centre – Australia. It was first published in 2003 and is available on ...
Occasional Paper 87: Disposition and Employment of Royal Australian Navy Ships following Cessation of Hostilities 15 August 1945
By David Stratton, Hugh Farmer and Dennis Weatherall At the end of the War in the Pacific in August 1945 the strength of the Royal Australian Navy was 36,976 men ...
Occasional Paper 81: Recognition for Scrap Iron Flotilla
The Society was recently gifted a package of assorted papers and photographs collected by the late Petty officer Arthur James Collins. Collins was called up in January 1938 and served ...
Finding of Akagi and Kaga focuses attention on Japan’s formidable aircraft carriers and the Darwin raid
By Tom Lewis Dr. Tom Lewis OAM is a retired naval officer, and the author of 14 books. Some of this text was drawn from Carrier Attack, published in 2013 ...
Occasional Paper 77: HMAS Assault. WWII Combined Operations Directorate Establishment – Port Stephens NSW
By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM – Volunteer Researcher HMAS Assault, also known as the Amphibious Training Centre to American personnel, was a combined operations establishment for training ...
Luzon: A 75th Anniversary Australian Battlefield Tour of the Philippines – Part 2
By Paul Baker On the morning of 15 December 2019, a small ceremony was held at the Australian War Memorial in the forecourt of the Maritime Academy of Asia and ...
Appear where you are not expected
By Lieutenant Commander Chris Watson RAN1 This essay won the Smith Prize, which is open to all members of the Department of Defence in the Chief of Navy’s 2019 Essay ...
Australians in the Decisive Thrust KING II – The Leyte Landings
By Paul Baker Seventy-five years ago, on 18 October 1944, beaten only by the fast minesweepers and the attack forces securing the mouth of the Gulf, the crew of HMAS ...
The Dominion Yachtsmen Scheme: Australian Volunteers in the Royal Navy 1940-45 – Part 1
By Janet Roberts Billett Following the outbreak of war with Germany on 9 September 1939, the losses for the Royal Navy in ships and men through repeated U-boat and air ...