July 2017 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 ...
WWII operations
Book Review: HMAS Canberra – Casualty of Circumstance
By Kathryn Spurling, Publishers New Holland, Sydney, 2016. Paperback, 255 pp with b & w illustrations, maps and portraits. Available most bookshops from $33.00 with discounts available. The author served ...
Occasional Paper 8: The Gustavo Stefanini Story
June 2017 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 ...
Occasional Paper 7: HMAS Vampire Memorial Address (9 April 2017)
May 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 ...
Book review: Flagship: The Cruiser HMAS Australia II and the Pacific War on Japan
By Mike Carlton. Penguin Random House, Sydney, August 2016. Hardcover 642 pages with illustrations and many b&w photographs. RRP $50 – discounts available. Some naval history books traverse well-worn tracks ...
HMAS Nepal and Operation ES – June and July 1942
The Society received the following letter which explains this unusual circumstance. A recent application to the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal has cast light on a hitherto unknown operation undertaken ...
HMAS Norman – far from Home
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
The RAN on D-Day
By Greg Swinden With 2014 being the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings it is timely to remember the part played by the Royal Australian Navy in Operation Overlord on ...
Instructor Captain Richard Gerard Fennessy DSC RAN
By Noel Burgess This extraordinary story concerns a country schoolmaster who mainly served through WW II in one ship in which he won the DSC and afterwards rose to become the ...
The Royal Australian Navy at Leyte Gulf October 1944
By Kingsley Perry The series of sea battles at and around Leyte Gulf in October 1944 marked a turning point in the Pacific war. Despite together representing the greatest sea ...
Milne Bay Revisited
The Naval Historical Society is not here to promote the travel industry, but in this instance it may be warranted, as some members may be interested. A recent initiative by ...