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

WWII operations

The Importance of Defence Strategy following the Battle of Sunda Strait

A.N. Other · Mar 13, 2014 ·

By Sub-Lieutenant G. Bateman, RAN Garry Bateman was born in Plymouth on 23 July 1980. His father was a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy serving in submarines. This ...

They Also Served – Supply Assistant John Norman Carr Hordern (1924 – 2013)

A.N. Other · Dec 24, 2013 ·

‘They also serve who only stand and wait’ is the final line taken from the great English poet John Milton’s sonnet on his blindness. In a modern context this implies ...

Manus Memories

A.N. Other · Dec 13, 2013 ·

By David Mattiske A recent article in the June 2013 edition of the NHR brought back memories to the author who served in HMAS Shropshire during an important shore bombardment ...

HMA Ships Kuru and Vigilant

A.N. Other · Sep 24, 2013 ·

The Patrol Vessel Vigilant was a prototype built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was a handsome vessel and the first ship in Australia built with an aluminium hull and superstructure; ...

The Loss of HMS Glowworm: an Australian Connection

Swinden, Greg · Jun 24, 2013 ·

By Greg Swinden War at sea has no intermissions, none of the periods of recovery between advances or retreats that land warfare enjoys, no breaks safely behind the lines between ...

Sydney Sharp-Shooter and the Zero

A.N. Other · Mar 24, 2013 ·

By David Mattiske This wreckage of a Japanese Reisen (Zero) B11-124 Cn 5349 was that of an aircraft flown by Sgt Pilot Hajime Toyoshima during the first Japanese bombing raid ...

They Also Served – Arthur Irwin Chapman, 11 January 1916 – 21 August 2012

A.N. Other · Dec 24, 2012 ·

By Jo Morrice Commander A.I. Chapman RAN (Rtd) died recently at the age of 96. This is the story of a remarkable and redoubtable man who was affectionately known to ...

Cocos and Christmas Islands

A.N. Other · Dec 24, 2012 ·

These small isles to our north represent a microcosm of historical events taking place on a larger world stage. They encompass early exploration, colonial rule, resource booms, communications technology, and ...

Letter: Wallaroo’s Submarine Attack

Letter Writer · Dec 4, 2012 ·

Dear Sir, I was very interested in Mr Les Heap’s report of Wallaroo’s submarine attack (NHR September 2012), outside Sydney Heads on 1 June 1942. Your Editor, in discussing the ...

Translators in the RAN – Theodore Eric Nave

A.N. Other · Dec 3, 2012 ·

By Sub-Lieutenant Y.L. Zhang This essay came a close second in the Naval History Prize of the New Entry Officer Course intake No. 46. Sub- Lieutenant Yanyi Zhang is a ...

Wallaroo’s Submarine Attack

David Michael · Sep 30, 2012 ·

On 14 JULY 2012 a short letter was received from Mr Les Heap of Lane Cove providing brief information, which may be historically significant, on the Bathurst Class minesweeper HMAS ...

HMAS Australia Night Order Book Raises Kamikaze Queries

Wrigley, Ian (Peter) · Sep 29, 2012 ·

HMAS Australia – bridge and open gun platform, 1944 (Image:RAN)

The 1944 Captain’s Night Order Book from HMAS Australia was recently received by our Society from an anonymous donor. The last entry in this book is 20 October 1944, the ...

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Book review: The Pacific Fleet – The Royal Navy’s Most Powerful Strike Force

Book reviewer · Dec 16, 2011 ·

The British Pacific Fleet – The Royal Navy’s Most Powerful Strike Force by David Hobbs. Published by Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2011. Hard cover, 462 pages plus B & W illustrations, ...

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“FORCE H” and Naval Signalman Basil Box

Editorial Staff · Sep 3, 2011 ·

A previous article by Vince Fazio in our June 2011 edition concerned the involvement of HMAS Australia with Vichy French forces off Dakar. Australia had been sent as a late ...

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Commercial trawlers in Two Wars

Andrews, Grahame, (Honorary Life Member) · Jun 14, 2011 ·

During the Falklands War in the early 1980s the warring navies of Great Britain and Argentina quickly called upon merchant shipping to pad out their naval capacity. In Great Britain, ...

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HMAS Australia at Dakar 1940

Fazio, Lieut. V. RANEM · Jun 13, 2011 ·

To the current generation Australia being at war with France is unthinkable but this account of events during the early days of WW2 shows the role HMAS Australia played in ...

Letters: ONS 5 and the U-Boat Battle

Letter Writer · Dec 21, 2010 ·

Dear Sir, I was very pleased to read the article by Captain A.M. Downes entitled ONS 5 and the U-Boat Battle in the latest issue of the Naval Historical Review. ...

Battle Honour Board – HMAS Kanimbla

A.N. Other · Dec 10, 2010 ·

At a recent ceremony held onboard HMAS Kanimbla (CMDR Tim Byles, RAN) the ship’s recently refurbished Battle Honour Board was re-dedicated by Chaplain Col Acton, RAN. The Battle Honours Board ...

An Historic Letter

Walker, Jefferson H., MVO, Lieutenant Commander, RAN · Dec 10, 2010 ·

Editor’s Note: This is a copy of a letter from Lieutenant Commander Jefferson H. Walker, MVO, RAN, (then CO of HMAS Parramatta (II)) to his wife, describing a particularly nasty ...

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Recommended for a High Award

Wright, Ken · Dec 10, 2010 ·

The WW II battleships of Hitler’s Kriegsmarine prowled the convoy routes of the North Atlantic, pushed beyond the Equator, challenged the enemy in the arctic blizzards of the Barents Sea ...

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Kamikazes, Suicide Bombers and Us

Shinkfield, Des · Dec 10, 2010 ·

The following speech was delivered to the Australian Naval Historical Society on Monday, 26 June, 2006 Thank you for the opportunity to speak about kamikazes. But let me enlarge on ...

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Book Review: A Hard Fought Ship

Book reviewer · Sep 21, 2010 ·

A Hard Fought Ship, The Story of HMS Venomous. By Robert J Moore and John A Rodgaard. ISBN 978-0-9559382-0-7. Published by Holywell House Publishing, Portsmouth, UK. RRP is UK£18.99. It can ...

Schooner Gerard – WW2 Service in New Guinea

NHSA Webmaster · Sep 21, 2010 ·

It was only three years after the close of WW I that Gerard, as we knew her, was built by the famous Krupp Company in, of all places, Kiel in ...

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HMAS Maryborough – Indian Ocean May 1942

Ogle, Brian · Sep 10, 2010 ·

On 6th May  1942 the Captain of HMAS Maryborough, Commander Cant, sent the following signal by Aldis lamp: ‘Get all those bloody passengers into the stokehold.’ This is recorded in ...

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The ‘Highball’ bomb/mine

Nicholls, Bob · Sep 10, 2010 ·

Narellan, south west of Sydney, is the site, at the local airport, of the Camden Museum of Aviation, which houses a collection of some 22 vintage aircraft. One of these ...

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