THE VUNG TAU FERRY – HMAS SYDNEY and Escort Ships (Vietnam 1965-72) By Rodney Nott and Noel Payne 1998 has certainly been a bumper year for Australian Naval histories concerning the ...
Book reviews
Book Review: Shipmates
Many of our readers will be familiar with Vic Cassells as the author of “For Those in Peril“, which chronicled the loss of RAN ships and men in past conflicts. ...
Book Review: Sensuikan I-124
Author: Tom Lewis This is the story of the Japanese minelaying submarine I-124, built at Kobe in 1928 and sunk off Darwin on 20th January, 1942. The author also discusses ...
Book Review: H.M. Bark Endeavour: Her Place in Australian History
Book Review: King of the Australian Coast
Title: King of the Australian Coast. Author: Marsden Horden Publisher: Melbourne University Press at the Miegunyah Press In 1813 James Byrne crossed the Blue Mountains. James who? Byrne did, but we ...
Book Review: U-Boat Far from Home
Letters: Book Review of Corvettes-Little Ships for Big Men
Dear Sir, Enclosed is a response I have written to the review of my book, “Corvettes – Little ships for Big Men“, which appeared in your September issue. Since the ...
Book Review: Corvettes – Little Ships for Big Men
Title: “Corvettes – Little Ships for Big Men” Author: Frank B. Walker Published by: Kingfisher Press, 177 Sunrise Avenue, Budgewoi, NSW. 2262 The headlines on the fly sheet, “This story ...
Book Review: Commando! The M/Z Unit’s Secret War Against Japan
Title: Commando! The M/Z Unit’s Secret War Against Japan Author: A.B. Feuer This book describes the raising of Z Unit forces after Japan’s entry into World War II and contains first-hand ...
Book Review: Via Torres
Title: Via Torres Strait Author: Ian Nicholson Publisher: Roebuck Society Publication No. 48, Nambour, 1996 This book in the Roebuck Historical Series is a maritime history of the Torres Strait shipping ...
Book Review: Where the Hell is Africa?
Title: “Where the Hell is Africa?” Author: Philip Seymour Publisher: self-published “The Laws of the Navy”, a collection of verses reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling’s “Laws of the Jungle”, was written around ...
Book Review: Coast Watching in the Solomon Islands 1941-1943
Title: Coast Watching in the Solomon Islands The Bougainville Reports December 1941-July 1943 Edited by: A. B. Feuer* Publisher: Praeger Publishers, 1 Madison Avenue, New York USA 10010. The diaries ...
Book Review: For Those in Peril
Title: For Those in Peril Author: Vic Cassells An evocative title. On the title page, the author says “A comprehensive listing of the ships and men of the Royal Australian ...
Book Review: Contact!
Title: “CONTACT! HMAS RUSHCUTTER and Australia’s Submarine Hunters 1939 -1946.” The disproportionate contribution of Australia to Allied victory in World War II, bearing in mind her limited resources, is common knowledge. ...
Book Review: Australia’s Navy, 1994 -1995
This is the fifth, and undoubtedly the best, in an annual series of glossy, high quality, magazine style publications which seek to inform the Australian public about its Navy. It ...
Book Review: Krait the little fishing boat that went to war and The Heroes of Rimau
Title: “Krait” – The Little Fishing Boat that Went to War” Title: “The Heroes of Rimau” Author: Lynette Ramsay with research from Major Tom Hall The histories of “KRAIT” and her Jaywick operation, ...
Book Review: North of Gallipoli – The Black Sea Fleet at War 1914-17
Some years ago Commander (E) George Nekrasov, RAN gave a talk to the Naval Historical Society of Australia in Sydney on this topic. Subsequently he continued his research into the ...
Book Review: The Shame of Savo Island
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
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 ...
Book Review: The Battle of the Wine Dark Sea
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
“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 ...
Book Review: Q Class Destroyers and Frigates
“Q CLASS DESTROYERS AND FRIGATES OF THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY” (Destroyers 1942-1956) (Frigates 1953-1972) by Trevor Weaver, Published by The Naval Historical Society of Australia. At last a book has been ...
Book Review: The Quay to the Sea
By Captain Surtees M. Rothery The story begins with the author as a young lad growing up in the Vaucluse area of Sydney in the 1920s. Captain Rothery paints a ...
Book Review: HMAS Canberra – Iron Bottom Sound
HMAS Canberra lies at the bottom of Ironbottom Sound, her eight-inch guns still reaching vainly for the Imperial Japanese enemy which surprised and overwhelmed her with a hurricane of shell ...
Book Review: Small Ships at War
“SMALL SHIPS AT WAR” By Iris Nesdale There has been for quite some time, a need for the story of the Small Ships of the RAN, below Corvette size in ...