Armistice Day is remembered as the day World War One ended, but for naval historians Britain’s greatest victory came 10 days later. Operation ZZ was the code name for the ...
History - WW1
Book Review: THE LAST CRUISE OF A GERMAN RAIDER – THE DESTRUCTION OF SMS EMDEN
THE LAST CRUISE OF A GERMAN RAIDER – THE DESTRUCTION OF SMS EMDEN by Wes Olson. Seaforth Publishing, Pen and Sword Books, Barnsley, United Kingdom, 2018. Hard Cover, 274 Pages, ...
The Emden Guns
By Wes Olson When the small German cruiser SMS Emden was destroyed by HMAS Sydney at the Cocos-Keeling Islands on 9 November 1914 the British Admiralty was presented with a unique opportunity ...
A Hundred-Year-Old Mystery Solved: What Really Happened to AE1
This important commentary by Rear Admiral Peter Briggs AO CSC RAN (Rtd) provides a summary of research that led to the successful discovery of the remains of AE1by MV Fugro ...
Occasional Paper 39: Compelled to Resign – The story of Commander Paul Hugill Hirst RAN 1899-1963
by Lieutenant Commander Terry Feltham RAN Ret’d “Just because something ends doesn’t mean it never should’ve been. Remember, you lived, you learned, you grew and you moved on”. Anon. Why ...
Rear Admiral Claude Lionel Cumberiege and his influence on the RAN
The Naval Historical Society was recently favoured with copies of two volumes of an unpublished five volume set comprising the autobiography of Rear Admiral Cumberiege. The volumes came from his ...
Telegraphist William Wolseley Falconer RAN
By Richard Arundel* Telegraphist W.W. Falconer, who was the radio operator in AE2 when she penetrated the Dardanelles Straits in 1915, was born in Richmond, Victoria, on 14 October 1892 ...
The Sailors of Fromelles
By Commander Tony Vine, RANR In the eyes of the Australian public the Royal Australian Navy’s role in the Great War is generally limited to the capture of New Guinea, ...
The ‘Battle’ of May Island
By Laurie Watson In the many memorial services to commemorate the centenary of World War I events, that commemorating the Battle of May Island is very likely to pass under ...
HMAS Melbourne in WWI – a Diarist’s Perspective
By Kingsley Perry George Henry Iles was born at Norwood, Surrey on 11 December 1883 and later joined the Royal Navy where he became a cook. On 14 October 1912 ...
Letter: SMS Kometat the Witu Islands
Dear Editor I enjoyed the story The Witu Islands – Were they the Wolf’s Lair in the September 2015 edition of the ‘Review’. This led me to look up an ...
The New Guinea Diary of LCDR Clarence Hansby Read, RANR 1914-1915
The manuscript of Read’s diary was acquired by the Mitchell Library in 1919 for the sum of £30. It lay undisturbed for nearly a century until transcribed into digital format ...
Commander J. M. Jackson, RN – Sixteen years on the Australia Station
By Leyland Wilkinson On 18 March 1918 the Sydney Morning Herald briefly reported the death in England on 7 March of Commander J .M. Jackson, RN. It stated: He had ...
The Awkward Art of Getting Ashore and Off Again
By Geoff Barnes The author, a keen amateur historian and model maker, gathered most of the information used in this article from research undertaken in building a diorama of the ...
Letter: Picket Boats
This letter was received from our ever helpful member Leyland Wilkinson who has recently moved from the Central Coast to Grafton. As always the recent issue (June 2015) of ...
4thClass Naval Staff Clerk Royal Aloysius Patrick Mungovan (1888 – 1919)
By Greg Swinden During a recent visit to Melbourne, and a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, I noticed the name of 4th Class Naval Staff Clerk Royal Aloysius Patrick ...
The Witu Islands – were these the Wolf’s Lair?
P & O’s Pacific Dawn recently completed a two week cruise to Papua New Guinea (PNG) with calls at Alotau (Milne Bay), Madang and Wewak. Unfortunately a low on-shore swell precluded ...
Winston Churchill and the Navy
As fifty years have now elapsed since his passing this article may serve as a small tribute to the memory of this great wartime leader. A meteoritic rise upon the ...
Letter: Our First Fleet Commander (March 2015)
Tony Nichols, our Canadian correspondence comments: I always enjoy reading the NHR. What caught my eye in the article you wrote on Admiral Patey was the name Seydlitz which you describe ...
Letter: Able Seaman Frank Boston: Covering the Gallipoli Landings (March 2015)
Errol Stevens from Woolgoolga, NSW offers a well founded correction. Perhaps it may just be semantics, but I query the statement in the NHR March 2015 page 28 when discussing ...
Book Review: The Digger’s View – WWI in Colour
The Digger’s View – WWI in Colour by Juan Mahony. Published by The Digger’s View Pty Ltd, Newcastle, NSW, 2014. Hardback quarto size, 270 pages of high quality printing and artwork ...
Book Review: Under New Management – The Royal Australian Navy and the Removal of Germany from the Pacific, 1914-15
Under New Management – The Royal Australian Navy and the Removal of Germany from the Pacific, 1914-15. By Ian Pfennigwerth. Echo Books, West Geelong, Victoria, 2014. Soft cover of 182 pages ...
SMS Emden – Painting by Numbers
By Walter Burroughs The final voyage of SMS Emden and her eventual demise when cornered by HMAS Sydney is an action-packed drama which grips the imagination. Emden was a magnificent ship with a ...
The Steam Yacht Ena and HMAS Sleuth
This article first appeared in the World Wide Ship Society Victoria Branch July 2014 newsletter and is reproduced with their kind permission and that of the author who is also ...
Able Seaman Frank Boston: Covering the Gallipoli Landings
This story first appeared in the April 2014 edition of Chatterbox, a magazine published by the Brisbane Water (NSW) Branch of Legacy and is reproduced with their kind permission. Frank ...