They Sang Like Kangaroos: Australia’s Tinpot Navy in the Great War. By Anthony Delano: Australian Scholarly Press, Melbourne, Dec 2012. rrp $34.95 As his title may suggest, Doctor Delano has ...
History - WW1
Francis James Ranken
By Hector Donohue Early Career Francis James Ranken was born in 1864 at ‘Saltram’, Eglinton, near Bathurst. He was the eldest son of James Australian Ranken and was educated at ...
The RAN and the Capitulation of German New Guinea
In August 1914 the Australian government responded with caution to a British suggestion that it might undertake the destruction of the radio stations located in German colonial possessions in the ...
Those Amazing Young Men and their Flying Machines
…brought to life with memorabilia from an Australian air ace found on Queensland rubbish tip By Jim Craigie The Great Find A World War I pilot’s helmet worn by Australia’s greatest ...
Book Review: The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928
The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928 By Andrew Kilsby and Greg Swinden, Longueville Media, Woollahra, NSW, 2013. Available from cooeehistory.com RRP $49.95. On 26 March 1913, HMAS Melbourne, Australia’s first ...
They Also Served: Supply Commander Eric Kingsford-Smith
By Greg Swinden The original version of this article was first published in the Supply Newsletter and has been reproduced with minor amendment. Also included is a copy of a ...
The Kerr ‘Sydney-Emden’ Medal
By Paddy O’Brien On 9 November 1914 the RAN cruiser HMAS Sydney engaged and destroyed the German light cruiser and commerce raider SMS Emden. This one and a half hour ...
Nauru – the Pleasant Isle
By Walter Burroughs In the December 2012 edition of this magazine there appeared an article on the Cocos and Christmas Islands. This theme is continued with a discussion on Nauru ...
Gallipoli and Other Stories, by Uncle Bill
William Kinnersley was born in Wales on 20 September 1896 and died aged 95 on 17 May 1992 at Collaroy, NSW. After Royal Naval service during the First World ...
The Campaign against the German Pacific Colonies and Australia’s Antecedent Imperial Strategy (1909–1914)
By Midshipman Michael Carpenter, RAN. Midshipman Michael Carpenter was born and raised in Adelaide, completing his secondary studies in 2007. Michael studied commerce at the University of South Australia in ...
Letter: HMS K13 Bible
I enclose the Holy Bible of HMS K13 which sank during trials in Gare Lock Scotland on 29 January 1917. Mr Charles Freestone was Leading Telegraphist on K13 at the ...
Submarine Duty 1918
Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules (3.3.1901 – 5.5.2011) – The last veteran of two World Wars
Book Review: The Grand Fleet – Warship Design 1906-1922
The RAN Contribution to the ‘Spirit of Anzac’
Australian Sailors at Zeebrugge, 1918
WW1 Losses || “Too Far Away Thy Grave to See…”
The Australians at Jutland
Book Review: Beneath the Dardanelles
Beneath the Dardanelles By Vehici and Hatice Basarin Published by Allen and Unwin in paperback, rrp $24.95. Reviewed by Barry Nobes This unusual book purports to present the sinking of ...
AE2 – Unsung Hero of Gallipoli
Letters: Dry Land Sailors
Dear Editor, I read with interest the recent article entitled Dry Land Sailors. In this article, Commander Swinden suggests that the Bridging Train was ‘barely known about in 1917, let ...
A short history of the RAN Bridging Train (1915-1917)
Letters: HMAS Quickmatch to the Rescue
Dear Editor, I refer to the article HMAS Quickmatch to the Rescue by Max Hayles. I am most grateful to him for revealing that it was Quickmatch which came to ...
Reuben Mitchell DSM, RAN – Survivor of HMS E14
Book Review: A Merciful Journey
Merciful Journey – Recollections of a World War II Patrol Boat Man – by Marsden Hordern – The Miegunyah Press – imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Ltd., 2005. The distinguished ...