This account records an incident in the Japanese submarine campaign off Australia and the efforts of the RAAF and VAOC to protect coastal shipping. As the attractive blonde 17 year ...
History - WW2
Occasional Paper 35: Loss of HMAS Parramatta (II): First Hand Accounts
Recently the Naval Historical Society of Australia was favoured with two handwritten letters from survivors of the sinking of HMAS Parramatta (II) off Tobruk overnight 27 November 1941. The first ...
Occasional Paper 34: Paddle Steamer PS Weeroona
Recently the attention of the NHSA was drawn to the possibility of a paddle-steamer serving in the RAN. It appears that the closest was PS Weeroona built as a Port ...
Occasional Paper 29: Captain Frederick Melbourne Piggott RD RNR
Captain Frederick Melbourne Piggott RD RNR was born in the UK in April 1915 and moved to Australia in 1943 where he trained young men to handle a Dutch submarine. ...
Occasional Paper 26: Salvage of the German Seehunde Midget Submarine
Roger Buxton, an active member of the Society’s Victorian Chapter obtained the original, report of the 1945 recovery of a German Seehunde class midget submarine by Lieutenant V J Steele ...
Occasional Paper 25: Recovery of German Bieber class Midget Submarine and Torpedo
Roger Buxton, an active member of the Society’s Victorian Chapter has obtained two original, typed reports of the 1945 recovery of German Bieber and Seehund class midget submarines by Lieutenant ...
Occasional Paper 21: Battle of the Atlantic Memorial
In January 2018 advice was received from a Society member that a Battle of the Atlantic memorial is to be constructed in Liverpool, as there is no dedicated memorial to ...
Occasional Paper 16: HMAS Australia and Atlantic rescue of Coastal CommandSunderland -1940
By LCDR Mac Gregory RANRetired On Monday 28th October 1940. I was serving as an eighteen year oldMidshipman in HMAS “Australia”, an 8 inch gun cruiser. At that time, ...
Occasional Paper 14: HMAS Canberra and the Battle of Savo Island
LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory RAN Ret, (9/02/1922- 27/08/2014) was tomy mind a fine example of the qualities a Naval Officer needed to have. He could communicate well, wasa leader of ...
Occasional Paper 13: LOCAL AUSTRALIAN/USA SUBMARINE INITIATIVE HELPS TURN THE TIDE OF WAR AGAINST JAPAN IN 1942
The following story provided by Commodore Bob Trotter OAM RAN (Ret’d), National President of the Submarine Association is about a little-known part of the shared Australia/USA submarine history which helped ...
Occasional Paper 12: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES: AFTERMATH OF JAPANESE SUBMARINE ATTACK: SYDNEY HARBOUR
The following are accounts of individual contributions made by two remarkable people in the aftermath of the Japanese midget submarine attack in Sydney Harbour on 31 May1942. Actions by these ...
Occasional Paper 10: THE LOSS OF HMAS KUTTABUL
The following address was delivered Captain Christopher Skinner RAN Rtd during the 75th anniversary ceremony conducted by HMAS Kuttabul on Garden Island, Sydney 1 June 2017. Good morning to you ...
Occasional Paper 3: TOBRUK – THE LIFTING OF THE SEIGE
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 in Rommel’s ...
Occasional Paper 1: Battle of Australia Day Commemoration – Sydney 7 Sep 16
By Commander Rebecca Jeffcoat RAN Distinguished Guests, Ladies andGentlemen First I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the Traditional Custodians of this Land on which we are gathered, and ...
The Secret of the Battle of Sunda Strait: Secret Japanese Ship Sunk by Friendly Fire
By Rohan Goyne The Battle of Sunda Strait is remembered for the loss of the allied cruisers USS Houston and HMAS Perth in a confused night action in the Sunda ...
A Non-Combatant at War: Palestine, Greece and Crete 1941 – Pt 1
Dr. Richmond Jeremy, OBE MB ChM FRCP FRACP 1899 – 1995 Notes made by Dr. Jeremy were transcribed and published in 1998 by his son Richmond Jeremy. With permission of ...
The Army’s Defence of Merchant Shipping 1939-45
By Adrian Rose In 1644 the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot was raised to protect the crews of Royal Navy warships from attack by French sharpshooters. ...
Occasional Paper 182: Scriven Battery
By Vic Jeffery This paper was first published in the West Coast Bulletin- August September, October 2001 edition. Garden Island in Western Australia enjoys a rich military history and during ...
Book Review: Where the Flaming Hell are we?
Where the Flaming Hell are we? This new wartime history by Craig Collie paints a vivid picture of Australian and New Zealanders desperately fighting in Greece and Crete and as ...
Book Review: Shanghai Demimondaine – From Sex Worker to Society Matron.
Shanghai Demimondaine: From Sex Worker to Society Matron. This biography by Nick Hordern was published earlier this year by Earnshaw Books of Hong Kong. Paperback 262 pages available from Amazon ...
Thelma’s Story and Recollections of Newcastle
Introduction When my wife first went to work at West Pennant Hills Public School in the early 1970s she met Thelma Tame, a slightly older colleague; the two became friends, ...
Yachties Piece: Lieutenant Peter Smith RANVR Rtd: A ‘Roy-Boy’ at War
By Dr Simon Smith AM FRHSV Dad, what did you do in the war? A question most baby boomers would have posed as they grew up and became conscious of ...
Kingfishers over the Shoalhaven
There is a fascinating small book by Barry Pattison titled Kingfishers in the Antipodes which was published in 1998 and later serialised in News & Views, the magazine of the ...
‘No Cloak, No Dagger’
By Tim Proust This story was provided by Tim Proust of the Orbost & District Historical Society from an original unpublished family history prepared by his grandfather Walter Hugh Brooksbank. ...
HMAS Forceful
The coal burning steam tug Forceful was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Govan in Scotland in 1925 for the Australian based shipping company MacDonald, Hamilton & Company (later ...