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You are here: Home / Archives for Article topics / Naval history / History - WW2

History - WW2

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 ...

Book Review: Lost at Sea – Found at Fukushima

Book reviewer · Mar 30, 2012 ·

Lost at Sea – Found at Fukushima by Andy Millar. Published by Big Sky Publishing, Sydney, 2012 – to be launched in March. Hard cover, 260 pages with b&w photographs ...

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Submersible Aircraft Carriers

A.N. Other · Mar 30, 2012 ·

By Driftwood The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines I-yonhyaku-gata Sensuikan completed towards the end of WW11 were for many years the largest and potentially the most formidable submarines ever built. Displacing ...

“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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Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules (3.3.1901 – 5.5.2011) – The last veteran of two World Wars

A.N. Other · Jun 14, 2011 ·

Claude Choules was the last known combat veteran living in Australia who had served in both world wars. When he died recently, in Western Australia, our last tangible link with ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Supply Chief Petty Officer Louis Nicholas Sampson (1907-1941)

Swinden, Greg · Jun 14, 2011 ·

Louis Nicholas ‘Sam’ Sampson born at St Peters, Adelaide on 30 September 1907 was the eldest child of Nicholas and Olive Sampson. In his early childhood he lived at Crystal ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

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 ...

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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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 ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

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 ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

U-Boat Battle – Convoy ONS5

Downes, A.M., Captain · Sep 10, 2010 ·

This article is an edited version of a talk given by Captain A.M. Downes to the Company of Master Mariners, Sydney Branch, on 24th November 1993. Tonight I want to ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

The Royal Australian Navy at War South-West Pacific Area

A.N. Other · Jun 21, 2010 ·

Editor’s Note: This article was first published in 1942 in a book called HMAS, the first of an annual collection of articles and pictures compiled and distributed throughout WW II ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Malta Revisited

Hill, Gordon · Jun 10, 2010 ·

Memories of HMAS Vendetta in Malta in World War ll The George Cross Island Association Reunion 2004 gave me the opportunity to revisit Malta. I knew that if I put ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

RMS Operations by the RAN in the Pacific – World War II

Turner, Mike · Jun 10, 2010 ·

RMS officers in the RAN conducted numerous Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) operations along the Australian coast and at islands to the north of Australia. Most of the RMS operations were ...

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RMS Operations by the RAN in Europe – World War II

Turner, Mike · Jun 7, 2010 ·

Bombs and mines were rendered safe by the RAN in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East during World War II. RAN personnel were highly decorated for their extraordinary ...

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Coastwatchers – Thank God Such Men Lived

Wright, Ken · Mar 21, 2010 ·

Their contribution was out of all proportion to their numbers. The Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse was erected in 1959 at Kalibobo Point in Madang, Papua New Guinea, by public subscription and ...

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Battle of the Bismark Sea

Wright, Ken · Dec 21, 2009 ·

‘We Sent the Japs to Hell and There They Learnt to Swim’ In 1942, the involvement of the Royal Australian Navy in operations against the Japanese in Malaya, Java, Timor, ...

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Organisation of Coastwatching in the New Guinea WW 2

Wright, Ken · Sep 10, 2009 ·

People over-impressed by spies and espionage are fond of quoting the observation attributed to the French General Napoleon Bonaparte around 1795 when he estimated that a spy in the right ...

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The Long Journey Home – Unknown HMAS Sydney Sailor

Swinden, Greg · Jun 21, 2009 ·

He was badly wounded and dying, but somehow he made it into the Carley Float. Whether he fell into it, was blown in by a bursting shell or was placed ...

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We Regret to Inform You . . . .

Wright, Ken · Jun 21, 2009 ·

With rising concern about the threat of Japanese militarism in the Asia-Pacific region, the Australian Chiefs of Staff sent the 2/22 Battalion AIF to Rabaul, the capital of Australian Mandated ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Tales from the Dockyard: Dan Craig’s Medal

Rivett, Norman C · Jun 15, 2009 ·

During the First World War many Garden Island employees wished to volunteer for service with the Armed Forces but were dissuaded by the Management, being told that they were doing ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Loss of HMAS Yarra – 4 March, 1942

Periodical, Archives · Dec 5, 2008 ·

HMAS Yarra, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Robert ‘Oscar’ Rankin, was sunk while defending a convoy against a vastly superior Imperial Japanese Navy squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Nobutake ...

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