Royal Australian Naval College New Entry Officers’ Course History Essay – Prizewinner INTRODUCTION: ‘But for chance and a critical loss of nerve by the Japanese commander (author’s emphasis), the attack on ...
History - WW2
Reflections on the Sydney/Kormoran Battle 1941
Book Review: Japanese Submarine Raiders – 1942
Japanese Submarine Raiders – 1942. A Maritime Mystery. By Steven Carruthers. Caper Publications Pty Ltd, Narrabeen. ISBN 0-9775630-0-4. Hard cover, 264pp Reviewed by Sandy Saunders Being a comparative newcomer to ...
Letters: Followup on Admiral Karl Doenitz
Rushcutter Graduates in the Battle of the Atlantic
The Kelly Story
Remembering “Hec’ – Captain H Waller RAN
Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka and his famous ‘Tokyo Express’
Leadership: Admiral Karl Doenitz
Some notes on WW2 Survival in Liferafts
After the sinking of HMS Glorious with very heavy loss of life from exposure in Arctic waters, Ron Dowle explained that an admiral afterwards asked him what he would have ...
The “Lighter” Side of the War at Sea
Sinking of HMS Peterel – Shanghai 1944
Carley Life Rafts of WW2
The Carley life-float (Admiralty Seamanship Manual 1956 terminology) was the principal method of lifesaving equipment during WW2, fitted to all warships, and not superseded by the present form of inflatable ...
Submarines of the British Pacific Fleet
Although largely unseen except on setting out and returning to base at Fremantle WA, British submarines of the BPF mainly T and S classes, achieved a great deal through their ...
British Pacific Fleet 1944-46
Offensive Minelaying – Pacific 1944 (Part 2)
Japanese Proclamation of Unconditional Surrender
Proclamation of Unconditional Surrender by HIROHITO, EMPEROR of JAPAN (1926-1989) IMPERIAL RESCRIPT TO OUR GOOD AND LOYAL SUBJECTS, After pondering deeply the general conditions of the world and the actual ...
SS William Dawes – A Ship is Burning (1942)
Wounded by a Tin of Peaches
The Tobruk Spud Run 1941 The three Services, Navy, Army and Air Force were as dissimilar as chalk and cheese, yet we were all bent on one purpose, to beat ...
HMAS Adelaide 1918 – 1949
Watchers of the Sea and Sky – 13th Radar
Ken Wright revisits one of Australia’s first coastal radar stations and remembers the time when busy shipping lanes were menaced by enemy ships and planes. The Japanese submarine I-25 lying ...
German Prisoners of War in Australia WW2
After the sinking of HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran in 1941, a considerable number of Kriegsmarine survivors were rescued and became prisoners of war. This account details some of their ...
Captain Cook Graving Dock
The sixtieth anniversary of the official opening of the (then) largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere by the Governor General, HRH the Duke of Gloucester, falls on 24 March ...
RAN Minelaying Effort during WW2
This extract is taken from NHSA Monograph No. 179 ‘HMAS Bungaree – Australia’s only Minelayer’ – which was published in 2003, but has not been widely circulated. The Admiralty suggested ...
Anti-Submarine Defences of Sydney Harbour 1942
The British Officer-in-Charge of Australia’s anti-submarine training establishment warned Navy chiefs, four months before Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour in May 1942, that the defences against such a raid ...