By Leading Seaman Ron Dowle – one of the very few survivors, and the last one living. A member of the Naval Association at Ballina, NSW, he has granted permission ...
History - WW2
HMAS Australia – Kamikaze Attack 1944
This year (2004) marks the 60th anniversary of the first kamikaze attack on HMAS Australia. As Roger de Lisle reports, Japanese suicide pilots hurled their aircraft onto Allied ships with ...
HMAS Vendetta WW2
This is part 3 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
The Great Amphibious Invasion: D-Day, 6 June 1944
One of the clearest demonstrations of sea power occurred on 6 June 1944, when the Allies landed in German-occupied Normandy in the greatest sea-borne invasion in history. Operation OVERLORD was ...
Australians in Midget Submarines
A short account of British midget submarine operations during WW2 in which Australians participated with considerable success. Previously published in ANWM Wartime Issue 19 and the Naval Officers’ Club Newsletter ...
HMS Vanessa North Atlantic 1941
HMS Viscount 1940
Ping Wo’s Golden Secret
HMAS Ping Wo was not the most glamorous ship ever requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy. Described by at least one of her crew as a ‘rust bucket’, the 3105grt ...
Obituary: Captain W.F. (Bill) Cook, LVO, RAN Retd.
The youngest officer to command an Australian destroyer during WW2, Bill Cook, has died aged 87, after a notable naval career and having forged a second equally distinguished career at the ...
German U-Boat Surrender 1945 – U-977
A previous article described how surrendering German U-Boats were boarded and taken as prizes into captivity to remote lochs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. One wonders what the German Navy ...
Southwick House and D-Day: Events of 1944
Devotion to Duty in Darwin – Laurance Ernest Tozer RAN
Mediterranean Memories
Book Review: Lost but not forgotten – a bitter sweet victory
Lost but not forgotten – a bitter sweet victory HMAS Sydney II – in memory of the 645. by Keith Shegog Self-published Reviewed by Peter Colthorpe This book is no ...
Darwin’s Floating Dry-Dock
Book Review: Kill the Tiger
Kill the Tiger By Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin Published by Hodder Headline Australia. $29.95 Reviewed by John Jones “Kill the Tiger” is the story of Rimau, the special forces ...
Book Review: So Long Singapore
So Long Singapore by Hugh Campbell and Ron Lovell. Reasonably priced at $25.00 plus $7 postage and packing, this book is thoroughly recommended. Available from the author (Hugh Campbell) at: ...
Book Review: We Seemed To Get There
Title: We Seemed to Get There Author: Captain Herbert W. Bolles, MN Ever wondered what the Merchant Navy did, both in War and Peace? This is a truly superb book – an ...
Book Review: Summary & Review – RAN in WW2
Title: Summary and Review of the RAN War Effort and Activities September 1939 to August 1945 Publisher: Naval Historical Society of Australia (Inc) [Ed: The Society recently published this book] ...
WW2 Coastal Defence on Christmas Island
During their recent Indian ocean deployment on anti-illegal immigration duties, members of the ship’s company of HMAS Kanimbla helped in the restoration of the WW II coastal defence emplacement on ...
Some Truths About Darwin and the Air Raid – 19 Feb 1942
Book Review: The Pirate of Tobruk – Biography of Commander Alfred Palmer RNR
HMAS Maryborough & Charles Moses-Escape from Java 1942
Obituary: Admiral Sir Anthony Synnot KBE AO (1922-2001)
Born at Corowa, NSW and educated at Geelong Grammar School. Anthony Synnot joined the RAN as a cadet midshipman in 1939 as a Special Entry and trained in Britain with Prince ...
