By Walter Burroughs In September 2016 the author was a passenger on a cruise ship which berthed at the Baltic port of Gdansk in almost the same position as a ...
History - WW2
HMAS Patricia Cam
Graeme Andrews, one of our long serving members with a sharp wit and fine pen, wrote an excellent article Cam’s Trawlers first published in the May 2006 edition of Afloat magazine. After ...
Harbour Defence Motor Launches, Seaward Defence Motor Launches & Seaward Defence Boats
Wooden Ships and Iron Men – unofficial motto of RAN HDMLs1 The March 2017 edition of this magazine contained an article HDML 1321 and what she represents which states that after ...
Book review: Flagship: The Cruiser HMAS Australia II and the Pacific War on Japan
By Mike Carlton. Penguin Random House, Sydney, August 2016. Hardcover 642 pages with illustrations and many b&w photographs. RRP $50 – discounts available. Some naval history books traverse well-worn tracks ...
Unpicking the Goldsworthy Myths
By Hector Donohue When Lieutenant Commander Leon Goldsworthy GC, DSC, GM, MID died in 1994, the New York Times published an obituary which included the following: Lieut. Comdr. Leon Goldsworthy, a ...
HMAS Norman – far from Home
By Peter Nunan Background The N-class destroyers operated in many parts of the globe but HMAS Norman was the only one of her ilk to have made an operational voyage to ...
HDML 1321 and what she represents
Java is heaven, Burma is hell but you never come back alive from New Guinea – Japanese wartime saying An eagle-eyed member of our Society drew attention to this short ...
Occasional Paper 5: Ken Brown: Service in HMAS Nestor
February 2017 By Warrant Officer Martin Grogan Mr Ken BROWN (aged 95) a retired RAN Lieutenant Commander and World War Two veteran was recently awarded the British Arctic Star. This ...
Mine Hazards during Mine Clearance Operations by the RAN
By Mike Turner Awards for Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) operations give some indication of the hazards involved. The George Cross (GC) was awarded four times and the George Medal (GM) ...
The Battles for Leyte Gulf: where Australian ships fought in one of the greatest battles in naval history
By David Scott David Horace Ford Scott grew up on a soldier-settler block near Holbrook, NSW but his parents were forced to walk off the property during the Depression and ...
Occasional Paper 1: Battle of Australia Day Commemoration
By Commander Rebecca Jeffcoat, RAN Sydney 07 Sep 16 Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, First I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the Traditional Custodians of this Land on ...
Simply a Question of Duty: A Coastwatcher in North Australia Part 2: Coastwatching on Groote Eylandt during WWII
By John Harris Japan’s sudden entry into WWII, threatening the whole Pacific region, galvanised Naval Intelligence into immediate action to formalise and expand the old pre-war Coastwatcher program in coastal ...
Japanese surrender at the end of World War II
By Mike Turner A bombing/mining blockade campaign against mainland Japan in 1945 was very successful. By June Japan recognised that she was defeated, and all she could do was negotiate ...
A Disproportionate Consequence: The Significance of Effective Joint Operations Doctrine and Technology on the Battle of Cape Matapan
By MIDN Conor Byrne, RAN This essay from the 53rd New Entry Officer Course intake won the Naval History Society prize. Introduction In modern naval doctrine the importance of maintaining ...
Australian War Brides at Sea
By Liz Colthorpe In the autumn of 1946 the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious undertook possibly her most unusual task, in transporting approximately 700 Australian war brides to their new British ...
‘Simply a Question of Duty’ A Coastwatcher in Northern Australia Part 1: Coastwatching Before World War II
By John Harris Around Australia’s northern coast and islands before and during World War II a small band of civilians in remote locations was asked to volunteer as official Coastwatchers. ...
Book Review: The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils by Mark Felton. Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015. Softback, 320 pages with photographs, rrp $27.99. A fascinating book on the exploits of the XE Midget ...
United States Naval Base Ulithi
By Noel Burgess We might be forgiven for not knowing much about the United States Naval Base at Ulithi, as for a long time its existence was kept secret, but ...
The Witu Islands – were these the Wolf’s Lair?
P & O’s Pacific Dawn recently completed a two week cruise to Papua New Guinea (PNG) with calls at Alotau (Milne Bay), Madang and Wewak. Unfortunately a low on-shore swell precluded ...
HMAS SydneyII vs HSK Kormoran
By MIDN H. F. Roberts, RAN In joining the RAN MIDN Hannah Roberts follows her grandfather’s footsteps. She grew up on a eucalypt plantation in Maryborough, Queensland and received her education ...
The Role of the Admiralty in the Loss of HMAS Sydney
By Kim Kirsner Kim Kirsner is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame and from 1972-2006 was Professor at the School of Psychology, University of ...
Some Memories of Darwin in 1942
By Alan Jacobs Alan Brian Jacobs was born at Port Lincoln on 28 January 1922; on leaving school he worked for the major stock and station agents Goldsbrough Mort. Aged ...
An Interesting Naval Family
By John Smith John Clement McFarlane was born in Melbourne in 1887, his forebears having arrived there in 1838. At some stage, he joined the Royal Navy as a sailor ...
Winston Churchill and the Navy
As fifty years have now elapsed since his passing this article may serve as a small tribute to the memory of this great wartime leader. A meteoritic rise upon the ...
Book Review: The Forgotten Flotilla – The Craft of Heroes Greece, Crete & North Africa 1941
The Forgotten Flotilla – The Craft of Heroes Greece, Crete & North Africa 1941 by Michael James Bendon. Published by Ligare Book Printers, Sydney, 2014. Landscape format hardcover of 198 ...