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 ...
History - WW2
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 ...
Letter from HMAS Yarra II survivor
After lying dormant for many years a 73 year old letter written by a survivor from HMAS Yarra II has recently surfaced.The original recipient of the letter, George Vooles died in ...
The Battle of the Coral Sea
MIDN Lachlan Montgomery joined the RAN in February 2014 coming from a family of five in Ringwood Victoria. His father is a serving member of the Victorian Police Force and ...
The Battle of Cape Matapan
By MIDN John McClelland – winner of the Naval Historical Society Prize. John McClelland grew up on a sheep property near Bendigo in central Victoria .His primary and secondary education ...
Lieutenant Commander Arthur Callaway, DSO, RANVR and the courage of HM Trawler Lady Shirley
Courage of HM Trawler lady Shirley Tow hundred miles west-south-west of the Canary Islands the Atlantic rollers surge endlessly eastward towards the African shore. In October 1941, these were dangerous ...
The Cross of Lorraine in the South Pacific
By Jim Craigie Following great reversals of fortune early in WW II the French nation was bitterly divided between those who wished to appease the Axis powers and those who desired ...
Cry Havoc
Brian Luttrell entered the RANVR in September 1939; a short while later he was off to war as an Ordinary Signalman in HMS Kanimbla. More than two years elapsed before ...
Rabaul the Garden City Revisited
This continues our voyage to Papua New Guinea in MV Pacific Dawn, with the March 2014 edition of the NHR, detailing experiences encountered at Milne Bay. Further information on Rabaul ...
The RAN on D-Day
By Greg Swinden With 2014 being the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings it is timely to remember the part played by the Royal Australian Navy in Operation Overlord on ...
Manus Island in 1949
By Cdre Des Miller, RAN, Rtd Given the present level of political concern with events in these islands the attached commentary by one of our distinguished members who served there ...
SMS Komet, the RAN’s first captured warship: a valuable prize and our first aircraft carrier
By Leyland Wilkinson In the latter part of the 19th century, Germany had been actively developing her Pacific island colonies and by 1900 had large holdings to the north of ...
Instructor Captain Richard Gerard Fennessy DSC RAN
By Noel Burgess This extraordinary story concerns a country schoolmaster who mainly served through WW II in one ship in which he won the DSC and afterwards rose to become the ...
Betano Bay Today
By John Ellis This article first appeared in the United Service Journal 65(1) March 2014 and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Royal United Services Institute of New ...
The Royal Australian Navy at Leyte Gulf October 1944
By Kingsley Perry The series of sea battles at and around Leyte Gulf in October 1944 marked a turning point in the Pacific war. Despite together representing the greatest sea ...
Book Review: Rising Sun, Falling Skies – The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II
Rising Sun, Falling Skies – The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II. By Jeffrey R. Cox. Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2014. Hardback of 487 pages with b&w photographs and ...
Milne Bay Revisited
The Naval Historical Society is not here to promote the travel industry, but in this instance it may be warranted, as some members may be interested. A recent initiative by ...
Memoirs of George William Rayner 15 Oct 1886 – 18 July 1962
These important memoirs provided by Robert Rayner are taken from his grandfather’s handwritten notes discovered in the family’s Sydney home in 2007. Early Life in Prison! I was born at ...
HMAS Yarra (II) Unit Citation for Gallantry
By LCDR Desmond Woods, RAN On 4 March this year the Governor General Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO awarded a retrospective Unit Citation for Gallantry to HMAS ...