In an article covering Part 1 of the Australian-Indian Relationship (NHR September 2017) mention is made of the ship Sydney Cove. While she was wrecked on her maiden voyage she ...
Naval history
Lieutenant (SP) H.L. Billman, DSC, RANVR
By Hector Donohue Harold Leon (Bill) Billman had a relatively short war in the RAN of just three years, but as a bomb and mine disposal officer he was regularly ...
Officers’ Swords of the Royal Navy – A Brief History
By John McGrath Captain John McGrath, RN is a retired officer with a lifelong interest in naval swords. With Mark Barton he co-authored British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship published by Seaforth ...
Tales of the South Pacific, Broadway and a South Pacific World War II Museum
The South Pacific has a wondrous reputation as the home of tales from the sea, producing great characters such as Robinson Crusoe and Bligh of the Bounty. In later times ...
The Australian – Indian Relationship – Part 3
Previous editions of this magazine examined the Australian – Indian relationship from the establishment of the first Australian colony in 1788 to the conclusion of the Second World War. This ...
Another Coastwatcher – Ron (Dixie) Lee
As told to our Editor by Ron (Dixie) Lee The December edition of this magazine contained a story The Last Coastwatchersfeaturing James (Jim) Burrowes. Mention was also made of endeavours ...
Naval Health Services – an Introduction
By CDRE Liz Rushbrook, Director General, Naval Health Service I am pleased to participate in this retrospective glimpse of our Naval Health Service. The Service, like the RAN, came into ...
Book review: The Rag Tag Fleet (and George Franki)
By Ian W Shaw. Published by Hachette Australia, Sydney, 2017. Soft cover of 310 pages with black & white photographs. Available from booksellers and online from $32.99 but discounts readily ...
The World’s Fastest Ship
The RAN’s experience with catamaran hulls has been limited and has produced mixed results. The first experiment with catamaran hulled fibreglass minehunters, built by Carrington’s at Newcastle between 1986 and ...
Submarine Mining in the Australian Colonial and Commonwealth Armies
Dr J. K. Haken Mines and submarine mining are always associated with the Navy, but internationally and locally the early development was with the Army Engineers. Mines and underwater explosives ...
Australian Political and Military Strategies in the Second World War – to Lead or to Follow
This paper is by Mike Fogarty a former RAN officer and diplomat. In 2016, he completed an MA (Military History) at UNSW with ADFA. The war in the Pacific was ...
HMAS Arunta and Operation Hamburger
Whichever way you looked at a Tribal class destroyer, she was not just handsome, she was beautiful. The balance between hull and superstructure and the proportions of her two funnels ...
Bomb and Mine Disposal (BMD) Operations in the Pacific
By Hector Donohue During World War II, RAN personnel operated with their RN counterparts in the dangerous and demanding tasks of BMD in the waters around UK and on shore, ...
The Australian – Indian Relationship – Part 2
Like some sections of our own armed forces who fail to acknowledge a period of colonial rule over which we had no direct control, there are those within the Indian ...
Malta Revisited: Wartime Memories of HMAS Vendetta’s Malta Sojourn in World War II
We are indebted to ex Supply Assistant Gordon Hill for this wonderfully illuminating description of his wartime service in the destroyer HMAS Vendetta when based at Malta. The George Cross Island ...
HMAS Suva: the ship that shaped the future of the Australian Naval Station
By John Smith Possibly not many have heard of HMAS Suva as she had an extremely short history as a commissioned Australian warship. She did however have the distinction of wearing ...
The Last Coastwatchers
Earlier this year your Editor had the pleasure of meeting James (Jim) Burrowes, aged 94, and Beryl, his ex-WAAF wife of 66 years, aged 93. They were married in 1950. ...
Our Spanish Cousins: Politics and shipbuilding capabilities
Political Intrigues For centuries there was natural rivalry between Britain and Spain in the fields of colonial expansion, maritime trade and commerce. Relationships, at least from the time of the ...
Occasional Paper 18: Ensigns Associated With Ships Based at Garden Island
November 2017 Flags have a long been a fascination of founding Society member Mr Norman Rivett as well as Garden Island in Sydney where he has worked and volunteered for ...
Occasional Paper 16: HMAS Australia and Atlantic rescue of Coastal Command Sunderland – 1940
October 2017 On Monday 28th October 1940, I was serving as an eighteen year old Midshipman in HMAS “Australia”, an 8 inch gun cruiser. At that time, we had arrived on ...
Letter: More on “Who Took the Flag?”
Dear Editor I refer to David Quick’s letter ‘Who Took the Flag’ in the June 2017 edition of the NHR. A quick look at the RoPs of HMAS Supply tells us ...
Letter: Some Additional Aspects to the RAN’s Antarctic Involvement
Dear Editor, Further to Hugh Farmer’s article Antarctica –the forgotten Continent in the Naval Historical Review Vol. 38 No. 2 (June 2017), there are two aspects of RAN participation in ...
Book review: Under the Water Under the Wire and the men who sank the Sydney
By Grahame Wilson. Self-published via Publicious P/L in 2015. Paperback, 281 pages with b&w illustrations. Available from Amazon and Booktopia and selected booksellers from $30. EBook version is also available ...
Book review: The Flag’s Up
By Peter Poland. Published by Halstead Press, Sydney in 2017. Soft cover of 176 pages with plentiful supply of black & white and colour photographs. Available from booksellers and online ...
Book Review: Aus-Ships 2017 (CD)
Somewhat unusually we have been asked to review a CD. Aus-Ships 2017 by Tony Starke, revised by Rex Cox and Robert Fildes. This is the fourth and greatly improved edition ...