By Paddy O’Brien On 9 November 1914 the RAN cruiser HMAS Sydney engaged and destroyed the German light cruiser and commerce raider SMS Emden. This one and a half hour ...
Naval history
Nauru – the Pleasant Isle
By Walter Burroughs In the December 2012 edition of this magazine there appeared an article on the Cocos and Christmas Islands. This theme is continued with a discussion on Nauru ...
Sydney Sharp-Shooter and the Zero
By David Mattiske This wreckage of a Japanese Reisen (Zero) B11-124 Cn 5349 was that of an aircraft flown by Sgt Pilot Hajime Toyoshima during the first Japanese bombing raid ...
Memories of a Garden Island Patternmaker
By Ian Thomson The author provides us with a delightful vignette of life as a dockyard apprentice. We should also remember that workers at Garden Island Dockyard were employed by ...
A Paymaster and a Master of Ship Recognition
Paymaster LCDR Eric Charles Talbot-Booth, RD, RNR wrote extensively on warship and merchant ship identification and recognition. Not only did he edit many published works, but he was a skilled ...
Gallipoli and Other Stories, by Uncle Bill
William Kinnersley was born in Wales on 20 September 1896 and died aged 95 on 17 May 1992 at Collaroy, NSW. After Royal Naval service during the First World ...
Bomb Disposal with Victor (Vic) Turner
By Leyland Wilkinson Victor Turner, who on account of his winning ways and fiery temperament, was always known as Paddy, was born to a WW I soldier settler family who farmed ...
The Campaign against the German Pacific Colonies and Australia’s Antecedent Imperial Strategy (1909–1914)
By Midshipman Michael Carpenter, RAN. Midshipman Michael Carpenter was born and raised in Adelaide, completing his secondary studies in 2007. Michael studied commerce at the University of South Australia in ...
Book Review: Vietnam The Complete Story of the Australian War
Vietnam: The Complete Story of the Australian War. By Bruce Davies with Gary McKay. Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2012. Hardback, 690 pages with photographs. rrp $55. ‘You ...
They Also Served – Arthur Irwin Chapman, 11 January 1916 – 21 August 2012
By Jo Morrice Commander A.I. Chapman RAN (Rtd) died recently at the age of 96. This is the story of a remarkable and redoubtable man who was affectionately known to ...
Royal Naval Engineering College Manadon’s Centenary
By Ron Robb Most engineering officers serving in the RAN have at some time or other studied in HMS Thunderer, the Royal Naval Engineering College at Plymouth in England. Ex-students ...
Azimuth Thruster Propulsion Systems
By Warrant Officer Hugh Johnson One of the enduring features of naval engineering is a desire for reliability, which may lead to conservatism. In some respects warship design has changed ...
Cocos and Christmas Islands
These small isles to our north represent a microcosm of historical events taking place on a larger world stage. They encompass early exploration, colonial rule, resource booms, communications technology, and ...
District Officers Boats
By Leyland Wilkinson Leyland Wilkinson is a member of the NHS and was the former head of the trade school for apprentice training at the Garden Island Dockyard Training School, ...
General Managers of Garden Island Dockyard
Foreword In the century past (plus two more years, until 10 May 1989) Garden Island was a Naval Dockyard managed by a succession of twenty six Naval Engineering Officers of ...
Was Parramatta a Defender and Yarra a Druid, and would Warrego have been at home in Rio?
By Driftwood The massive shipbuilding programs leading up to WWI were dominated by the construction of capital ships. These unsustainable programs involved increases in the national debt of Britain and ...
Our First Engineer Admiral Vice Admiral Sir William Clarkson, KBE, CMG, RAN.
By Chris Clark When Engineer Rear-Admiral Sir William Clarkson retired from the Royal Australian Navy on 1 November 1922 with the honorary rank of Vice-Admiral, it brought to a close ...
Letter: Piper Report and Dangers to Navigation
Dear Sir, Well done for the September issue of the Naval Historical Review. Another good read. May I say that as far as my service with the Royal Australian Navy ...
Translators in the RAN – Theodore Eric Nave
By Sub-Lieutenant Y.L. Zhang This essay came a close second in the Naval History Prize of the New Entry Officer Course intake No. 46. Sub- Lieutenant Yanyi Zhang is a ...
Wallaroo’s Submarine Attack
On 14 JULY 2012 a short letter was received from Mr Les Heap of Lane Cove providing brief information, which may be historically significant, on the Bathurst Class minesweeper HMAS ...
HMAS Australia Night Order Book Raises Kamikaze Queries
Dangers to Navigation
By Lieutenant Commander Tony Maskell, RAN (Rtd) OVER THE YEARS since the arrival of the First Fleet there have been a number of notable shipwrecks. Examples can be found from ...
The White Ensign in the Middle East
By Greg Swinden Having recently returned from a second deployment to the Middle East a colleague suggested that I put down in writing some of my thoughts and recollections of ...
Australian Hospital Ships
By Graeme Andrews Hospital Ships of World War One The provision of dedicated hospital ships to support soldiers injured in combat seems to have evolved at about the time the ...
The Early Surgeons of the RAN
By Richard Gardner Richard Gardner’s father was a well-known surgeon and a close friend of Surgeon Rear Admiral W. (Billie) Carr. Richard joined the RAN on his 18th birthday in ...