By Sub Lieutenant Nicholas Seton RAN …I feel so sad. What a waste – what a stuff up. It makes one feel a little bitter about the poor intelligence andcommunications ...
Article topics
Trouble in the Gulf – Historical and Geo-political Context
The Strait of Hormuz separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman; at its narrowest point this waterway is just 21 nautical miles across, from Oman to the south ...
Modern Day Pirates – Piracy under control in Asia
The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (ReCAAP ISC) is a regional agreement between twenty countries, mainly Asian but including four European nations ...
Before her time – the tale of Navy’s first female sailor
Twenty-one years before the first Women’s Royal Australian Navy members (WRANs) entered service due to a shortage of telegraphists during the Second World War, a young Tasmanian girl was enlisted ...
Occasional Paper 62: The Navy in South Australia from Colonial Days to the Present
September 2019 By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM, Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia It’s reputed that the first sighting of the southern coast of our Great South ...
Occasional Paper 63: Malta Revisited: Wartime Memories of HMAS Vendetta’s Malta Sojourn in World War II
September 2019 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. His ...
Special feature interview with an incredible veteran on the 80th anniversary of WWII
Alan Jones hosted a special feature interview to mark 80 years since Australia joined World War II. On September 3, 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced to the nation that ...
Letter: The Moresby Disc at Somerset
As this edition of the Review contains an in-depth article on Cape York and Somerset it is opportune to include this discussion point. An example of one of the many ...
Letter: Up and Downers
We had quite a few responses to the article on Up and Downers in the June 2019 issue with the following which addresses most issues. Dear Editor I enjoyed the ...
Obituary: Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Sam Sakker, MBE, RANR (Rtd)
Sam was born in September 1937, in Harbin, the ice city of North Eastern China, but grew up in Tintsin (Tianjin), the coastal metropolis adjacent to Beijing. His parents were ...
Escape from Singapore – the Last Boat Leaves
The June 2019 edition of this magazine contained an article The Naval Evacuation of Singapore – February 1942 which lists MV Kembong amongst forty-five vessels that escaped. Her captain is ...
HMS Australia and the William Droudge Mystery
We know much about the WWI vintage battlecruiser HMAS Australia (I) and the WWII vintage heavy cruiser HMAS Australia (II) but very little about the first warship to carry our ...
Battleship Mikasa – Restoration
By Colin Randall After many years of visiting Japan for coal business I took my family on a holiday to this interesting country. One of the sites visited was the ...
Occasional Paper 60: Naval Gigs: Past and Present
August 2019 By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM, Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia Subsequent to the recent recovery of an HMAS Australia (1) Gig from bushland at ...
Occasional Paper 61: From a Periscope to a Cricket Pitch in a Matter of Days: The Surreal Nature of War
August 2019 By Florence Livery My father, Panos (known as Pino) George Livery died in 1996. Fortunately for us, he left behind a very rich source of history, his World ...
Haida, Tribal-class destroyer; Royal Canadian Navy
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Occasional Paper 59: Francis James Ranken
July 2019 Early Career Francis James Ranken was born in 1864 at ‘Saltram’, Eglinton, near Bathurst. He was the eldest son of James Australian Ranken and was educated at All ...
Occasional Paper 58: Postcards Home
July 2019 An interest in philately has led to a collection of post cards from a century past showing the Pacific colonies of the German Empire. These help bring to ...
Occasional Paper 57: The Naval Ode and Laurence Binyon
July 2019 There are moments when we first gaze upon a work of art, whether in the pictorial or written form, and are drawn to its beauty and are inspired. ...
Occasional Paper 56: Recollections of founding the Naval Historical Society
June 2019 In 1970 Lew Lind, Rod Atwill, Alan Payne and myself found ourselves with the responsibility of putting together an association which we were to call the Naval Historical ...
Occasional Paper 55: Reuben Mitchell DSM, RAN – Survivor of HMS E14
June 2019 The following story is of an Australian Able Seaman whom some military historians believe should have been awarded the Victoria Cross for his courage and compassion while under ...
Book Review: A Hazardous Life
A Hazardous Life, by R. K. Forsyth and I. K. Forsyth, charts the stormy life and times of Western Australia’s first Harbour Master. Paperback, 270 pages with many illustrations ...
Letter: Victoria Crosses awarded to Civilians
The topic of Victoria Crosses (March 2019) never ceases to arouse interest and we have two similar emails from Ken Green and Tony Maskell who invite us to visit the ...
Letter: They Also Served– LCDR Frank Derek Simon RD RANR (S)
Mike Turner says he found the article on Frank Simon (March 2019) most interesting, particularly the Merchant/RANR(S) overlap. However, one small error is noted on page 22: It is ...
The Special Service Squadron – An episode in the peacetime history of theRoyal Navy 1923-1924
Rohan Goyne The ‘World Cruise’ of a special service squadron of the Royal Navy was an inter-war episode of flag waving across the world’s oceans from arguably a declining world ...