After the tragic loss of Force Z (HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse) the previous month, HMAS Vampire experienced a short, defiant action against the invading Japanese off the Malayan ...
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A Short History of HMAS Albatross
Reprinted from a Welcome Aboard pamphlet (date unknown) The decision to build an airfield on the land now occupied by the Naval Air Station was taken soon after WWII was ...
HMAS Perth Part2 – Outbreak of war
This is part 2 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
Australians in Midget Submarines
A short account of British midget submarine operations during WW2 in which Australians participated with considerable success. Previously published in ANWM Wartime Issue 19 and the Naval Officers’ Club Newsletter ...
Book Review: Royal Navy Escort Carriers
Royal Navy Escort Carriers By Commander David Hobbs, MBE, Royal Navy Published by Maritime Books in UK Available at the Australian Maritime Museum bookshop at Darling Harbour. £19.95 (approx A$50 ...
The Amethyst Incident Recalled
Visit To HMAS Sheean – Garden Island 2003
The Editor managed to score an unexpected conducted tour of one of the RAN’s latest Collins Class submarines, HMAS Sheean, alongside the dedicated submarine berth in Fleet Base East. ON ...
By Dawn’s Early Light
Middle East Patrol (HMS Mermaid)
The Origin Of Port (Side To . .)
IN 1844 THE ADMIRALTY issued an order, stating: ‘The word ‘Port‘ is frequently substituted for the word ‘Larboard‘, and as the distinction between ‘Starboard‘ and ‘Port‘ is so much more ...
HMAS Hawkesbury and Singapore POWs return
With the unveiling by CDF General Cosgrove at Ballarat on 6 February 2004 of the memorial dedicated to 35,000 Australians who became prisoners-of-war in all conflicts, journalist and Navy veteran ...
HMS Vanessa North Atlantic 1941
HMS Viscount 1940
Chief of Naval Staff Visits HMAS Benalla
DURING WW2 we had commissioned the corvette HMAS Benalla as a survey ship and she was lying alongside Station Pier West, Port Melbourne, about to start acceptance and work-up. A ...
In Some Corner of a Foreign Field
ON 25TH APRIL 1915, Lieutenant Rupert Brooke RNVR of the Royal Navy Division was buried in ‘Some Foreign Field’ on the Greek island of Skyros to the south-west of Gallipoli. ...
The Commissioning of HMAS Perth, 1939
This is part 1 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
Cerberus in Wartime
The transit from peacetime tempo to the demands of wartime training left strong impressions on the many trainees during their introduction to the Navy in WW2. We were all Acting ...
Ping Wo’s Golden Secret
HMAS Ping Wo was not the most glamorous ship ever requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy. Described by at least one of her crew as a ‘rust bucket’, the 3105grt ...
Book Review: Roughers: Photographs of warships fighting the elements
Roughers: Photographs of warships fighting the elements Compiled by Mike Critchley and Steve Bush Published by Maritime Books Lodge Hill, Liskheard PL 14 4EL, Cornwall, England. E-mail: orders.marbooks@virgin.net. ; Website: www.navybooks.com; Price: ...
Book Review: The Kellys
The Kellys – British J, K & N Class Destroyers of World War II By Christopher Langtree Published by Chatham Publishing, Kent, England Distributed in Australia by Peribo 58 Beaumont Street, ...
Obituary: Captain W.F. (Bill) Cook, LVO, RAN Retd.
The youngest officer to command an Australian destroyer during WW2, Bill Cook, has died aged 87, after a notable naval career and having forged a second equally distinguished career at the ...
German U-Boat Surrender 1945 – U-977
A previous article described how surrendering German U-Boats were boarded and taken as prizes into captivity to remote lochs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. One wonders what the German Navy ...
The Great Storm of 1953 – Sheerness Dockyard
The winter of 1953 was marked by severe storms and flooding over vast areas of Kent and the Thames estuary, causing heavy loss of sheep and other livestock, after sea ...