The origins of the Gin Pennant are uncertain, but it seems to have been used since the 1940s and probably earlier. The distillery manager of Plymouth Gin was quoted ...
Article topics
The Relocation of HMAS Parramatta Memorial
HMAS Parramatta, a torpedo boat destroyer of the River Class, launched in 1910, was the first ship of the Royal Australian Navy. It was decommissioned in 1928 and, with HMAS ...
The Countess of Hopetoun Incident, December 1915
Disaster at Bari
Mustard gas in World War II? Let me tell you of the happenings at Bari in Italy on the evening of 2 December 1943. Bari had recently become the main ...
Book Review: Very Ordinary Officer
Very Ordinary Officer describes itself on the cover as the social and naval story of a Yorkshire-born Australian called Geoff Feasey. The two strands of the story run side by ...
Letters – Loss of sea language
Sir, Reading Roger Puttman’s letter (NHR 20-2) and his shared complaint concerning the loss of sea language put me in mind of an incident aboard Quiberon during Arch Harrington’s command ...
Letter – The discovery of AE2
Dear Sirs, I read Mark Spencer’s article… “The Discovery of the AE2 – a WW1 Submarine” with great interest and agree that it is a story largely unknown in this ...
Royal Navy Field Gun Competitions
Dear Sir, The attached article from the British International Express about the future of Field Gun competitions in the RN should interest many of our members who have taken part ...
HMAS Melbourne Service Band
Dear Sir, I read with interest in the last edition of your magazine the articles on the history of RAN bands. I knew quite a few of the bandmasters from ...
Raine Island Beacon
Drake and his game of bowls and Nelson recalling a boat for a sailor’s letter are loved legends from long past wars. But legends also flow from the Golden Age ...
Splice the mainbrace – HMS Urania
In August 1945 HMS Urania had been at sea for 36 days. We were part of Task Force 37, commanded by Admiral Rawlings RN, the strike component of the ...
The Sydney – Kormoran Engagement – Part 1
Operation Downfall
Regarding “The Century’s Greatest Untold Story” in Vol. 20, No. 4, although OPERATION DOWNFALL may have been top secret, it was generally known, even in the BPF, that an invasion ...
Operation Downfall – The invasion of Japan – a sequel
Almost as sensational as “OPERATION DOWNFALL” – the top-secret plan for the invasion of Japan as detailed in the last issue of Naval Historical Review (Vol. 20, No. 4) – ...
Obituary: Captain Barbara MacLeod AM
“To achieve the marvellous,” wrote Tom Robbins, “it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought”. When a 24 year-old school teacher from Capel in Western Australia went by train ...
HMAS Jervis Bay II announced
Obituary: Captain Gerald Haynes
Captain Gerald Haynes’s wartime career combined skill and daring at sea and in the air. He was officer of the watch in HMS Victorious in the chase that destroyed the German ...
Captain Glossop describes Emden action to Banjo Patterson
Huon Class Minehunters – Progress Report
The first of this new class of minehunters, HMAS Huon, was handed over to the RAN on 25 March 1999 after a series of successful sea trials, “the major milestone ...
The Dardanelles Campaign
The chase and sinking of the ‘Bismarck’
Letters – Australians at War documentary
The 1999-2000 Federal Budget provided $5 million for the production of a TV documentary series, Australians at War, which will cover the major conflicts in which Australia has participated, and ...
Obituary: Rear Admiral GV Gladstone
REAR ADMIRAL GEOFFREY VERNON GLADSTONE AO, DSC & Bar, RAN (Ret.) On Wednesday, 15 September a full naval funeral was held in the Naval Chapel, Garden Island, for a former ...
Obituary: Harry Train 1918-1999
Born: Millthorpe, October 26, 1918 Died: Balmain, May 23, 1999 Harry Train gave 30 years of his life to serving his country with the RAN. After enlisting in 1936 as ...
The Grave of Annie Dorrington – Australian Flag Co-Designer
It doesn’t mean we owe allegiance To a forgotten Imperial dream: We’ve the stars to show where we’re going And the old flag to show where we’ve been. (from a ...