Back from the Dead By: Piia Wirsu Published by: Harper Collins, 2025 This is a true story – so astonishing that it could not possibly be made up. It is ...
Naval Historical Review
Letters: Late mail Sep 2025
Dear Editor (Ross), I have just finished reading the Naval Historical Review for March 2025 (I am way behind in my reading). I have a couple of comments to make. ...
RABAUL’s NAVAL RELICS
By Ross Gillett Papua New Guinea’s port city of Rabaul is full of naval artifacts from the two world wars. And at the nearby town of Bita Paka it was ...
Book Review: The Convoy by Angus Konstam
The Convoy by Angus Konstam Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing Reviewed by: Greg Swinden The British prime minister, Winston Churchill, said after the Second World War that there was only ...
GLADYS TAYLOR and the RAIDER SEEADLER
By Colin Randall When a young Gladys Taylor of Mossyrock in Washington State, USA, stowed away aboard the merchant schooner A.B. Johnson in Willapa Bay in 1917, bound for Australia, ...
CAPTAIN WALTON DRAKE, ROYAL NAVY – Queensland Colonial Naval Commandant
By Dr J.K. Haken Picture One Above: HMS Wolverene sailing from Port Jackson as Flagship of the Australia Station. John Bastock. A native of England, Walton Drake was born ...
Forty Years Ago – HMAS Stalwart’s mercy mission to Macquarie Island – December 1985
By late 1985 HMAS Stalwart had been serving as flagship of the RAN for almost four-and-a half-years. A versatile Australian-designed support vessel, originally described as an escort maintenance ship, Stalwart ...
Back in Time – Unveiling four memorials at Garden Island in 1932.
On Friday, 25 November 1932, Sydney newspapers reported that the Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs, would unveil four memorials at Garden Island on 27 November. These were in remembrance of members ...
KEEPING DARWIN STOCKED 1939 to 1945
Graeme Andrews describes the unknown fleet that performed the important supply route from Cairns to Darwin . At 1000 on 19 February 1942 the Northern Territory port town of Darwin ...
TITANIC in the OUTBACK – A literary observation
by Walter Burroughs In the far west of New South Wales, near its border with South Australia, lies the city of Broken Hill. Being much closer to Adelaide than Sydney, ...
HMAS FALIE and the Pacific War – Part 2
by Lyn O’Grady Having been requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy to act as an examination vessel at the entrance to Sydney Harbour from 1940, HMAS Falie began a new ...
FULL CIRCLE – Part II: To Hell, and then home by submarine
Tony Vine continues the story of Able Seaman Hilton (Harry) George Weigand, RAN When the Burma railway was completed, Harry Weigand and most of the men were moved to Tamarkan ...
HMAS KANIMBLA (II) and HMAS MANOORA (II)
Origin: In Australian service HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were employed as LPAs (amphibious transports). Both were originally constructed for the United States Navy (USN) as members of the ...
Vale John Christopher Jeremy AM – 4 July 1942 – 18 April 2025
John was much the same age as me entering this world as a wartime babe in 1942. He was the last of three sons born to Richmond and Joan Jeremy. ...
Book Review: The Secret Submarine
Book Review by ‘Subconscious’ The Secret Submarine by Tom Lewis is a paperback of 315-pages, published by Big Sky Publishing, of Sydney. It was released in early 2025. The book ...
PORT JACKSON AND MANUKAU and Some ‘Fencibles’
By Walter Burroughs This story is a tribute to Gerald Ellott our New Zealand correspondent whom we unfortunately, never met. At the age of 99 he passed away on 6 ...
THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAMSHIP COMPANY
The final cruise – A report from ‘our cruiser‘ RMS STRATHAIRD For more than two centuries shipping interests that eventually became the iconic Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company built an ...
HMAS Encounter and the Raider Seeadler
Colin Randall discusses the loss of the German ship in 1917 The enemy raider Seeadler sailed from Germany in December 1916 and during an extended cruise in the Atlantic and ...
COLLECTORS – Captain James Cook’s Commemorative Plate
The commemorative plate (above) was produced as a souvenir that marked the bicentenary of the 1770 landing on Australian shores of Captain (Lieutenant) James Cook. The face of the plate ...
J CLASS SUBMARINES and their WONDERFUL MECHANISM
Intricate Machinery and its Use in War Talking to Ships at the Bottom of the Sea By A.C.C.S., ‘Sunday Times’ – 20 July 1919 “Just about the greasiest job I ...
SERVING ABOARD THE TOWN CLASS CRUISERS
A transcript of the 1972 presentation to the NHSA by naval historian and member John Bastock When the first Australian Fleet Unit arrived in Sydney on 4 October 1913, I ...
NEW ERA WARSHIPS – 1895
Coastal and Harbour defence by torpedo boats – a lecture by Commander Bosanquet, New South Wales Naval Forces. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper of 1 October 1895 featured an informative article ...
FULL CIRCLE To hell, and then home by submarine
The story of Able Seaman Hilton (Harry) George Weigand, RAN by Tony Vine When Harry Weigand walked off the submarine HMAS Oxley in Malta in 1928 to return home to ...
HMAS Brisbane and her ‘Baby’ – Embarking aircraft at sea
On 6 May 1917 the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) began its long association with naval aviation. In these early days, the seaplane was the aircraft of choice to be ...
RAN Officers and the Palestine Troubles 1936-1939
By Greg Swinden New status quo Following the end of the Great War, and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the area known as Palestine was allocated to Great Britain ...