Within these pages we hear great deal of the Royal Australian Naval College but this is the first occasion we have been privileged to receive information on the rival but ...
Naval Historical Review
Occasional Paper 130: Our First Fleet Commander – Admiral Sir George Patey
By Walter Burroughs A summary of this paper was presented at a conference held from 30 September to 01 October 2014 at the Universidad Andres Bello, Chile on the maritime ...
HMAS Encounter (1905 – 1932)
HMS Encounter served on the Australia Station and was later commissioned into the RAN. She played a vital role in defence of the eastern coast of Australia, and the anti raider patrols in the South West Pacific. She was regarded as “more beloved than any other unit of our fleet”. ...
Letter: RANHS Grantala
The following email was received from Mike Dowsett, regrettably not in time for our September edition. A hundred years ago today, 30th August 1914 the Royal Australian Navy Hospital Ship ...
Book Review: Crime, Punishment and Redemption – A Convict’s Story
Crime, Punishment and Redemption – A Convict’s Story. By June Slee. National Library of Australia Publishing, Canberra, 2014. Landscape sized softcover of 207 pages, liberally illustrated with coloured prints, ...
Some Mishaps to the Grand Fleet
By John Smith Midnight on the night of 4/5 August 1914 was a momentous event in world history for, at that moment, Great Britain declared war on Germany and thus ...
The Cross of Lorraine in the South Pacific
By Jim Craigie Following great reversals of fortune early in WW II the French nation was bitterly divided between those who wished to appease the Axis powers and those who desired ...
Cry Havoc
Brian Luttrell entered the RANVR in September 1939; a short while later he was off to war as an Ordinary Signalman in HMS Kanimbla. More than two years elapsed before ...
The Early Years of the Electrical Branch in the Royal Australian Navy
By Des Miller Most generations can look back upon significant changes but in our modern naval history there have only been two revolutionary changes, from wood to iron and then ...
Postcards Home
By Peter Brigden 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 ...
Invidious Choices – The German East Asia Squadron and the RAN in the Pacific, August to December 1914
By Lieutenant Commander Desmond Woods, RAN This article was presented by the author at the Anglo-German Naval Race and WWI at Sea Conference held at Portsmouth, England in July 2014. ...
They Also Served: Able Seaman Herbert Charles Willans RANR (1888 – 1914)
By Leyland Wilkinson On a recent visit to the Bita Paka War Cemetery near Rabaul I came across a single headstone to the memory of Able Seaman Herbert Charles Willans, ...
Letter: Montagu Whalers
Dear Editor In the latest issue of the Review (June 2014) is a very interesting article by Kingsley Perry about the 1963 Whitsunday Whaler Incident. In both the article and ...
Letter: A Postcard from Afghanistan
Most postcards gratefully received at the Boatshed are of the colourful glossy variety of well known landmarks sent to us from globetrotting members. Recently your Editor received one of a ...
Book Review: Albany’s ANZAC Convoys
Albany’s ANZAC Convoys by Roger Cunnington. Published by Digger Press, Albany, WA, 2014. Paperback of 176 pages with b&w illustrations, maps and diagrams. $46.95, from sales@diggerpress.com or albanyconvoys@westnet.com.au. The release ...
Rabaul the Garden City Revisited
This continues our voyage to Papua New Guinea in MV Pacific Dawn, with the March 2014 edition of the NHR, detailing experiences encountered at Milne Bay. Further information on Rabaul ...
The Shot that Stopped Pfalz
By Jim Craigie In August 1914, Germany was second only to Britain in merchant tonnage. In the Pacific, German territories and international trade meant German merchant ships were frequent visitors ...
Up the Dardanelles and Back
By Ken Wright This article covering the exploits of Commander Norman Holbrook, VC, RN, is a timely reminder of these events which occurred a century ago. Surprisingly, looking through back ...
The RAN on D-Day
By Greg Swinden With 2014 being the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings it is timely to remember the part played by the Royal Australian Navy in Operation Overlord on ...
Manus Island in 1949
By Cdre Des Miller, RAN, Rtd Given the present level of political concern with events in these islands the attached commentary by one of our distinguished members who served there ...
Fiji and two Commodores
By Walter Burroughs The Fijian Islands are strategically situated in the southwest Pacific straddling the trade route between the eastern seaboard of Australia and the west coast of the United ...
SMS Komet, the RAN’s first captured warship: a valuable prize and our first aircraft carrier
By Leyland Wilkinson In the latter part of the 19th century, Germany had been actively developing her Pacific island colonies and by 1900 had large holdings to the north of ...
The Troops Depart: Mail from the 1st AIF Convoy, 1914
By Richard Breckon ‘My Darling Mother, I am writing this in a hurry. All letters are being opened and so I’m getting this posted by a civilian lady who is ...
Instructor Captain Richard Gerard Fennessy DSC RAN
By Noel Burgess This extraordinary story concerns a country schoolmaster who mainly served through WW II in one ship in which he won the DSC and afterwards rose to become the ...
Betano Bay Today
By John Ellis This article first appeared in the United Service Journal 65(1) March 2014 and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Royal United Services Institute of New ...