On 23 July 2005, Mrs Molly McLean (the widow of LCDR R W Rankin, RAN) passed away in Charters Towers, QLD. She was 92 years old. Molly was born Mary ...
Naval Historical Review
Letters: HMAS Adelaide
Dear Sir, Congratulations on Graeme Andrews’ excellent and timely article on the “forgotten” cruiser, HMAS Adelaide. The front cover shows one of the 6″ Mark XII guns, not gun mounting ...
Letters: Canal Zone clasp 1951/2
You may not be aware that some time ago the British Government approved the award of the above medal to naval personnel who served in the Suez Canal Zone in ...
Japanese Proclamation of Unconditional Surrender
Proclamation of Unconditional Surrender by HIROHITO, EMPEROR of JAPAN (1926-1989) IMPERIAL RESCRIPT TO OUR GOOD AND LOYAL SUBJECTS, After pondering deeply the general conditions of the world and the actual ...
SS William Dawes – A Ship is Burning (1942)
Aviator or Seaman or Both?
Ten facts about the Battle of Trafalgar
Ten facts about the Battle of Trafalgar: – The youngest sailor to fight at Trafalgar was just 8 years old. – The oldest was 68. – A woman called Jane ...
Rationale for the Battle of Trafalgar
Sea Power Ashore and in the Air
HMAS Pioneer – Blockading German East Africa, 1915-16
Nelson’s Coat and the Bullet that Killed Him
Horatio Nelson’s “Trafalgar Coat”, the uniform he was wearing when he was shot, has been reunited with the French musket ball that passed through it and killed him in 1805. ...
The Preservation of Horatio, Lord Nelson’s Body
Much has been written about Nelson in the lead up to this bicentenary of his death at the Battle of Trafalgar and here the author dispels the myth of “Nelson’s ...
HMS Nabob – Survival after U-Boat Attack in the Arctic 1944
Offensive Minelaying – Pacific 1944 (Part 1)
Germany’s Surrender 60 years ago – Admiralty Signal
A lifetime onwards, Navy men and women reflected inevitably during the month of May 2005 as to where they actually were when the German surrender brought about cessation of WWII ...
Anti-Submarine Measures from World War I
Abridged from an article in “History of the World Wars”, previously published in the RAN Corvettes Association Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 98 and kindly permitted to be reprinted here. AT ...
Two Shipwrecks off Sydney Heads and the Building of Hornby Light
In 1857, two clipper ships came to grief on rocks outside Sydney Heads, and as a result of public alarm, a smallish lighthouse – Hornby Light – was erected on ...
Wounded by a Tin of Peaches
The Tobruk Spud Run 1941 The three Services, Navy, Army and Air Force were as dissimilar as chalk and cheese, yet we were all bent on one purpose, to beat ...
HMAS Adelaide 1918 – 1949
Watchers of the Sea and Sky – 13th Radar
Ken Wright revisits one of Australia’s first coastal radar stations and remembers the time when busy shipping lanes were menaced by enemy ships and planes. The Japanese submarine I-25 lying ...
Book Review: Trafalgar – the Men, the Battle, the Storm
Trafalgar – the Men, the Battle, the Storm By Tim Clayton & Phil Craig London Hodder & Stoughton 2004. rrp $39.95. Reviewed by Bob Nicholls Once upon a time, not ...
Book Review: Blunders and Disasters at Sea. An anthology
Blunders and Disasters at Sea. An anthology By David Blackmore Peribo Books, Mt Kuring-Gai NSW. rrp $75.00. Published 2004 by Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley, South Yorks, UK. Reviewed by ...
Tsingtao Incident China Fleet – 1937
Captain John Cooke, HMS Bellerophon
Captain John Cooke, HMS Bellerophon || Killed at Trafalgar 1805 In a small column of the Sydney Morning Herald on 14-15 May 2005 ((Community RSVP)) a plaintive request was noted ...
HMS Britannia at the Battle of Trafalgar 1805
ON RENEWAL OF THE WAR in 1803, Rear Admiral Lord Northesk was immediately appointed to HMS Britannia ((Name of the last Royal Yacht 1953-2001, and the Roman name for Britain)) ...