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 ...
Publications
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)) ...
A Letter from Trafalgar 1805
German Prisoners of War in Australia WW2
After the sinking of HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran in 1941, a considerable number of Kriegsmarine survivors were rescued and became prisoners of war. This account details some of their ...
Captain Cook Graving Dock
The sixtieth anniversary of the official opening of the (then) largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere by the Governor General, HRH the Duke of Gloucester, falls on 24 March ...
HMAS Watson’s Freedom of Entry Marks Sixty Years of Service
The premier naval training establishment celebrated its 60th anniversary since commissioning at Sydney’s prominent South Head. The ship’s company of HMAS Watson (Captain Ian Middleton, RAN) marched through Double Bay, ...
RAN Minelaying Effort during WW2
This extract is taken from NHSA Monograph No. 179 ‘HMAS Bungaree – Australia’s only Minelayer’ – which was published in 2003, but has not been widely circulated. The Admiralty suggested ...
Anti-Submarine Defences of Sydney Harbour 1942
The British Officer-in-Charge of Australia’s anti-submarine training establishment warned Navy chiefs, four months before Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour in May 1942, that the defences against such a raid ...
HMAS Castlemaine a ship re-born
Sixty years on, there it was. The unmistakable motion of the moving deck of an Australian Navy corvette under my feet. I always knew they could roll on wet grass. ...
Hitler’s Indian Ocean Grey Wolves
BY MAY 1943, Germany had lost the Battle of the Atlantic. U-Boat losses had reached an intolerable level for the Germans with the loss of 38 U-Boats for that month ...
Able Seaman Harry Mason
Those of us who were fortunate in knowing him will be saddened to learn of Harry’s death earlier this year, aged 93. Harry was an Englishman, obviously from a good ...
90 Years on: Rabaul and Sydney/Emden 1914
This article was originally published in ‘Semaphore’, the newsletter of the Sea Power Centre – Australia. It is republished with the kind agreement of the Sea Power Centre. This year ...
Sydney’s Anti-Submarine Boom Defences 1942-46
A small, lonely memorial can be found near the water’s edge at the westernmost shore of Green Point at Watson’s Bay, Sydney Harbour, recalling the erection of a considerable seaward ...
The Naval Staff in Retrospect
Why did it always seem to happen? There I would be, thoroughly enjoying myself either flying somewhere or swanning around the Far East in a nice frigate, when out of ...
Miscellaneous Materials
In 1959 as an apprentice Scientific Instrument Maker in the Optical Workshop at Garden Island Dockyard I learnt to use these materials as part of my trade. The use of ...
HMAS Success 2004 – A year in perspective
A summary of the deployments and achievements of HMAS Success in 2004 With 2004 rapidly coming to a close, the keener eyed observer may have noticed a regular absentee from ...
Book Review: The Royal Navy in Australia 1900-2000
Title: The Royal Navy in Australia 1900-2000 Author: Ross Gillett and Vic Geoffrey Publisher: Maritime Books, Lodge Hill, Liskeard in Cornwall PL 14 4EL, United Kingdom. This is a remarkable pictorial history ...