IN THE NAVY, by D. R. Rickard This is a little gem of a book. It is a sailor’s eye view of life in the Australian Navy in the 1960s ...
Publications
Book Review: Australian Fighter Aces 1914-1953
AUSTRALIAN FIGHTER ACES 1914-1953, by A.D. Garrison (Published and distributed jointly by Air Power Studies Centre and Australian War Memorial 1999, 250x175mm, 117 b&w photos, 10 tables/lists, ix/188pp, card cover, ...
Book Review: Alone on Guadalcanal – A Coastwatcher’s Story
ALONE ON GUADALCANAL – A Coastwatcher’s Story, By Martin Clemens CBE OBE AM MC High on anyone’s list of largely unsung heroes of the Pacific War must come the British and ...
Raine Island Beacon
Re THE BEAUFORT TOUCH (Marsden Hordern NHS 21/1) In response to his queries in that article I would recommend to Society members including Mr Hordern the reading of an ...
HMAS Sydney Inquiry (Letter No. 2)
A further detailed letter has been received from member James Eagles, ex-RAN Communicator, documenting many instances of the Germans decoding British naval and merchant ship signal traffic in 1941, etc. ...
HMAS Sydney Inquiry (Letter No. 1)
Earlier correspondence from a member concerning an important point of ship recognition vis-a-vis Kormoran and Straat Malakka deserves response. He queries how the Dutch merchantman with a distinctive counter stern ...
Heaven’s above – A yarn with Harv
Obituary: Lieutenant Commander Austin Quince RNVR
Lt. Commander Austin Henry Quince RNVR – 17.2.1894 – 23.3.1984 Fellow members of the wartime staff at H.M.A.S. “RUSHCUTTER” and the many officers and ratings who received their training at that ...
The Sound of Torpedoes
At least once a year, somewhere in Australia, the Oscar winning movie “The Sound of Music” is aired on television. Many members are aware of the main plot; the story ...
A Change of Ensign Ceremony
The Gin Pennant – The signal for all celebrations
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 ...
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 ...