On October 28, 1997 the Royal Australian Navy’s Surface Warfare School Building was formally renamed the “Newcomb Building”, commemorating the service of Captain Harvey Mansfield Newcomb. At the end of ...
Publications
History of the “Consuela” Figurehead at Garden Island
Nelson’s coffin – Yet another version
Here is another version of the story of Nelson’s Coffin: Captain Hallowell sent a party to salvage wood from L’Orient. Months later, when he was afraid that the adulation being ...
The Nelson Touch – a Trafalgar Day address
[Trafalgar Day Address 1997 to the Naval Officers’ Association, Western Australia, by Captain John Lancaster AM RAN (Ret’d)] Trafalgar Day provides the embodiment of what in our waning years, we may ...
Book Review: Shipmates
Many of our readers will be familiar with Vic Cassells as the author of “For Those in Peril“, which chronicled the loss of RAN ships and men in past conflicts. ...
Letters – Unacknowledged heroes
I have read with interest the comments in the Naval Historical Review on HMAS YARRA and Leading Seaman Taylor’s heroic action. I also believe this last action of YARRA’S has ...
Letters – The Senior Service
Which Service Came First? “Snow” Mackrell, a member, has forwarded some correspondence concerning his contention that the Navy is the “Senior Service” as, “after Federation, it was the Navy which ...
Letters – HMAS Brisbane oil
I refer to your request on page 3 of the June 1998 issue of the Naval Historical Review for information about the nature of the oil carried by HMAS Brisbane. ...
Letters – Japanese surrender in Timor
There was a uniqueness about the RAN involvement in the Japanese surrender ceremonies in Timor, raised in Peter Evans’s (Fairmile Association) letter in REVIEW Vol 19 No. 2 when he ...
The Greek Campaign 1941
The debate will never cease on the wisdom or otherwise of the decision by Churchilll’s war cabinet to send troops to assist the Greek Army in 1941. Field Marshal Earl ...
The launch of HMAS Warramunga II
[Extracts from a letter from Marsden Hordern: …I was recently on Three Hammock Island with the 87 year old John Alliston – you may have read his book, “Destroyer Man‘ ...
What flag was that?
Amid the saga of events in Jakarta over recent times, the red over white horizontal halves of the flag of the Republic of Indonesia have figured in high prominence. Displayed ...
The raid on St Nazaire 1942
1942, and the British were clinging on while their convoys were only just getting enough supplies through to keep the people and the war effort going. But on the Biscay ...
Obituary: Admiral Sir Victor Smith AC, 1913-1998
Named for his uncle, the famous Australian cricketer Victor Trumper, Admiral Sir Victor Smith, who has died in Canberra at the age of 85, was the first RAN officer to ...
Radar Equipment, HMAS Shropshire
When “Shropshire” was being prepared in England for handing over to the RAN in 1942/43 she was fitted out with a full complement of the current RN equipment. (This is ...
Attack on Sabang, Northern Sumatra, 1944
This article refers to the British Eastern Fleet’s first attack on Sabang in Northern Sumatra, in April, 1944. To relieve some of the pressure on his own forces, Admiral King had ...
The Marines of the First Fleet
In the early morning of Saturday 12 May 1787, a small fleet of eleven ships prepared to leave Portsmouth’s Mother Bank in the UK to found a penal colony halfway ...
SS Queen Mary & the loss of HMS Curacoa 1942
Navy Square – Port Melbourne
The concept of a naval memorial in Port Melbourne arose in May 1997 when it was observed that following the 1994 decommissioning of HMAS Lonsdale, there was no feature in ...
HMAS Canberra’s Crest – Return from P&O Liner Canberra
On the 24th April, 1964 a small group of survivors from HMAS Canberra met on board the P&O Liner Canberra to present to the captain a replica of HMAS Canberra’s crest, i.e., the ...
Book Review: Sensuikan I-124
Author: Tom Lewis This is the story of the Japanese minelaying submarine I-124, built at Kobe in 1928 and sunk off Darwin on 20th January, 1942. The author also discusses ...
How the USA Flexed its Industrial Muscle in 1941
From December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945, American shipyards constructed 10 battleships, 13 heavy cruisers, 33 light cruisers, 27 aircraft carriers, 110 escort aircraft carriers, 352 destroyers, 498 destroyer ...
Obituary: Alan Willis OBE 1926 – 1997
The Hammock
The issue hammock, the beloved pusser sack – one of man’s most endearing inventions – has vanished, alas, from Navy messdecks and establishments. It has been replaced by the impersonal ...
In Remorse Mode about the Morse Code!
Extracts from The Sydney Morning Herald (Kendall Hill) and The Sun-Herald (Peter Robinson) It revolutionised the way humans communicated long before the likes of the telephone, the radio and e-mail. ...