In this personal account by Lieutenant Commander Roberts RAN who was Executive Officer of HMAS Murchison during the Korean War, he describes gun battles fought against North Korean ground forces during Murchison’s patrols of the Han River between July 1951 and January 1952. ...
Royal Australian Navy
Salute to Three Good Men
During the recent festive season, the Naval Historical Society of Australia lost three long term members whose service to the nation and community in peace and war is a fine ...
Australia’s Search for Maritime Self-Defence: Historical Conventional Inheritance or Regional Nuclear Obeisance?
By Kate Reid-Smith In the early twentieth century, Australia’s first Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Sir William Rooke Creswell, suggested the nation’s future path lay outside Imperial Britain. It was ...
Book Review: Kit Muster Vol II: Uniforms, Badges and Categories of the Australian Navy 1954 – 1984.
Kit Muster Vol II: Uniforms, Badges and Categories of the Australian Navy 1954 – 1984.Available from these locations: Regimental Books (regimentalbooks.com.au) and Navy Uniforms eShop With a follow-up to his ...
HMAS Sydney 80th Anniversary Commemorative Speech
By Commodore Ivan Ingham AM RAN The following commemorative speech was delivered by Commodore Ingham at the HMAS Sydney (II) memorial in Geraldton, Western Australia on Friday 19 November 2021. ...
Book Review: Australia’s Colonial Navies
Australia’s Colonial Navies by Ross Gillett is a revised and expanded edition published by the Naval Historical Society of Australia and released in 2021. In the 21st century most Australians ...
Occasional Paper 122: Royal Australia Navy 75th Anniversary Celebrations, 1986: Planning
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Occasional Paper 117: A History of Australian Navy Health Sailor Uniforms and Ranks (Part 2)
By Commander Neil Westphalen, Royal Australian Navy This paper was first published in the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, Volume 26 Number 3 in July 2018. Commander Westphalen is ...
Occasional Paper 115: A History of Australian Navy Health Sailor Uniforms and Ranks (Part 1)
By Commander Neil Westphalen, Royal Australian Navy This paper was first published in the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, Volume 27 Number 2 in April 2019. Commander Westphalen is ...
Occasional Paper 116: Navy Veterans Salute the ‘Forgotten War’
On Thursday 24th June 2021 the N.A.A. (Naval Association of Australia Queensland) highlighted the service of members of the Royal Australia Navy in the Korean War. At 4am on June ...
Book Review: Right Man, Right Place, Worst Time
Right Man, Right Place, Worst Time. By Betty Lee, Boolarong Press, Tingalpa, Queensland, 2019. Paperback, 318 pages, with sketch maps and photographs. Available from booksellers and publisher rrp $32.00. Along ...
Derek Holyoake and the torpedoing of HMAS Hobart in 1943
Derek Holyoake enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy on July 8, 1940 at the age of 16 and was serving onboard HMAS Hobart when she was torpedoed on July 20, ...
Book Review: Aus-Ships 2021: Fifth Edition
Aus-Ships 2021: Fifth Edition by Robert Fildes and Rex Cox. The previous edition was offered as a CD and now this revised and improved edition comes as a USB. This ...
Book Review: Mutineers – A True Story of Heroes and Villains
Mutineers – A True Story of Heroes and Villains. Paperback of 320 pages by Robert Hadler, published by Wilkinson Publishing Pty Limited, Victoria 3000. Available from booksellers, rrp $28.75. The ...
Letter: Formation of the Royal Australian Navy
Re: Naval Historical Review Vol. 41 No 73 Sept. 2020, An Essay on the Forming of the Royal Australian Navy by Midshipman Lloyd Skinner Dear Editor I read Lloyd’s essay ...
Occasional Paper 98: Life Line- the Rescue of Tony Bullimore
The rescue of yachtsmen in the Southern Ocean has been headline news on several occasions in recent decades. Of particular interest was the rescue of Tony Bullimore in January 1997. ...
Book Review: Wyatt Earp – The Little Ship with Many Names
Wyatt Earp: The Little Ship with Many Names. By Trish Burgess. Connorcourt Publishing, Cleveland, Queensland. Paperback, 124 pages. rrp $29.95 This book review follows closely in the wake of the ...
Chief of Navy grants permission for the Australian White Ensign to fly over the HMAS Sydney (II) Memorial at Geraldton, WA
By LCDR Desmond Woods The HMAS Sydney (II) Memorial at Geraldton in WA has become a place of pilgrimage for 65,000 visitors each year. Some 20,000 arrive by sea on ...
Occasional Paper 87: Disposition and Employment of Royal Australian Navy Ships following Cessation of Hostilities 15 August 1945
By David Stratton, Hugh Farmer and Dennis Weatherall At the end of the War in the Pacific in August 1945 the strength of the Royal Australian Navy was 36,976 men ...
Occasional Paper 84: Operation Musketeer – the 1956 Suez Crisis, RAN Members’ Involvement
This paper was written by Society volunteer, Commander Martin Linsley RAN Rtd. Its genesis was a list of the RAN participants in the Suez Crisis compiled by Mike Fogarty a ...
Occasional Paper 80: The Early Years (1970-1971) of HMAS Brisbane (DDG-41)
The following paper was delivered by Captain Ralph T Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) at a reunion (mostly of commissioning crew members and those who deployed to the Vietnam War in ...
Occasional Paper 78: Two Proud Ships: HMAS Brisbane (I) and HMAS Brisbane (II)
The following is an address given by Captain Ralph T. Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) on Monday 19 October 2015 at the Australian War Memorial. The occasion was the dedication of ...
The Royal Australian Navy in World War One
The following note was provided by Captain Sean Andrews, RAN Director of the Sea Power Centre -Australia. Thanks also for the link to a short film made by the Sea ...
Occasional Paper 76: The Navy and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic
By Greg Swinden The world is currently combatting the Coronavirus 19 (COVID 19) which originated in China and has now spread throughout the globe. Australia has fortunately been spared, so ...
Book review: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Royal Australian Navy in Vietnam 1965-72
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Royal Australian Navy in Vietnam 1965-1972. Second Edition. By John R. Carroll. First published in 2013, this second edition has been revised with ...