At an Imperial Conference held in 1909, it was decided to deploy toAustralian waters a naval unit consisting of at least a battle cruiser, three second class cruisers, six destroyers, ...
Warships
Occasional Paper 6: Royal Australian Navy Ships Honour Roll
Given the 75th anniversary commemoration events taking place around Australia and overseas in 2017 to honour ships lost in the RAN’s darkest year, 1942 it is timely to reproduce the ...
Naval Art: Well Worth the Visit
This story was first published in the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) Volunteers’ quarterly magazine, ‘All Hands’, Issue 129 in December 2024. The author, Geoff Barnes is a volunteer with ...
Australian Submarines in the Cold War — A force Multiplier in the West
This Historical Booklet (Monograph 199) by Dr Tom Lewis was published by the Naval Historical Society of Australia in September 2024. This paper discusses the role of the Royal Australian ...
Occasional Paper 188: Highlights of RAN History: Two Busy Decades 1950 to 1970
The following is adapted from the Royal Australian Navy News, 17 April 1970 edition, page 4. 1950 to 1960 From1950 onwards the post-war tempo Naval growth quickened. The outbreak of ...
Occasional Paper 179: A Boiler Without a Ship
By John Jeremy Warship design in the first two decades of the 20th Century advanced rapidly, with the early introduction of new technology (e.g. the steam turbine for propulsion) and ...
Book Review: “Safe to Dive – Submarine Support in Sydney 1914 to 1999”
“Safe to Dive – Submarine Support in Sydney 1914 to 1999” by John Jeremy was published by The Naval Historical Society of Australia in 2023, under licence agreement with the ...
Australian Fleet Reviews 1788 to 1914
By Ross Gillett As an island nation, fleet arrivals and naval reviews have formed a major part of Australia’s naval history and tradition. Sydney Harbour and Port Phillip have provided ...
Inside ‘Nuke School’, the elite US Training Ground preparing Australian Submariners for an AUKUS Future
The following article has been taken from an ABC News summary of 8 July 2023. In America’s deep south, a group of students has just completed one of the most ...
Occasional Paper 169: HMAS Vendetta and Commander Eric Eugene Johnston RAN; Vietnam Deployment 1969 – 1970
By Bjarne (Barney) Kristensen The 18 August 2023 marked fifty years since the cessation of hostilities in Vietnam (The Vietnam War) with commemorations conducted throughout Australia. In this paper I ...
The Frigates that ‘did nothing in particular, and did it very well’ – with apologies to W.S. Gilbert.
By John Ingram Fifty years ago, the Whitlam Labor government cancelled the troubled Light Destroyer (DDL) project and set in place the acquisition of six patrol frigates of the Oliver ...
Occasional Paper 164: Saving the old Parramatta
By Ross Gillett The unusual post-war career of the first Australian destroyer The first HMAS Parramatta, a River class torpedo boat destroyer (TBD), was commissioned into the Australian Fleet in ...
Occasional Paper 159: River Class Torpedo Boat Destroyers
This article was originally published in LE GROGNARD!, the newsletter of the ACT Branch of the Military Historical Society of Australia, January 2023 edition – Issue #2023/1. Tim Lyon is ...
Book Review: The Scrap Iron Flotilla
The Scrap Iron Flotilla by Mike Carlton. William Heinemann Australia. Paperback of 448 pages. rrp $34.99 On Sunday September 3rd 1939, history was tumbling over itself. In the mess decks ...
An Australian minesweeper goes to Cyprus
The following arises from the article A Magnificent Greek Warship published in the December 2022 edition of the Naval Historical Review which explored the history of the Greek museum ship ...
Royal Australian Navy: Fleet Reviews over the Years
By Dr J.K. Haken A Fleet Review is a British tradition where the monarch inspects the massed ships of the navy. It originally occurred when the fleet was mobilised for ...
The River Clyde: The cradle of British shipbuilding and the birthplace of the Royal Australian Navy
By CMDR Tony Vine RAN Rtd The River Clyde in Scotland has long been described as the cradle of the British shipbuilding industry and in 1909 it became the foundation ...
Occasional Paper 153: County Class ships of the Royal Navy: A photographic review
By Conrad Waters The following feature was first published in the Ships Monthly magazine and subsequently by the Heritage Machines website on 19th October 2022. The Royal Navy’s series of ...
Corvette Memorial Booklet – A Tribute to Those Who Served
The Corvettes of the Royal Australian Navy were built in Australia and crewed by Australians. These ships served with distinction in all theatres of World War 2. This booklet is ...
Book Review: Sea Monsters – Savage Submarine Commanders of WWII
Sea Monsters – Savage Submarine Commanders of WWII, by Tony Matthews. Soft cover of 348 pages with b&w photographs. Published by Big Sky Publishing, Sydney, 2021. This book discusses the ...
The Seas of Change: Integrating Women aboard Australian Submarines
By LEUT L.M. Dunsmore RAN Earlier this year this essay was awarded the Naval Historical Society History Prize from candidates of the New Entry Officer Course 65. Publication was withheld ...
Occasional Paper 137: Battle of the Coral Sea (4–8 May 1942)
This short account of the May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea focuses on the strategically significant outcomes of the battle and how they related to the future of World War 2 and Australians in particular. ...
Occasional Paper 136: Gun Battle on the Han
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. ...
Occasional Paper 135: Was Heihachiro Tōgō Japan’s Horatio Nelson?
In this paper Richard Broinowski makes an interesting comparison between Admiral Lord Nelson and Japan’s Heihachiro Tōgō born in 1847 to a samurai family and hero of the battle of Tsushima Strait during which the fledgling Japanese Navy achieved a Trafalgar like victory over the Russian Fleet. ...
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 ...