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 ...
Anti-Submarine Measures from World War I
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 ...
Australian Naval History on 25 June 2005
HMAS Darwin returned to Fleet Base West, Garden Island in Western Australia after operations in the Middle East region ...
Australian Naval History on 24 June 2005
The Armidale class patrol boat HMAS ARMIDALE, (LCDR A. Maher, RAN), was commissioned. ARMIDALE was laid down in Austral Shipyard, Fremantle, WA, and launched on 21 January 2005. Ms J. ...
Australian Naval History on 23 June 2005
HMAS Tobruk (II) returned to Sydney after operations in the Middle East region under Operation CATALYST. HMAS Tobruk transported 20 Australian Army ASLAV vehicles for operations in Iraq. HMAS Cessnock II ...
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
Australian Naval History on 23 May 2005
HMAS Newcastle departed for the Middle East region on Operation CATALYST. Newcastle’s deployment was the Navy’s 34th individual ship deployment to the Middle East region since 1990 ...
Australian Naval History on 4 April 2005
HMAS TOBRUK, (CMDR N. Bramwell, RAN), departed Sydney en-route to the Persian Gulf. The ship’s task was to transport equipment and personnel from the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment to Iraq, ...
Australian Naval History on 2 April 2005
A Sea King helicopter from HMAS KANIMBLA, (landing platform amphibious, CMDR G. A. McGuire, RAN), crashed and burst into flames at Nias Island, off the west coast of Sumatra, while ...
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 ...
Australian Naval History on 29 March 2005
An earthquake hit the west coast of Sumatra, (which had been recently devastated by a Tsunami in December 2004). Operation Sumatra Assist II was launched, and HMAS KANIMBLA, (CMDR G. ...