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 ...
HMAS Yarra I
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 ...
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 ...
HMAS Encounter (1905 – 1932)
HMS Encounter served on the Australia Station and was later commissioned into the RAN. She played a vital role in defence of the eastern coast of Australia, and the anti raider patrols in the South West Pacific. She was regarded as “more beloved than any other unit of our fleet”. ...
The RAN and the Capitulation of German New Guinea
In August 1914 the Australian government responded with caution to a British suggestion that it might undertake the destruction of the radio stations located in German colonial possessions in the ...
Was Parramatta a Defender and Yarra a Druid, and would Warrego have been at home in Rio?
By Driftwood The massive shipbuilding programs leading up to WWI were dominated by the construction of capital ships. These unsustainable programs involved increases in the national debt of Britain and ...
90 Years on: Rabaul and Sydney/Emden 1914
This article was originally published in ‘Semaphore’, the newsletter of the Sea Power Centre – Australia. It is republished with the kind agreement of the Sea Power Centre. This year ...
Ping Wo’s Golden Secret
HMAS Ping Wo was not the most glamorous ship ever requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy. Described by at least one of her crew as a ‘rust bucket’, the 3105grt ...
The RAN’s Destroyers
Royal Australian Naval Operations 1914
I FEEL THAT THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the Royal Australian Navy should not be allowed to slip away without brief mention of the operations carried out by the Navy in ...
When it all Began – the Arrival of the First Royal Australian Naval Fleet
Williamstown Naval Dockyard – Part 1
The RAN in the Black Sea
IN 1918 the Allies had cast their lot with the White Russians in the savage civil war which was raging in Russia. They offered to give support to any state ...
The Navy in New Guinea in 1914
ON THE 11TH SEPTEMBER 1914, Lieutenant R.G. Bowen, RAN, with 25 men of the left half company of No. 6 Company of the Naval Battalion of the Australian Naval & ...
Corvette Maryborough 1941-1946
HMAS MARYBOROUGH was built by Walker’s Ltd at Maryborough, Queensland and commissioned by Lieutenant Commander G. L. Cant, RAN on 15th June, 1941. Known as the Bathurst class of mine-sweepers, ...
The Submarine AE2 in World War One
HMAS Parramatta: First Born of The Commonwealth Navy
Twins Were Pioneers of the RAN
An announcement that two brothers had been appointed to command sister ships in Australia’s Destroyer Squadron has brought to light the careers of twin brothers who were pioneers of the ...
Australian Naval Aviation – Part 1
THE HISTORY OF WORLD naval aviation began, tentatively, in the lighter-than-air era. As far back as November 1861, during the American Civil War, the Union Army – employing maritime techniques – released the Washington balloon from a remodelled coal barge, the G.W. Parke Curtis, to observe the enemy at Budd’s Ferry. ...
Old Fighting Ships Began Navy Tradition
The Southern Base of the RAN
Australian Naval History on 27 January 1942
HMAS VAMPIRE and HMS THANET, (destroyers) launched a night attack on a superior Japanese force landing troops at Endau, Malaya. The destroyers penetrated the enemy line and engaged vessels on ...
Australian Naval History on 30 September 1929
HMAS Yarra was transferred to the control of Cockatoo Island Dockyard where she was stripped of all useful fittings. Her hulk was scuttled off Sydney Heads on Thursday 11 June ...
Australian Naval History on 4 January 1921
The following ships were laid up in reserve in Sydney: HMA Ships ENCOUNTER, (cruiser), PARRAMATTA, YARRA, WARREGO, HUON, SWAN, and TORRENS, (destroyers), and MALLOW, (sloop). ...
Australian Naval History on 17 March 1919
After their service with the RN is finished HMA Ships HMAS Melbourne , Torrens, Huon, Warrego, Swan, Yarra and Parramatta sailed from Malta for Australia ...