By LCDR Desmond Woods, RAN On 4 March this year the Governor General Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO awarded a retrospective Unit Citation for Gallantry to HMAS ...
Australian Units
The 1963 Tragic Whitsunday Whaler Incident
By Kingsley Perry Commander Kingsley Perry (Retd) was a midshipman under training in HMAS Sydney in 1963 when a tragic boating accident occurred in the Whitsunday Group, resulting in the ...
Letter: HMAS Kuru
Dear Sir, I was very interested to read the article concerning the above ship which was included in the September 2013 issue of the Review. My father was Commanding Officer ...
HMAS Hobart – The Skilful Survivor
As told to our Editor by Cyril Rayner The Australian Navy started the war with three relatively modern Modified Leander Class light cruisers. Of these fine ships much has been ...
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 ...
The Importance of Defence Strategy following the Battle of Sunda Strait
By Sub-Lieutenant G. Bateman, RAN Garry Bateman was born in Plymouth on 23 July 1980. His father was a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy serving in submarines. This ...
Letter: HMAS Platypus and the Darwin Blitz February 1942
Dear Editor I have just read G. W. Ireland’s recounting of his experience in Darwin during the first and continuing raids and I would like to add that my father, ...
Letter: Manus Island
Dear Sir, I read Jerry Lattin’s treatise on Manus Island in the June edition of the NHS Review with great interest. My father, Chaplain Patrick Helyer ALCD, FRGS, RAN (Retd), ...
They Also Served – Supply Assistant John Norman Carr Hordern (1924 – 2013)
‘They also serve who only stand and wait’ is the final line taken from the great English poet John Milton’s sonnet on his blindness. In a modern context this implies ...
Manus Memories
By David Mattiske A recent article in the June 2013 edition of the NHR brought back memories to the author who served in HMAS Shropshire during an important shore bombardment ...
Operation Damask: RAN Operations against Iraq 1990-2001
By Sub-Lieutenant D. A. L. Thomason, RAN Danielle Thomason was born in Sydney and raised at Lake Macquarie. She attended Avondale College and attained a Bachelor of Business – Marketing ...
Australian Naval History on 12 December 2013
First two MH-60R accepted into NU SQDN 725 at NAS Jacksonville USA ...
Australian Naval History on 7 December 2013
End of operation RENDER SAFE, an annual, Australian-led operation to help remove the explosive remnants of World War II (WWII) from the South West Pacific during which HMAS Labuan II ...
HMAS Kuttabul Remembered both sides of the Harbour
As the Naval Historical Society was recently represented at similar events on both sites of the harbour our members might be interested in their reports. Unfortunately restricted access to the ...
HMAS Adelaide Memorial Mast Restoration – Two for the Price of One
By Leyland Wilkinson HMAS Adelaide I was a 6 inch cruiser built at Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was originally laid down in November 1915 but was not commissioned until August ...
HMA Ships Kuru and Vigilant
The Patrol Vessel Vigilant was a prototype built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was a handsome vessel and the first ship in Australia built with an aluminium hull and superstructure; ...
HMA SHIPS Kanimbla and Manoora: the final chapter
The two Landing Platform Amphibious class ships HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were respectively paid-off in November and May 2011 and after some time alongside at Garden Island had been ...
Book Review: The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928
The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928 By Andrew Kilsby and Greg Swinden, Longueville Media, Woollahra, NSW, 2013. Available from cooeehistory.com RRP $49.95. On 26 March 1913, HMAS Melbourne, Australia’s first ...
Australian Naval History on 11 July 2013
808 Squadron was recommissioned at HMAS Albatross to fly the MRH-90 Taipan ...
HMS Penguin (VII) and her 64 Pounder Gun
When I first started work at Garden Island in January 1955, there was a small wharf at the southern end of Riggers Lane known as Kuttabul Steps, not to be ...
Going to Sea
By David Simpson David joined the RAN in 1963 as an apprentice at HMAS Nirimba. He served in HMA Ships Vampire, Yarra and Stalwart, paying off in 1974 as an ...
Lombrum: A Personal Memoir
By Jerry Lattin A shorter version of this article appeared in Una Voce, the journal of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, in December 2008. first visited the RAN’s ...
The Admiralty Islands
Previous editions of this magazine have focused on the histories of Cocos, Christmas and Nauru Islands as they formed part of the Government’s Pacific Solution for asylum seekers. This article ...
Letter: Talbot-Booth and Sydney/Kormoran
Dear Editor No one on earth knows what information HMAS Sydney II was carrying in regards to ships’ identities either by book, signal or personal knowledge. What we do know ...
Book Review: Ray Parkin’s Odyssey
Ray Parkin’s Odyssey by Pattie Wright. Published by Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2012. Hardback of 672 pages with over 100 excellent paintings and sketches, rrp $49.99. The story of the ...