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You are here: Home / Archives for Japanese operations

Japanese operations

The Secret of the Battle of Sunda Strait: Secret Japanese Ship Sunk by Friendly Fire

A.N. Other · Mar 6, 2024 ·

By Rohan Goyne The Battle of Sunda Strait is remembered for the loss of the allied cruisers USS Houston and HMAS Perth in a confused night action in the Sunda ...

Thelma’s Story and Recollections of Newcastle

A.N. Other · Dec 27, 2023 ·

Introduction When my wife first went to work at West Pennant Hills Public School in the early 1970s she met Thelma Tame, a slightly older colleague; the two became friends, ...

Occasional Paper 176: A Ship is Burning

Ken Wright · Dec 4, 2023 ·

By Ken Wright As the attractive blonde seventeen-year-old rode her push bike to work on the cold morning of 22 July 1942, the Japanese submarine I-11 had already torpedoed the American ...

Occasional Paper 163: Able Seaman Frank McGovern OAM 1919 – 2023

A.N. Other · Jun 2, 2023 ·

By Commander Steve Youll OAM RAN (Retd) Frank McGovern, at 19 years of age joined the Royal Australian Navy on the 30 August 1939. After initial training he was posted ...

The Big Guns of Tarawa

Editorial Staff · Mar 8, 2023 ·

By Walter Burroughs The December 2022 edition of this magazine contained an article A Lonely and Dangerous Vigil regarding New Zealand Coastwatching operations in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Comments ...

Letter: A Christmas Story

Letter Writer · Dec 7, 2022 ·

In the December 2019 edition of this magazine we ran a ‘Christmas Story’ relating to the naval service of Temporary Lieutenant Ernest Joseph Huson Christmas RANVR. Lieutenant Christmas was in ...

Occasional Paper 133: Operation C – The Indian Ocean showdown between British and Japanese naval might, 4 – 9 April 1942.                                                

A.N. Other · Apr 1, 2022 ·

By Angus Britts Wednesday 8 April 1942 was a day of ignominy for the greatest naval power the modern world had thus far known. Since 30 March the Royal Navy’s ...

Imperial Japan’s ‘Naval Invasion’ of Western Australia

A.N. Other · Mar 24, 2022 ·

By Kate Reid-Smith By the end of 1943, Japan’s archipelagic defensive perimeter across the Dutch East Indies was fracturing. Ongoing and successful Allied counteroffensives, on islands closest to the Australian ...

Bougainville

Editorial Staff · Mar 1, 2022 ·

This article forms the final part of a trilogy covering the history of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island. Part 1 discussing the Solomon Islands from European discovery to the ...

The Koolama Incident

Editorial Staff · Sep 27, 2021 ·

One of the most intriguing wartime dramas occurred off the Western Australian coast in February 1942 concerning attacks made by Japanese aircraft on the motor vessel Koolama. The story of ...

Occasional Paper 119: Darwin, 19 February 1942: a forgotten moment in the history of naval air operations

A.N. Other · Aug 30, 2021 ·

By Angus Britts The Japanese air attacks against Port Darwin in the forenoon of 19 February 1942 were a salient moment in Australia’s modern history. For the first time the ...

The Solomon Islands Part 2: from WWII to Present

Editorial Staff · Dec 19, 2020 ·

This article forms part of a trilogy covering the history of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island. Part 1, discussing the Solomon Islands from European discovery to the Second World War, ...

Finding of Akagi and Kaga focuses attention on Japan’s formidable aircraft carriers
and the Darwin raid

Lewis, Tom, AOM, Lieutenant RAN · May 27, 2020 ·

By Tom Lewis Dr. Tom Lewis OAM is a retired naval officer, and the author of 14 books. Some of this text was drawn from Carrier Attack, published in 2013 ...

Timor Submarine Rescue Operations

Editorial Staff · Dec 24, 2019 ·

One of the most significant rescue operations of Australian military forces occurred after the Japanese had overrun Dutch colonial western Timor in 1942. At this time Timor, seen as a ...

A Christmas Story

Editorial Staff · Dec 22, 2019 ·

The naval service of Temporary Lieutenant Ernest Joseph Huson Christmas RANVR was for a relatively short time and this was mostly overseas. His story is historically interesting but misfortune follows ...

The Naval Evacuation of Singapore – February 1942

A.N. Other · Jun 6, 2019 ·

Singapore – a bastion of the British Empire, an impregnable fortress, fortified to withstand attack and prevent siege. With that in mind, thoughts of evacuation were therefore unnecessary. What the ...

Occasional Paper 41: SS William Dawes – A Ship is Burning (1942)

Wright, Ken · Dec 14, 2018 ·

This account records an incident in the Japanese submarine campaign off Australia and the efforts of the RAAF and VAOC to protect coastal shipping. As the attractive blonde 17 year ...

Lieutenant (SP) H.L. Billman, DSC, RANVR

A.N. Other · Mar 24, 2018 ·

By Hector Donohue Harold Leon (Bill) Billman had a relatively short war in the RAN of just three years, but as a bomb and mine disposal officer he was regularly ...

The Witu Islands – were these the Wolf’s Lair?

Editorial Staff · Sep 20, 2015 ·

P & O’s Pacific Dawn recently completed a two week cruise to Papua New Guinea (PNG) with calls at Alotau (Milne Bay), Madang and Wewak. Unfortunately a low on-shore swell precluded ...

Book Review: Rising Sun, Falling Skies – The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II

Book reviewer · Jun 24, 2014 ·

Rising Sun, Falling Skies – The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II. By Jeffrey R. Cox. Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2014. Hardback of 487 pages with b&w photographs and ...

Cocos and Christmas Islands

A.N. Other · Dec 24, 2012 ·

These small isles to our north represent a microcosm of historical events taking place on a larger world stage. They encompass early exploration, colonial rule, resource booms, communications technology, and ...

Submersible Aircraft Carriers

A.N. Other · Mar 30, 2012 ·

By Driftwood The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines I-yonhyaku-gata Sensuikan completed towards the end of WW11 were for many years the largest and potentially the most formidable submarines ever built. Displacing ...

Battle of the Bismark Sea

Wright, Ken · Dec 21, 2009 ·

‘We Sent the Japs to Hell and There They Learnt to Swim’ In 1942, the involvement of the Royal Australian Navy in operations against the Japanese in Malaya, Java, Timor, ...

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Leadership: Admiral of the Fleet Isoroku Yamamoto

NHSA Webmaster · Jun 4, 2007 ·

Editor’s Note: This essay was submitted as a graduation essay in History at the RANC, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of Lieutenant Desmond Woods, RAN, History Co-ordinator, ...

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Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka and his famous ‘Tokyo Express’

Dunne, Mike · Mar 3, 2006 ·

Admired by friend and foe alike for his exploits as commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 2, Tanaka gained everlasting fame as their greatest leader of destroyer forces. ...

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