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 ...
Ship sinking
The Tobruk Run – The Loss of HMS Auckland
By Andreas Biermann A 1200-ton general purpose sloop about to enter the building program was assigned the name HMS Heron, but was renamed and commissioned as HMS Auckland on 16 ...
The Koolama Incident
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 ...
Able Seaman Russel Caro RAN: A Survivor’s Story
By Tony Caro The December 2020 edition of this magazine contained a tribute to Teddy Sheean, our Victoria Cross recipient. Also mentioned were survivors rescued by HMAS Kalgoorlie, and amongst ...
Occasional Paper 108: Royal Navy Brig HMS Sappho
By Angus Britts Angus Britts is a member and volunteer with the NHSA. He is a qualified historian and has authored two published books: ‘Neglected Skies: The Demise of British ...
MV Ramses – Blockade Runner
By Alan Bourne This paper was prepared by Alan Bourne, son of Herbert (Bill) Thomas Bourne. Herbert was christened Hubert, which he disliked, and he enlisted in the RAN under ...
Occasional Paper 79: The Loss of HMAT Ballarat
The following are personal accounts by soldiers embarked in the transport ship HMAT Ballarat on 25 April 1917. Both stories were published on Thursday 19 July 1917 in the Bendigonian ...
Occasional Paper 59: Francis James Ranken
July 2019 Early Career Francis James Ranken was born in 1864 at ‘Saltram’, Eglinton, near Bathurst. He was the eldest son of James Australian Ranken and was educated at All ...
The German Raider HSK Stier and the American Freighter SS Stephen Hopkins
Many volumes have been committed to the deadly encounter between the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German raider HSK Kormoran. Depending on which side of the fence you sit, this ...
Occasional Paper 35: Loss of HMAS Parramatta (II): First Hand Accounts
September 2018 Recently the Naval Historical Society of Australia was favoured with two handwritten letters from survivors of the sinking of HMAS Parramatta (II) off Tobruk overnight 27 November 1941. ...
The Hospital Ships Buenos Aires Maruand Wah Sui
Was the sinking of hospital ships isolated incidents which could be put down to mistaken identity or were they deliberate acts of destruction by those who had thrown away the ...
Occasional Paper 14: LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory
September 2017 LCDR Mackenzie Jesse Gregory RAN Ret, (9/02/1922- 27/08/2014) was to my mind a fine example of the qualities a Naval Officer needed to have. He could communicate well, ...
Occasional Paper 11: The Remarkable Short Life of HMAS Nestor, The Ship That Never Came Home
July 2017 The following address was delivered Commander Walter Burroughs RAN Rtd during the 75th anniversary ceremony conducted by the RAN on Garden Island, Sydney 16 June 2017. I am ...
Occasional Paper 9: The Sinking of HMAS Armidale on 1 December 1942
July 2017 The following address was delivered by Dr Kevin Smith OAM to members of the Naval Historical Society of Australia in Sydney 18 April 2017. In 1798 at the ...
The ‘Battle’ of May Island
By Laurie Watson In the many memorial services to commemorate the centenary of World War I events, that commemorating the Battle of May Island is very likely to pass under ...
HMAS Patricia Cam
Graeme Andrews, one of our long serving members with a sharp wit and fine pen, wrote an excellent article Cam’s Trawlers first published in the May 2006 edition of Afloat magazine. After ...
The Loss of HMS Glowworm: an Australian Connection
By Greg Swinden War at sea has no intermissions, none of the periods of recovery between advances or retreats that land warfare enjoys, no breaks safely behind the lines between ...
SS William Dawes – A Ship is Burning (1942)
Operation Pedestal and the Tanker Ohio
Memorial: HMAS Canberra lost at the Battle of Savo Island
Naval Action at Darwin – 19 February 1942
HMS Thanet and HMAS Vampire – Malayan Night Action
The Fall of Singapore in February 1942 – Naval Operations
Remains of the Kriegsmarine Handed to the Allies – 1945
Of the heavy ships only the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and the light cruisers Nurnberg and Leipzig remained afloat (the latter a virtual wreck after being accidentally rammed by Prinz ...