On Sunday 21 June 1981 HMA Ships Melbourne and Torrens were participating in Exercise Starfish 81 in the South China Sea when they rescued 99 Vietnamese refugees, now known as ...
Vietnam War
HMAS Melbourne Refugee Rescue Mission
By John Ingram ‘Oh, hear us when we cry to thee, For those in peril on the sea’. Some of the immortal words of the Naval Hymn composed by ...
Occasional Paper 75: The Vietnam War and the Royal Australian Navy
The following address was delivered by Captain Ralph T. Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance to mark Vietnam Veterans Day on 18 August 2010. It describes ...
Book review: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Royal Australian Navy in Vietnam 1965-72
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Royal Australian Navy in Vietnam 1965-1972. Second Edition. By John R. Carroll. First published in 2013, this second edition has been revised with ...
The Unit Citation for Gallantry of the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam Extraordinary and Gallant
By CDR Ian (Max) Speedy, DSC, RANR With the passing of the years, we tend to forget just how defining the Vietnam War was in so many aspects. It was ...
Book Review: Vietnam The Complete Story of the Australian War
Vietnam: The Complete Story of the Australian War. By Bruce Davies with Gary McKay. Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2012. Hardback, 690 pages with photographs. rrp $55. ‘You ...
Book Review: The Vung Tau Ferry
THE VUNG TAU FERRY – HMAS SYDNEY and Escort Ships (Vietnam 1965-72) By Rodney Nott and Noel Payne 1998 has certainly been a bumper year for Australian Naval histories concerning the ...
The RAN Clearance Diving Team in Vietnam
Farewell to Old Sydney Forever
ALTHOUGH HER DAYS WERE NUMBERED, the shock announcement on July 20th ‘The transport HMAS Sydney is to be paid off. She will be withdrawn from the Australian Fleet and will ...
Australian Naval History on 8 December 1971
The landing craft heavy HMAS BALIKPAPAN, was commissioned. BALIKPAPAN was laid down in Walker’s Yard, Maryborough, QLD, in May 1971, and launched on 15 August 1971. In Vung Tau HMAS ...