I was most interested to read the account in the Naval Historical Review of June 1998 of the sinking of the British battleship Royal Oak. I was in command of ...
Letters – Sinking of Royal Oak
About HMAS Tingira
HMAS Tingira, often called The Cradle of the R.A.N., lay in the middle of Rose Bay from 25th April 1912 until 1927 as a training ship for lower deck new entries. ...
Letters – Australians at Zeebrugge
In the last issue of the Review you published my request for information regarding R.A.N. participation in the raid on Zeebrugge in 1918. Lieutenant Colonel John Bullen of Canberra was ...
Australian Naval History on 12 December 1998
The ANZAC class frigate HMAS ARUNTA, was commissioned. ARUNTA was laid down in Tenix Williamstown Dockyard, VIC, and launched on 28 June 1996. ...
Admiral Sir Victor Crutchley – Award of the Victoria Cross
Napoleon’s Fleet – Found Buried in Seabed off Egypt
CAIRO – Two centuries after a historic battle destroyed Napoleon’s hopes of crushing the British Empire, the French Emperor’s fleet has been discovered entombed in the depths of an artifact-rich ...
The AE2 Graves
In the Baghdad North Gate Cemetery (Iraq) are the graves or memorials of four RAN sailors who died during World War I. Who were these men? How did they come ...
A Brief History of the Royal Marines Buglers
USS Missouri – Final Berth at Pearl Harbor
The two ships that marked the beginning and the end of World War II for the US were linked yesterday, as the USS Missouri arrived at Battleship Row in Pearl ...
Captain Harvey Newcomb RN – Newcomb Building, HMAS Watson
On October 28, 1997 the Royal Australian Navy’s Surface Warfare School Building was formally renamed the “Newcomb Building”, commemorating the service of Captain Harvey Mansfield Newcomb. At the end of ...
History of the “Consuela” Figurehead at Garden Island
Nelson’s coffin – Yet another version
Here is another version of the story of Nelson’s Coffin: Captain Hallowell sent a party to salvage wood from L’Orient. Months later, when he was afraid that the adulation being ...
Australian Naval History on 14 November 1998
The Royal Australian Navy’s first female pilot, Sub Lieutenant Natalee McDougall, RAN, graduated from the Australian Defence Academy’s helicopter training facility after 17 months of intensive classroom and practical training ...
The Nelson Touch – a Trafalgar Day address
[Trafalgar Day Address 1997 to the Naval Officers’ Association, Western Australia, by Captain John Lancaster AM RAN (Ret’d)] Trafalgar Day provides the embodiment of what in our waning years, we may ...
Book Review: Shipmates
Many of our readers will be familiar with Vic Cassells as the author of “For Those in Peril“, which chronicled the loss of RAN ships and men in past conflicts. ...
Letters – Unacknowledged heroes
I have read with interest the comments in the Naval Historical Review on HMAS YARRA and Leading Seaman Taylor’s heroic action. I also believe this last action of YARRA’S has ...
Letters – The Senior Service
Which Service Came First? “Snow” Mackrell, a member, has forwarded some correspondence concerning his contention that the Navy is the “Senior Service” as, “after Federation, it was the Navy which ...
Letters – HMAS Brisbane oil
I refer to your request on page 3 of the June 1998 issue of the Naval Historical Review for information about the nature of the oil carried by HMAS Brisbane. ...
Letters – Japanese surrender in Timor
There was a uniqueness about the RAN involvement in the Japanese surrender ceremonies in Timor, raised in Peter Evans’s (Fairmile Association) letter in REVIEW Vol 19 No. 2 when he ...
The Greek Campaign 1941
The debate will never cease on the wisdom or otherwise of the decision by Churchilll’s war cabinet to send troops to assist the Greek Army in 1941. Field Marshal Earl ...
The launch of HMAS Warramunga II
[Extracts from a letter from Marsden Hordern: …I was recently on Three Hammock Island with the 87 year old John Alliston – you may have read his book, “Destroyer Man‘ ...
What flag was that?
Amid the saga of events in Jakarta over recent times, the red over white horizontal halves of the flag of the Republic of Indonesia have figured in high prominence. Displayed ...
The raid on St Nazaire 1942
1942, and the British were clinging on while their convoys were only just getting enough supplies through to keep the people and the war effort going. But on the Biscay ...
Obituary: Admiral Sir Victor Smith AC, 1913-1998
Named for his uncle, the famous Australian cricketer Victor Trumper, Admiral Sir Victor Smith, who has died in Canberra at the age of 85, was the first RAN officer to ...
Radar Equipment, HMAS Shropshire
When “Shropshire” was being prepared in England for handing over to the RAN in 1942/43 she was fitted out with a full complement of the current RN equipment. (This is ...