The Society received the following letter which explains this unusual circumstance. A recent application to the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal has cast light on a hitherto unknown operation undertaken ...
HMAS Nepal and Operation ES – June and July 1942
Navy Training Today
By Captain Mal Ralston, RAN In 1903, the Commonwealth Naval Board was constituted under the Defence Act. One of its first responsibilities was to commence home-based naval training of young ...
HMAS Norman – far from Home
By Peter Nunan Background The N-class destroyers operated in many parts of the globe but HMAS Norman was the only one of her ilk to have made an operational voyage to ...
Climate Change and ‘future wars between nation states’ A Rebuttal
By David F. Flakelar David Flakelar is a retired naval reservist who served as a Weapons Electrical Officer and later in naval intelligence. In industry he worked an electrical engineer, ...
The Albert Medal
By John Ellis Queen Victoria instituted the Albert Medal in 1866 to recognise those civilians who had attempted to prevent the loss of life at sea. A year later the ...
HDML 1321 and what she represents
Java is heaven, Burma is hell but you never come back alive from New Guinea – Japanese wartime saying An eagle-eyed member of our Society drew attention to this short ...
Fifty Years under the Australian White Ensign
With the Australian White Ensign approaching its fiftieth anniversary on 1 March 2017 it is appropriate to reflect on the history of the revered ensign in its various forms with ...
Book review: False Flags – Disguised German Raiders of World War II
By Stephen Robinson. Publishers Exisle, Wollombi, NSW, August 2016. Hardcover, 359 pages with many b&w photographs and good quality maps. RRP $28.00. There is a plentiful supply of publications on ...
Weather Signals
By Leyland Wilkinson I recently came across a guide to ‘Weather Signals at Sydney’ which was produced by the NSW Section of the Ex-Naval Men’s Association and could be purchased ...
Occasional Paper 6: Royal Australian Navy Ships Honour Roll
March 2017 Given the 75th anniversary commemoration events taking place around Australia and overseas in 2017 to honour ships lost in the RAN’s darkest year, 1942 it is timely to ...
Occasional Paper 5: Ken Brown: Service in HMAS Nestor
February 2017 By Warrant Officer Martin Grogan Mr Ken BROWN (aged 95) a retired RAN Lieutenant Commander and World War Two veteran was recently awarded the British Arctic Star. This ...
Book Review: Bravo Zulu: Honours and Awards to Australian Naval People Volume 1: 1900-1974
By Ian Pfennigwerth. Echo Books, Geelong, 2016. Hardcover & Paperback with illustrations, maps and index, 775 pages. RRP from $65. Available through Echo Books at www.echobooks.com.auor from Ian Pfennigwerth at ...
Book review: The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945
By Peter Hennessy and James Jinks, Publishers Allen Lane, 2015, Hardcover & Paperback, 864 pages. RRP from $30. To many people the submarine is a mystery – what do they ...
First to Command!
Commander Norman Hamon Shaw OBE, RAN The first graduate of the RANC to command a warship By Commander Tony Vine, RANR Norman Shaw was born in Perth Western Australia on ...
The HMAS Melbourne-Voyager Collision: A Tragedy that Damaged and Reformed
By MIDN Mollie Burns, RAN – NEOC 54 Naval Historical Society Prizewinning Essay Introduction The collision of HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager remains the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) worst peacetime disaster. Occurring ...
Mine Hazards during Mine Clearance Operations by the RAN
By Mike Turner Awards for Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) operations give some indication of the hazards involved. The George Cross (GC) was awarded four times and the George Medal (GM) ...
Petty Officer Fredrick Harold Harvey and Colombian Naval Service
As told by his son CMDR Vic Harvey, RAN, Rtd Fredrick Harold Harvey was a proud Geordie lad, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s suburb of Benwell, on 13 August 1899. Benwell in ...
The Swimmer/Sapper Attack at Vung Tau 23 May 1969
By Hector Donohue and Jake Linton The following article describes the first swimmer/sapper attack involving CDT3 in Vietnam and is drawn mainly from the recently published book United and Undaunted ...
Petty Officer Fredrick Harold Harvey and Colombian Naval Service
As told by his son CMDR Vic Harvey, RAN, Rtd Fredrick Harold Harvey was a proud Geordie lad, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s suburb of Benwell, on 13 August 1899. Benwell in ...
Meet the Artist: Ian Hansen
The Naval Historical Society was recently privileged to receive a presentation by the renowned maritime artist Ian Hansen. We journeyed far and wide as Ian outlined a remarkable career and, ...
Un Sous-marin Français Construit aux Antipodes A French Submarine built in the Antipodes
By Commodore Bob Trotter OAM RAN (Rtd)1 ‘The year 1866 stood out because of a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon which doubtless has not yet been forgotten. Not ...
Submarines: The History and Future Underwater Warfare
The following article is taken from a feature first broadcast on ABC National Radio on 25 June 2016. It is reproduced with the kind permission of the author Keri Phillips ...
Book Review: Waterline Warships
Waterline Warships by Philip Read. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley (UK) The author is a professional model maker who has been commissioned to build a static waterline model of the Ca class ...
Occasional Paper 3: Tobruk – The Lifting of the Seige
December 2016 December 9, 2016 is the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Tobruk, the port on the north coast of Libya, that proved such a thorn ...
Occasional Paper 4: HMAS Melbourne II
December 2016 By Tom de Voil Introduction I recently had a brief article about HMAS Melbourne, the aircraft carrier, published and consequent on that I was asked to give this ...