July 2018 The following is a brief passage from the memoirs of Geoffrey Dobbin who was both a Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve Officer. Geoffrey Dobbin was related through ...
Occasional Paper 31: Captain Edmund Anstice, RN
Occasional Paper 30: HMAS Hobart
Several events concerning the three HMA Ships Hobart come together with a memorial and commemoration service at the Garden Island Chapel on Sunday 22nd July starting at 10.00am. HMAS Hobart ...
Occasional Paper 29: Captain Frederick Melbourne Piggott’s Submarine Service
June 2018 Captain Frederick Melbourne Piggott RD RNR was born in the UK in April 1915 and moved to Australia in 1943 where he trained young men to handle a ...
Occasional Paper 28: Cockatoo Island – An Historical Account
June 2018 Cockatoo Island has a long association with the RAN. The Island has World Heritage Listing and some additional information can be found on our website at https://navyhistory.au/naval-heritage-sites/cockatoo-island. This ...
Occasional Paper 27: Royal Naval House, ‘Johnnies’: Some Personal Reminisces
May 2018 Royal Australian Naval House has always been known affectionately as ‘Johnnies’, although the origin of the name is hard to trace. From 1968 to 1970 a young Able ...
Occasional Paper 26: Salvage of the German Seehunde Midget Submarine
May 2018 Roger Buxton, an active member of the Society’s Victorian Chapter obtained the original, report of the 1945 recovery of a German Seehunde class midget submarine by Lieutenant V ...
Occasional Paper 25: Recovery of German Midget Submarine and Torpedo, Dover, January 1945
April 2018 Report by LEUT J.V.Steele RNVR, DTM(I) Roger Buxton, an active member of the Society’s Victorian Chapter has obtained two original, typed reports of the 1945 recovery of German ...
Occasional Paper 24: Sydney Harbour Minefield
April 2018 Through the Society’s relationship with the Australian National Maritime Museum, stories are shared between the two organizations. The following is an Article from ‘All Hands’ December 2017 edition, ...
Occasional Paper 37: Allan Charles Green [1878-1954], the man behind the Photos
In the State Library of Victoria we have an amazing photographic collection of ship photo thanks to Allan Green. He was born in Daylesford, in the Central Victorian goldfields ...
Occasional Paper 38: RAN Returns to the Unit System of Machinery Layout
After World War 2 the Daring Class destroyer was designed taking into account the lessons learnt for the ships damaged during the war. Many destroyers had been rendered unpowered because ...
Occasional Paper 40: Secret history of the first Australian to be given Penicillin
On Thursday 9th August 2018 the ABC 7.30 Report broadcast a story by Tracy Bowden about the first use of penicillin in Australia. Tracy has given permission to the Naval ...
Occasional Paper 39: Compelled to Resign – The story of Commander Paul Hugill Hirst RAN 1899-1963
by Lieutenant Commander Terry Feltham RAN Ret’d “Just because something ends doesn’t mean it never should’ve been. Remember, you lived, you learned, you grew and you moved on”. Anon. Why ...
Occasional Paper 23: HMAS Darwin Decommissioning
On 8 December 2017 the guided missile frigate HMAS Darwin was decommissioned in a ceremony at Fleet Base East, Garden Island in the presence of former crew and hundreds of ...
Occasional Paper 22: HMAS Advance faces 50
An Article from ‘All Hands’ December 2017 edition The Australian National Maritime Museum Volunteers’ Quarterly Newsletter By Wal Robson The museum’s popular patrol boat has a significant birthday coming up ...
Occasional Paper 21: Battle of the Atlantic: Appeal for £2.5m memorial
Artists Impression of the monument The charity needs to raise £2.5m for the planned monument on the Pier Head A campaign to build a national memorial to the estimated ...
Keeping the Fleet at Sea
A World War 2 propaganda short produced for the Department of Information by Argosy Production Pty Ltd with the Department of the Navy at National Studios, Pagewood, NSW. Shows work ...
Australian Naval History on 27 October 2018
HMAS Brisbane III commissioned at Garden Island ...
Occasional Paper 36: HMAS Sydney (III) Delivery to Australia 1949
Our thanks go to Debbie Irwin for the letter by her uncle, Stoker Mechanician James (Jim) Ashwood of HMAS Sydney (3) to his sister Nancy dated 8 May 1949 about ...
Book Review: Australian Minesweepers at War by Mike Turner & Hector Donohue
Published by the Sea Power Centre, Canberra, 2018. Paperback of 328 pages with numerous black & white illustrations, portraits, tables and maps. The first edition of this publication was sold ...
Letter: Villers Bretonneux Museum – Garden Island Dockyard crest
Dear Editor, Some years ago when I was serving in the office of the Naval Historical Society a letter was received with a copy of a photograph of a Garden ...
Letter: What’s in a Name – Cumberlege
A few emails have been received from learned members regarding the spelling of a family name used in the June 2018 edition of this magazine on Rear Admiral Claude Lionel ...
Book Review: Tobruk and Beyond: War Notes from the Mediterranean Station 1941–1943.
By Albert Lawrence Poland, Published by Halstead Press, Canberra, 2018. Hard cover, 176 pp with b&w illustrations, maps and portraits. Available from booksellers at about $33.00. Peter Poland, the editor ...
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 ...
Naval Cutlasses – an Overview
By John McGrath This article is a complement to that on officers’ swords which appeared in the March 2018 issue of the Naval Historical Review. Like that article, it does ...
The RAAF at Sea before World War II
The following article first appeared in the Air Power Development Centre Bulletin Pathfinder, Issue 175 dated April 2012 and is reproduced with their kind permission. The perspective of our sister ...