HMAS TOBRUK, (CMDR N. Bramwell, RAN), departed Sydney en-route to the Persian Gulf. The ship’s task was to transport equipment and personnel from the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment to Iraq, ...
Australian Naval History on 4 April 2005
Australian Naval History on 2 April 2005
A Sea King helicopter from HMAS KANIMBLA, (landing platform amphibious, CMDR G. A. McGuire, RAN), crashed and burst into flames at Nias Island, off the west coast of Sumatra, while ...
German Prisoners of War in Australia WW2
After the sinking of HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran in 1941, a considerable number of Kriegsmarine survivors were rescued and became prisoners of war. This account details some of their ...
Captain Cook Graving Dock
The sixtieth anniversary of the official opening of the (then) largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere by the Governor General, HRH the Duke of Gloucester, falls on 24 March ...
HMAS Watson’s Freedom of Entry Marks Sixty Years of Service
The premier naval training establishment celebrated its 60th anniversary since commissioning at Sydney’s prominent South Head. The ship’s company of HMAS Watson (Captain Ian Middleton, RAN) marched through Double Bay, ...
RAN Minelaying Effort during WW2
This extract is taken from NHSA Monograph No. 179 ‘HMAS Bungaree – Australia’s only Minelayer’ – which was published in 2003, but has not been widely circulated. The Admiralty suggested ...
Anti-Submarine Defences of Sydney Harbour 1942
The British Officer-in-Charge of Australia’s anti-submarine training establishment warned Navy chiefs, four months before Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour in May 1942, that the defences against such a raid ...
HMAS Castlemaine a ship re-born
Sixty years on, there it was. The unmistakable motion of the moving deck of an Australian Navy corvette under my feet. I always knew they could roll on wet grass. ...
Hitler’s Indian Ocean Grey Wolves
BY MAY 1943, Germany had lost the Battle of the Atlantic. U-Boat losses had reached an intolerable level for the Germans with the loss of 38 U-Boats for that month ...
Australian Naval History on 29 March 2005
An earthquake hit the west coast of Sumatra, (which had been recently devastated by a Tsunami in December 2004). Operation Sumatra Assist II was launched, and HMAS KANIMBLA, (CMDR G. ...
Australian Naval History on 12 March 2005
The frigate HMAS ANZAC, (CAPT Richard Menhenick, CSC, RAN), departed Australia on a six month world cruise, (Operation Northern Trident). During the cruise the ship was destined to take part ...
Able Seaman Harry Mason
Those of us who were fortunate in knowing him will be saddened to learn of Harry’s death earlier this year, aged 93. Harry was an Englishman, obviously from a good ...
Australian Naval History on 27 February 2005
ADML M.W. Hudson, AC, RAN(Rtd), died in Sydney. He was born in 1933 and entered the RAN College in 1947. During his 44 year career he was commanding officer of ...
Australian Naval History on 24 February 2005
HMAS ARUNTA, (CMDR W. Bairstow, CSC, RAN), provided assistance to the Panama registered container ship MV MSC DENISSE that was drifting southeast of Christmas Island with a flooded engine room. ...
Australian Naval History on 22 January 2005
The Anzac class frigate, HMAS BALLARAT, (CMDR S. Hunter, CSC, RAN), ran aground at Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island, while conducting Operation Reflex border protection patrols. BALLARAT was able to ...
Australian Naval History on 13 January 2005
HMAS KANIMBLA, (CMDR Steve Woodall, RAN), arrived at Banda Aceh, (Northern Sumatra), to provide support as part of Operation Sumatra Assist, following the devastation wreaked on the area by a ...
90 Years on: Rabaul and Sydney/Emden 1914
This article was originally published in ‘Semaphore’, the newsletter of the Sea Power Centre – Australia. It is republished with the kind agreement of the Sea Power Centre. This year ...
Sydney’s Anti-Submarine Boom Defences 1942-46
A small, lonely memorial can be found near the water’s edge at the westernmost shore of Green Point at Watson’s Bay, Sydney Harbour, recalling the erection of a considerable seaward ...
The Naval Staff in Retrospect
Why did it always seem to happen? There I would be, thoroughly enjoying myself either flying somewhere or swanning around the Far East in a nice frigate, when out of ...
Miscellaneous Materials
In 1959 as an apprentice Scientific Instrument Maker in the Optical Workshop at Garden Island Dockyard I learnt to use these materials as part of my trade. The use of ...
HMAS Success 2004 – A year in perspective
A summary of the deployments and achievements of HMAS Success in 2004 With 2004 rapidly coming to a close, the keener eyed observer may have noticed a regular absentee from ...
Australian Naval History on 31 December 2004
HMAS Kanimbla II sailed from Sydney for Indonesia via Darwin for Operation SUMATRA ASSIST in the wake of the Boxing Day Tsunami. ...
Book Review: The Royal Navy in Australia 1900-2000
Title: The Royal Navy in Australia 1900-2000 Author: Ross Gillett and Vic Geoffrey Publisher: Maritime Books, Lodge Hill, Liskeard in Cornwall PL 14 4EL, United Kingdom. This is a remarkable pictorial history ...
Book Review: Who’s Who in Naval History: 1550 to Present
Who’s Who in Naval History: from 1550 to the Present By Alastair Wilson and Joseph F. Callo Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, Oxon, 2004. Reviewed by LCDR Glen Kerr, RAN ...