On May 12, 1943, I was Captain of an anti-submarine Naval Auxiliary Patrol vessel, commissioned HMAS 539 (Topsy A), a heavy, converted fishing trawler driven by three engines. We were ...
WWII operations
The HMAS Sydney – HSK Kormoran Engagement (November 1941) – Part 2
Operation “Meridian” – Palembang Oil Refineries, 1945
Book Review: Alone on Guadalcanal – A Coastwatcher’s Story
ALONE ON GUADALCANAL – A Coastwatcher’s Story, By Martin Clemens CBE OBE AM MC High on anyone’s list of largely unsung heroes of the Pacific War must come the British and ...
HMAS Sydney Inquiry (Letter No. 2)
A further detailed letter has been received from member James Eagles, ex-RAN Communicator, documenting many instances of the Germans decoding British naval and merchant ship signal traffic in 1941, etc. ...
HMAS Sydney Inquiry (Letter No. 1)
Earlier correspondence from a member concerning an important point of ship recognition vis-a-vis Kormoran and Straat Malakka deserves response. He queries how the Dutch merchantman with a distinctive counter stern ...
Disaster at Bari
Mustard gas in World War II? Let me tell you of the happenings at Bari in Italy on the evening of 2 December 1943. Bari had recently become the main ...
Letters – Loss of sea language
Sir, Reading Roger Puttman’s letter (NHR 20-2) and his shared complaint concerning the loss of sea language put me in mind of an incident aboard Quiberon during Arch Harrington’s command ...
The Sydney – Kormoran Engagement – Part 1
Operation Downfall
Regarding “The Century’s Greatest Untold Story” in Vol. 20, No. 4, although OPERATION DOWNFALL may have been top secret, it was generally known, even in the BPF, that an invasion ...