The late Arthur Lunan maintained a diary of his service in the RAN from 1941 to 1946. His brother in law William Moody digitised this and added some family photographs. ...
History - WW2
Imperial Japan’s ‘Naval Invasion’ of Western Australia
By Kate Reid-Smith By the end of 1943, Japan’s archipelagic defensive perimeter across the Dutch East Indies was fracturing. Ongoing and successful Allied counteroffensives, on islands closest to the Australian ...
Occasional Paper 131: Destroyer doomed from the start – the rewritten story of USS Peary’s final combat action in Darwin 1942
Discovery of propellers from the ship explains why Peary was the only warship of several vessels to be sunk By Dr Tom Lewis[1] This paper was previously published in The ...
Bougainville
This article forms the final part of a trilogy covering the history of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island. Part 1 discussing the Solomon Islands from European discovery to the ...
Rommel’s Riposte
By Andreas Biermann1 We were recently contacted by the author regarding an article published in a previous edition of the Naval Historical Review in which we incorrectly attributed the date ...
HMAS Sydney 80th Anniversary Commemorative Speech
By Commodore Ivan Ingham AM RAN The following commemorative speech was delivered by Commodore Ingham at the HMAS Sydney (II) memorial in Geraldton, Western Australia on Friday 19 November 2021. ...
Melville Neilson Cumming: An Albany hero known by many names
By David Theodore, Curator, Princess Royal Fortress Military Museum Melville, Skinny or Bob? Over a lifetime a person can be identified by a number of names. From all official documents ...
A/Captain Ross V. Wheatley OBE, RAN: A distinguished officer wrongly criticised
By Hector Donohue and Mike Turner Ross Wheatley was born in Adelaide on 19 December 1900, joined the Naval College in 1914 and subsequently specialised as a hydrographer, qualifying as ...
Tulagi: an Historic Outpost of Empire A little island with a big history
Tulagi is one of more than 900 islands and atolls in the nation of the Solomon Islands, a beautiful archipelago stretching over 1,400 kilometres in the Coral Sea. It lies ...
The Battle of Cape Spada – 19 July 1940 Part 1: The Genesis of Italy’s Light Cruiser Force
By Andreas Biermann Introduction This article is the first of two that aim to provide a new perspective on the Battle of Cape Spada on 19 July 1940, one of ...