Book reviews

By David Stratton, Hugh Farmer and Dennis Weatherall At the end of the War in the Pacific in August 1945 the strength of the Royal Australian Navy was 36,976 men

This paper was written by Society volunteer, Commander Martin Linsley RAN Rtd. Its genesis was a list of the RAN participants in the Suez Crisis compiled by Mike Fogarty a

The following paper was delivered by Captain Ralph T Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) at a reunion (mostly of commissioning crew members and those who deployed to the Vietnam War in

The following is an address given by Captain Ralph T. Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) on Monday 19 October 2015 at the Australian War Memorial. The occasion was the dedication of

The following note was provided by Captain Sean Andrews, RAN Director of the Sea Power Centre -Australia. Thanks also for the link to a short film made by the Sea

By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM – Volunteer Researcher HMAS Assault, also known as the Amphibious Training Centre to American personnel, was a combined operations establishment for training

By Greg Swinden The world is currently combatting the Coronavirus 19 (COVID 19) which originated in China and has now spread throughout the globe. Australia has fortunately been spared, so

The following address was delivered by Captain Ralph T. Derbidge MBE RAN (Retired) at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance to mark Vietnam Veterans Day on 18 August 2010. It describes

The Supermarine Spitfire was the most well-known of the World War II era fighter aircraft but by the late 1940’s was quickly becoming obsolete. In October 1948, 15 ex-RAAF Spitfires

This paper, first published by the Sea Power Centre – Australia provides an overview of the service history of the Bristol Sycamore rescue and training helicopter operated by the RAN

Alan Jones hosted a special feature interview to mark 80 years since Australia joined World War II. On September 3, 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced to the nation that

August 2019 By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM, Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia Subsequent to the recent recovery of an HMAS Australia (1) Gig from bushland at

August 2019 By Florence Livery My father, Panos (known as Pino) George Livery died in 1996. Fortunately for us, he left behind a very rich source of history, his World

July 2019 Early Career Francis James Ranken was born in 1864 at ‘Saltram’, Eglinton, near Bathurst. He was the eldest son of James Australian Ranken and was educated at All

July 2019 There are moments when we first gaze upon a work of art, whether in the pictorial or written form, and are drawn to its beauty and are inspired.

June 2019 In 1970 Lew Lind, Rod Atwill, Alan Payne and myself found ourselves with the responsibility of putting together an association which we were to call the Naval Historical

  A Hazardous Life, by R. K. Forsyth and I. K. Forsyth, charts the stormy life and times of Western Australia’s first Harbour Master. Paperback, 270 pages with many illustrations

Peter Ashley (2005) perhaps encapsulates an apt description of Flinders as a person: Driven, ambitious, sometimes arrogant and occasionally reckless, few navigators had a greater share of misfortune than Captain

May 2019 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.

May 2019 Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Issue 6 of Semaphore, the publication produced by The Sea Power Centre Australia in March 2006. We are indebted to them