Sea Fury: Australian War Memorial The RAN Hawker Sea Fury Mk11, airframe number VW232, side number 109, on display in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, has an interesting history. Although painted in 805 Squadron Korean War colours and sporting repairs consistent with possible ground fire, other evidence points to it never having served in Korea. […]
Sea Power: 1788 – 1851 Book review by Fred Lane Padfield, Peter. Maritime power and the struggle for freedom: Naval campaigns that shaped the modern world 1788-1851. The Overlook Press: Woodstock, 2005. 467 pages including a comprehensive index, glossary, 16 pages of illustrations and another nine pages of maps. RRP is US$35, but unmarked used […]
Nicky Barr Book review by Fred Lane Dornan, P. Nicky Barr: An Australian air ace. Allen and Unwin: Crows Nest. 2002. Paperback 281 pp. $16 plus postage. The legendary Andrew W. (Nicky) Barr is well enough known in aircrew circles, but few non-flying Australians know much about his amazing WW II service. This book by […]
National Museum, Canberra The National Museum’s architecture is outstanding. It was with some trepidation that this reviewer recently joined the half million or so annual visitors to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, but it was an experience not to be forgotten. Opened in 2001, the museum’s breathtaking architecture, on the shores of Lake Burley […]
Operation Sea Lion: Tiger or pussycat? Churchill’s version of Operation Sea Lion, (Churchill p. 273). Operation Sea Lion (Unternehemen Seelöwe), a proposed German invasion of England in 1940, was a battle never fought beyond its essential precursor (Unternehemen Adler, Operation Eagle Attack) that included the failed Battle of Britain. Would it have succeeded? Influential authors, […]
Titanic followup letters Cutaway sketch of Titanic. Note the “smoke” from number four funnel. Tom Fisher writes of the Last Log of the Titanic: book review (Newsletter 54 September 2003): The stated fuel consumption of 650 tons of coal an hour must be in error. Southhampton to New York is some 3000 miles. At 22.5 […]
The sinking of Titanic Book review by John Ellis Brown, D.G. (2001) The Last Log of the Titanic. Maine International Marine: Camden. 234pp $36 (used). The many closet Titanic aficionados out there will be fascinated with David Brown’s re-creation of the ship’s deck log for the first watch of 14 April 1912. Brown holds a […]
The Korean War Book review by Fred Lane Catchpole, B. The Korean War 1950-53. Robinson: London, 2000. 368pp, $22.68. Written from the viewpoint of a British National Serviceman, this book gives very detailed blow-by-blow descriptions of most of the important land actions in Korea. The author is clearly Army-aware but he is also very much […]
