Letecke Museum There is a little-known gem of an aviation museum less than 40 minutes by public transport from Prague. The Letecke Museum was founded in 1968 on historic Kbely, Czechoslovakia’s first air base after the country’s formation in 1918. To get to the museum from Prague, buy a 100-krona (about $5 Aus) excursion ticket […]
Pearling Luggers Museum, Broome A visit to the Pearling Luggers Museum in Dampier Terrace, Broome is illuminating. Timing our visit to coincide with a guided tour, we learn that the West Australian pearling industry started in the 1850s in Shark Bay, then built up quickly, exploiting indigenous, Japanese, Chinese and other nationality divers. By 1910, […]
Running the war in Iraq book review by Kevin Rickard Molan, J. Running the war in Iraq.Harper Collins Publishers: Pymble. 2008. pp.358, $32.99. (Seen at $3.99 on some remainder tables.) Australian Major General Jim Molan’s service in Iraq, outwitting a dangerous enemy and reporting exactly what it takes to fight and defeat violent […]
USS Tiru and HMAS Vendetta by Pat Burnett and Sam Sakker. Footnote by Tom De Voil On the night of Thursday 3 November, 1966 the US Submarine Tiru, on passage north off the east coast of Australia, ran aground at a speed of about 12 knots on the southern edge of Frederick Reef, in the […]
HMAS Fremantle: A young Lieutenant goes west by John Jobson It was late in 1952, as a fully qualified Lieutenant, that I received my appointment as third officer of HMAS Fremantle. She was one of 60 Bathurst class corvettes built in Australia during WW II. Constructed in Brisbane, she was to be recommissioned in Williamstown […]
A man of intelligence book review by Kevin A. Rickard Pfennigwerth, I. A man of intelligence: The life of Captain Eric Nave, Australian codebreaker extraordinary. Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd: Dural. 2006. 304pp., 18 pp. of plates, illustrations and maps. $29.95 paperback. A man of intelligence is the biography of an enterprising and successful Australian Japanese […]
