By Jonathan Brett Young (This article was first published in NOCN 85, 1 June 2011.) In the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, the villain, Emilio Largo, played by the striking Adolfo Celi, with his snow white hair and black eye-patch, is attempting his getaway in the hydrofoil Disco Volante when a British frigate appears from […]
(This piece of whimsy was first published in NOCN 85, 1 June 2011, in a shorter version. This presentation contains material omitted from the Newsletter one for reasons of space, and in fact includes all the material received without omission.) Very occasionally, something drops into the Naval Officers Club Newsletter’s editorial inbox that has its […]
(This article was first published in NOCN 85, 1 June 2011.) Newsletter 84 published on 1 March 2011 contained a review of Patrick Lindsay’s new-release The Coast Watchers: Behind enemy lines, a book covering the story of the mainly-Australian irregular force which stayed behind in parts of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands occupied by […]
THE WAY IT WAS: Anecdotal reflections on HMAS Nirimba, 1984-1987 By Ralph Derbidge (This article was first published in NOCN 85, 1 June 2011.) Around the time HMAS Nirimba, the RAN’s former apprentices’ training establishment in Quakers Hill NSW, closed in 1993, I was invited to contribute about six lines on any particular incident of […]
Debunking the myth: the rise and fall of the Zero By Fred Lane (This article was first published in NOCN 84, 1 March 2011.) One of the more highly trumpeted intelligence finds in WW II was a near-new Mitsubishi Zero A6M2 Type 0 Model 21 (serial number 4593) that crashed during its first operational flight […]
THE WAY IT WAS: Government House, Sydney under the most recent Naval Governor of New South Wales, 1991-1996 By Ralph Derbidge (This article was first published in NOCN 84, 1 March 2011.) When I look back on my life to date, I have no hesitation in rating my time at Government House Sydney as a […]
THE OLD AND THE BOLD … Stephen Dearnley: survivor, publisher, motorcyclist, yachtsman and boatbuilder (This article first appeared in NOCN 84, 1 March 2011.) Stephen Dearnley’s life has been full of excitement, variety and adventure — yet on first meeting, this calm, courtly and articulate man can seem like a person whose life has […]
THIS IS THE WAY IT HAPPENED … Swan to Shanghai, 1981: Trials of the heavenly duck. By Max Sulman (This article was first published in NOCN 84, 1 March 2011.) During the 1970s there was a gradual easing of tension between China and the West. There were cautious overtures which led to visits to the […]
HMAS Australia, 1911-1924: the first flagship (This article was first published in NOCN 84, 1 March 2011.) Builders: John Brown & Co, Clydebank Launched: 25 October 1911 Commissioned: 21 June 1913; Captain Stephen Radcliffe RN. Displacement: 18,500 tons standard; 22,000 tons full load. Length: 179.83 metres (590 ft) Beam: 24.38 m (80 ft) Draught: […]
