The Military History Society of NSW

Editor's comments from the Winter 2019 issue of the Society's quarterly magazine Reconnaissance , which is available to Society members. Welcome to the Winter 2019 edition of Reconnaissance . This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of that eventful year 1969, which some regard as climactic in the history of the Vietnam War. In honour of the occasion we present a special Vietnam themed issue of Reconnaissance .   Our cover article is by Lieutenant-Colonel (retd) Steve Hart, who served in every commissioned rank at 101 Wireless/7 Signal Regiment of the Australian Army in Cabarlah between 1962 and 1976 and completed a two year attachment to British Army of the Rhine (BOAR) in Germany for Electronic Warfare (EW) training in 1964 to 19 66. He was Commanding Officer of the Regiment when it undertook the first Army EW Courses at Cabarlah   in 1975 and he raised the first EW   Unit, 72 EW Squadron, in 1976. He also undertook a posting to Washington and left the ...

Denis Smith’s talk could also be sub-titled ‘the story of a RAAF fighter pilot with RAF 151 Wing’. It tells the largely unknown story of HMS Argus, the aircraft carrier which transported 24 RAF Hurricane fighter planes to Russia in 1941. Around 3,000 Hurricanes followed in subsequent convoys, promised by Churchill to Stalin. One of the pilots was an Australian RAAF fighter pilot, Denis’s close friend ‘Nat’ Gould. His other nickname was ‘Natski’ after his time flying in Russia. Conditions in the Russian winter were very harsh but when the Japanese came into the war, Nat returned to Australia and flew Kittyhawks at Milne Bay, as well as Spitfires, Seafires, Mustangs, SeaFuries, Fireflies, Vampires and Hellcats to name a few. Denis will be presenting with the assistance of a documentary special film made for prime time Russian TV in 2016 called "Arctic Brotherhood" for the 75th Anniversary of the first Arctic Convoy to Russia. The documentary is dubbed into English. He...

Statement on vandalisation of the Bathurst Boer War Memorial adopted by the Council of the Military History Society of New South Wales at their meeting on 6 July 2019. We condemn the defacement of Bathurst’s Boer War Memorial on 20 June 2019. The memorial is one of the most beautiful and historic in New South Wales. Unveiled by Field Marshal Lord Herbert Kitchener during a visit to Bathurst on 10 January 1910, it commemorates locals who served in the South African (Boer) War between 1899 and 1902. The names of Henry ‘Breaker’ Morant and Peter Handcock were added to the honour roll in the 1960’s, both executed by order of a British Court Martial during the Boer War. The monument is sited in Market Square, a prominent public space in the centre of Bathurst. Most war memorials are typically located in open public areas, like parks, since they are designed to be approached and observed at close quarters. Their principal purpose is to display inscriptions in the form of plaques or h...