14 December
Haruna named after Mount Haruna, was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the fourth and last battlecruiser of the Kongō class, amongst the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Continue reading “1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launches”
13 December
Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603 – 10 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach the islands of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight the Fiji islands. Continue reading “1642 – Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand”
7 October – On this day
The McCollum memo, also known as the Eight Action Memo was a memorandum, dated on this day in 1940 (more than a year before the Pearl Harbour attack), sent by Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum, in his capacity as director of the Office of Naval Intelligence’s Far East Asia section. It gained notoriety when an author suggested it was part of a conspiracy by the Roosevelt Administration to provoke war with Japan. Continue reading “1940 – The McCollum memo sets out a plan of action in the Pacific”
11 September – On this day
The Battle of Bita Paka was fought south of Kabakaul, on the island of New Britain, and was a part of the invasion and subsequent occupation of German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.
