Pages tagged with: royal navy

When HMS Achilles opened fire on the German ‘pocket battleship’ Admiral Graf Spee on 13 December 1939, it became the first NZ unit to engage the enemy in the Second World War. Seventy years on, the Battle of the River Plate still holds a special place in this country's naval history.

Able Seaman Joseph Pedersen, RNZN 2337, joined the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1940. In 1942 he was posted to the destroyer, HMS Lookout on which he served in the Mediterranean and in the Allied invasion of Sicily in September 1943 as he describes here.

O'Brien Reeve travelled from New Zealand to England as a volunteer for the Royal Navy.

New Zealand's naval forces and strategy before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Although it was waged half a world away, few military campaigns were as vital to New Zealand's interests as the Battle of the Atlantic. A German victory, which would have severed this country's links with Britain, was one of the gravest threats New Zealand has ever faced.

The outbreak of the Second World War and New Zealand naval involvement in the Battle of the Atlantic.

HMS Achilles joins the Royal Navy's South America Division patrolling the South Atlantic in search of German raiders.

The British cruisers Achilles, Ajax and Exeter engage the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee in battle.

The aftermath of the battle and the return of HMS Achilles to New Zealand.

Eric Krull, the second officer on a Royal Navy Landing Craft, describes the scene on Gold Beach on D-Day.

Troops of the Second Echelon of 2NZEF and sailors of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve parade at Parliament, Wellington, on 27 April 1940, shortly before their departure.

Soldiers on a British warship en route for Egypt

Soldiers on HMS Phoebe after being evacuated from Crete