The Tinpot Navy 

The extraordinary exploits and unsung heroes of Australia’s fledgling navy during the Great War

By Anthony Delano

Published by Allen & Unwin
RRP $34.99 in paperback * ISBN 9781761472176

Author Anthony Delano has turned to an earlier book, They Sang Like Kangaroos (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2010), reworking his research for a broader readership for this new book.

It was a decade after federation by the time the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) officially came into being.

By 1911, the world was on the verge of the Great War and it would be time for Australia to step up in the Pacific with British naval assets being recalled.

By August 1914, the RAN, in the first week of the war, was tasked with seizing Rabaul, a German-controlled station in New Guinea.

The fact that the RAN came under the control of the British Admiralty during the war saw Australia almost revert to its pre-federation status. Lines of communication were confused and ponderous.

Delano has given us a fascinating insight into the very earliest engagements of the RAN and the important role the navy played, with its limited capabilities, during the war, despite being dubbed unkindly as a ‘tinpot navy’.

VERDICT: A fascinating origin story for those with a keen sense of history.