Navy Victoria Network
Proudly supported by the Melbourne Naval Centre

Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships Association

D.E.M.S     Articles     Gallery

Articles

26 Jul 2017 My Elderly Neighbour Jack
From the book
"Worlds Apart - A Collection of Short Stories"
by Martin R. Oliver
When I was a young boy I was always intrigued by an elderly gentleman who lived a few doors away from my house. Nobody seemed to know much about Jack Taylor. He was friendly enough and always had a smile and wished people a good day or good evening but, generally, he kept himself to himself and appeared to have very few close friends. He was a Rent Collector and could be seen most afternoons or evenings riding around the area on his bike or knocking on doors collecting the tenant’s fees.  Continues.........
04 May 2015 The D.E.M.S.
No it isn’t in the papers - and you do not always know
Where to find the D.E.M.S. - you just address them “C/O - G.P.O.”
For today you can’t be certain, where tomorrow they may be.
For yesterday they were “somewhere” – and the day before “at sea.”
Read the full poem.....
27 Apr 2015 Operation Pedestal
On August 17th each year a Service is held at the Melbourne Shrine in memory of Operation Pedestal.  It was said that Malta was a week or two off having to surrender to the Axis powers, if they did not receive food, ammunition and aviation fuel.  Fifteen of the fastest merchant ships available were assembled off the Straits of Gibraltar.  More.....
20 Mar 2015 D.E.M.S. Gunner First P.O.W. in W.W. II.
(article by Lee Molesworth)
The official publication of the Australian War Memorial, "Australia in the War of 1939 to 1945", Vol 4, chapter 7, under Prisoners of War, states – "The first men of the R.A.N. to be taken prisoners were petty officer H. Jones and able seamen W.J. Hurren and H.C. Sweeny from HMAS Hobart, on 9th August 1940" etc.  In the same set of books under NAVY Vol I page 83, it tells us about merchant vessels sunk by the Graf Spee.  "Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship ratings of the R.A.N.R., who were in charge of the guns of these ships, were the first Australian Naval men to become prisoners-of-war in the 1939-45 conflict."  More.....