The RAN’s oldest World War II cruiser, HMAS Adelaide was instrumental in installing a Free French governor in New Caledonia and then went on to undertake the vital work of protecting merchant shipping. But perhaps her ‘greatest naval day’ was on 28 November 1942 when she encountered a suspicious vessel in the Indian Ocean while escorting a convoy. One of her officers of the watch, the then 20 year old Sub-Lieutenant Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Gregory recalled the action in the Summer 2005 edition of the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute.
