Holbrook's latest link to the submarine community is Jim Redwood, now the Coxswain of the spirit of HMAS Otway and OIC SM (Submarine Museum). I understand that he has built two beautiful display cabinets but is dismayed at how VACANT these cabinets look (knowing Jim he made them out of recycled packing cases.

I know that Coxswain Jim has fed and fixed many of those attending SubCon 2001 and I think it is time that we payed jim back for all those years of caring and sharing to his flock. How about digging into those old trunks full of memories that you have been keeping for posterity and donate them to Jim so that they can be put on display for all to see. If you do not want to donate them on a permanent basis I would suggest that Jim may be able to sign for them in the Temporary Loan book. And while you're at it, dig out some photos for Up Periscope, my sources are drying up.

Holbrook's unique link with Submarines began during World War 1, when the town's forefathers believed 'Germanton' was no longer an appropriate name for their town. On the 13th December 1914, Lieutenant Norman Holbrook, RN, had taken the British Submarine HMS B11 on a hazardous journey into the Dardanelles to torpedo and sink the Turkish battleship MESSUDIYEH.

In a primitive petrol engine Submarine, whose battery power limited her to six knots underwater for only one hour, Lt. Holbrook and his crew braved minefields, surface patrols and Turkish artillery. After the successful sinking, B 11, with a shattered compass, scraped along the bottom of the channel literally feeling it's way out.

B11 was submerged for eight hours, unheard of in 1914, with all the crew surviving the mission. Lt Holbrook was gazetted the Victoria Cross (VC), making him the first Naval VC of the war as well as the first Submariner to be awarded the medal. The name Holbrook hit world headlines for the most daring underwater raid during the war.

Back in Germanton, Holbrook was decided as a fitting name by the Council at a meeting on the 24 th August 1915. Norman Holbrook made a number of visits to the town before his untimely death in 1976. In 1982, Mrs Gundula Holbrook donated his medals to the Town.

The unlikely link between the inland farming town and the Royal Australian Navy Submarine Squadron developed between 1986-1992 when Submariners were given Freedom of Entry to the Shire. Holbrook's Shire vision of erecting a fitting memorial to Australian Submariner's has become a reality the following Navy's gift of the decommissioned Otway fin.

In 1995, a Submarine working party was formed to investigate ways of obtaining the real thing and oversee its erection. Finance was the biggest stumbling block. Public spirited people and organisations had raised several thousand dollars. On learning of the Submarine Project, Mrs Gundula Holbrook made an amazing gift of $ 100,000 enabling the project to go head.

Today Holbrook is in the throws of constructing a Museum housing photographs, Submarine components (including a Search Periscope in working order) and mock areas of a Submarine interior such as the engine room, galley and living quarters.

FIMA Sydney refit fin - 2005