On This Day
1914-1918 > WW1
On This Day - 1914-1918
- January 6, 1915
HMAS AUSTRALIA, (battle-cruiser), captured and sank the German supply ship ELEONORE WOERMAN north of the Falkland Islands. AUSTRALIA fired a shell across the ship’s bows to stop her. A boarding party from AUSTRALIA later scuttled the vessel.
HMA Ships MELBOURNE and SYDNEY, (cruisers), patrolled the West Indies searching for the German armed merchant cruiser KRON PRINZ WILHELM. The German ship managed to elude these patrols and took refuge in a US port.
- January 2, 1915
HMAS SYDNEY, (cruiser), sailed from Jamaica for Bermuda to search for the German Navy collier ODENWALD.
- January 1, 1915
The following awards were made for gallantry in the action between HMAS SYDNEY, (cruiser), and the German vessel EMDEN, (armed merchant cruiser);
- DSM – CPO A. W. Lambert
- DSM – AB B. Green
- DSM – AB J. Kinniburgh
- DSM – AB H. M. Collins
- DSM – AB W. A. Taylor
- DSM – SBA T. E. Mullins
- December 31, 1914
The Australian submarine AE2 departed Albany, WA, under tow from the transport BERRIMA, for the Mediterranean. The Australian Naval Board offered the submarine to the RN after the loss of AE1.
- December 28, 1914
HMAS Melbourne departed from Trinidad with orders to search the coastal areas of Venezuela, Colombia and Panama for the Karlsruhe and her attendant supply ship.
HMAS Sydney coaled at Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Nine German ships were observed at anchor in neutral Portuguese waters.- December 23, 1914
HMA Ships PARRAMATTA and WARREGO, (torpedo boat destroyers), reached the limit of navigation on the Sepik River, New Guinea, unsuccessfully searching for a German ship.
- December 13, 1914
LEUT Norman Douglas Holbrook, RN, was awarded the VC for outstanding bravery while commanding HM Submarine B11, during the first successful penetration of the Turkish minefields at the entrance to the Sea of Marmara, and for sinking the Turkish ship MESSOUDIEH.
The town of Germantown, (an unpopular name during WWI), in NSW, was renamed Holbrook in his honour. The fin and casing of HMAS OTWAY, (Oberon class submarine), was gifted to Holbrook town in 1982, as a permanent memorial to LEUT Holbrook.
- December 1, 1914
HMA Ships MELBOURNE and SYDNEY, (cruisers), sailed from Gibraltar to join the British West Indies Fleet.
- November 29, 1914
HMAS UNA became the first Australian warship to carry aircraft when she transported two aircraft, and their pilots, from Sydney to New Guinea. The aircraft were not used because the German forces surrendered before their arrival.
- November 27, 1914
HMAS MELBOURNE, (cruiser), entered the Mediterranean on passage to the West Indies Station.
The first naval aviation unit was despatched from Point Cook, VIC, to embark in HMAS UNA for service in New Guinea. The unit was equipped with a Maurice Farman seaplane, and a BE2A landplane.