- Author
- Wright, Ken
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, History - WW1, WWI operations
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2009 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
From the beginning of recorded history until now, war has been the curse of mankind and by its very nature means the death of many of the combatants and the non-combatants who are caught up in the conflict. Apart from religious or patriotic fanatics, no one who fights for their respective nation wants to die. Most however, are realistic enough to understand that there is a chance they may never return to their loved ones or even to their homeland.
The First World War of 1914-1918 was, at the time, supposed to be the war that would end all wars. For the sheer scale of death and destruction, it was horrendous. It was like a sausage machine. Millions of live men were fed into it and it did nothing but churn out corpses in a conflict that was, as history has shown, not the war to end all wars. ((The famous novelist and poet Robert Graves originally wrote the description of the world of trench stalemate the First World War was to become.))It was only 21 years later that the world was once again engulfed in conflict. The only lesson mankind has learnt so far from more than two thousand years of killing each other is how to do it more efficiently. Fortunately, a good percentage of the survivors’ experiences and the various battles have been historically recorded. Future generations may – and the emphasis is on ‘may’ – learn something from past mistakes and hopefully, appreciate the sacrifice made by those who fought. But what of those who leave no personal records, books, and letters or are written about in history books. They are just so many grains of sand on a bloodstained beach. Who will remember and thank them?
Take for example two men from Australia who volunteered to join the army. There is nothing special about them nor are they related. They were just two ordinary men caught up in a situation not of their making and they died thousands of miles apart, fighting for King and country and for a cause they believed was a just one. They are both buried far from home, alone and separated in death from those who cared for them. Their passing is possibly representative of all the forgotten victims of that senseless war long ago.
On 4 August 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany, followed by the Commonwealth of Australia the next day. The British government wasted no time in requesting the Australian government as ‘a great and urgent imperial service’ to seize and destroy the German wireless stations in the south–west Pacific. Included in the message was a request that any territory occupied by this expedition was to be held at the disposal of the Imperial government for the purposes of the peace settlement. ((Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 Vol. X. The Australians at Rabaul, S.S. Mackenzie, 1927.)) The New Zealand government was also asked for action against the Germans on Samoa. Great Britain wanted the wireless installations to be destroyed because they were used by the German East Asian Cruiser Squadron of Vice Admiral Maximillan von Spee which threatened merchant shipping in the region.
AN & MEF
Both the Australian and New Zealand governments agreed to the British request and in Australia, moves were made to raise a special mixed force to be known as the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. The AN&MEF was assembled under Colonel J.G. Legge and comprised one battalion of infantry (1000 men) enlisted in Sydney plus 500 naval reservists and ex-sailors who would serve as infantry. Another battalion of militia from northern Queensland, which had been hurriedly dispatched to garrison Thursday Island, contributed 500 volunteers to the force.
Under the command of Colonel William Holmes, the AN&MEF departed Sydney aboard the liner Berrima and stopped at Palm Island off Townsville until the New Zealand force, escorted by the battle cruiser HMAS Australia, the cruiser HMAS Melbourne and the French cruiser Montcalm, occupied Samoa on 30 August. The AN&MEF then moved to Port Moresby where they met the Queensland contingent aboard the transport Kanowna. The force then sailed for German occupied New Guinea on 7 September but the Kanowna was left behind when her stokers refused to work.
Off the eastern tip of New Guinea, the Berrima rendezvoused with Australia and the light cruiser HMAS Sydney plus some destroyers. Melbourne had been detached to destroy the wireless station on Nauru. The task force reached Rabaul on 11 September and found the port free of German forces. Sydney and the destroyer HMAS Warrego landed small parties of naval reservists at the settlements of Kabakaul and Herbertshöhe south west of Rabaul. These parties were reinforced firstly by sailors from Warrego and later by infantry from Berrima. In fighting at Kabakaul the first Australian fatality from enemy action is believed to be Able Seaman W. G. V. Williams who was mortally wounded and died the same day. By nightfall, the small German garrison had surrendered.