CLEARING THE PACIFIC
When the war broke out, the ports of Australasia lay within striking
distance of German harbours, where lay a powerful squadron of
armoured and light cruisers. A very real danger to Australasian
shipping and seaports had to be encountered; and the first warlike
steps taken by Australia and New Zealand were expeditions against
Germany's Pacific Colonies.
At that time they were very considerable possessions, about 100,000
square miles in extent. Chief among them was Kaiser Wilhelm's
Land, or, to give it its British appellation, German New Guinea,
contiguous to the Australian possession of Papua, and 70,000 square
miles in area. Next came the Bismarck Archipelago, better known
as New Britain, a group of islands with an area of 20,000 square
miles. Other colonies were German Samoa, and the Caroline, Marshall,
Ladrone, Pelew, and Solomon Islands. In these colonies were
established wireless stations of great strategical importance to
Germany.
The squadron maintained to protect these possessions was a very
modern and powerful one, as Great Britain was to learn to her cost.
It consisted of the armoured cruisers _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_,
and the light fast cruisers _Leipzig_, _Nürnberg_, and _Emden_. The
units of the British navy on the spot were the three old third-class
cruisers _Psyche_, _Pyramus_, and _Philomel_; and upon these New
Zealand, the Dominion most threatened, would have been forced to rely
if Australia had not been provided with a navy of her own.
That navy had made ready for sea at the first sign of a great
European war, and met at an appointed rendezvous off the coast
of Queensland on August 11. One section of it, consisting of
the battle-cruiser _Australia_, the light cruisers _Sydney_ and
_Melbourne_, and the destroyers _Parramatta_, _Yarra_, and _Warrego_,
set off to the Bismarcks in the hope of encountering the German
squadron. The destroyers, under convoy of the _Sydney_, made straight
for Rabaul, the chief German settlement there, although there were no
charts of the harbour, while the big ship and the other light cruiser
kept watch at a distance.
In the darkness of a pitch-black night the destroyers steamed into
the harbour, and captured all the ships in the bay. Right up to the
pier they steamed, and then out again, having effected their purpose
for the time being. They set out from that point to a rendezvous at
Port Moresby, in Australian New Guinea, while the _Sydney_ returned
to Australian waters. The _Australia_ and the _Melbourne_ made for
New Caledonia, where their presence was needed in aid of the Sister
Dominion of New Zealand.
With the greatest secrecy the New Zealand Government had equipped a
force of 1,300 volunteers from the province of Wellington, for an
expedition against German Samoa. They knew the big German warships
were somewhere in the vicinity, but that risk did not deter them. The
men were sent on transports, and convoyed by one of the antiquated
British cruisers; their first port of call was New Caledonia, distant
five days. Fortune favours the brave, and this was a brave little
adventure, if ever there were one such. But they won out all right,
reaching New Caledonia safely, to receive a joyous welcome from the
_Australia_, the _Melbourne_, and the French cruiser _Montcalm_,
which were awaiting them at Noumea.
Their course to Samoa was now a safe one, comparatively speaking,
and they had the satisfaction of lowering the German flag at Apia,
and hoisting the Union Jack in its place, before the war was a month
old. The warships left the Expedition in possession, and steamed
away. A fortnight later the two big German ships were sighted off the
harbour, and the little garrison had a thrilling experience. They
prepared to defend the place against the heavy guns of the Germans,
but it was not necessary. After some delay the Germans, apparently
fearing some trap, steamed off, and were not again seen in the
vicinity.
Samoa fell on August 29, and on September 9 the _Australia_ and the
_Melbourne_ were keeping another rendezvous at Port Moresby. Their
appointment was with the transport _Berrima_, which, escorted by
the cruiser _Sydney_, conveyed to that port an Expedition launched
against the German Colonies in the North Pacific. It consisted of
six companies of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, under Colonel
Holmes, D.S.O., and a battalion of infantry with machine-guns. With
the _Berrima_ were the two Australian submarines AE1 and AE2, both of
which came to an untimely end before the war was nine months old. At
the rendezvous were the destroyers, a transport with 500 Queensland
soldiers, and store ships and other requisites for such an expedition.
[Illustration: The Australian Submarines AE 1 and AE 2, both lost in
the First Year of War.]
The objects of the expedition were two; they meant to occupy Rabaul,
the chief settlement in the Bismarck Archipelago, and to destroy the
German wireless station they knew to be established somewhere in Neu
Pommern, the principal island in the group. The _Australia_, with
the transports, made straight for Rabaul, which capitulated. The
destroyers, under convoy of the _Sydney_, were sent forward to search
for the wireless station. The first landing party marched straight
inland, and soon encountered trouble. A heavy fire was directed
upon them from sharpshooters, who were so well hidden that it was
suspected they were in the trees; and the Australians were forced to
take to the bush. They signalled for help, and also worked through
the dense scrub until they came upon an entrenched position.
The signal for help brought every available man from the destroyers
ashore; a picturesque touch was added to the reinforcement by the
uninvited presence of one of the ship's butchers, who attached
himself to the party in a blue apron, and armed with his cleaver of
office. This relief party was followed by two others, one landing
at Herbertshöhe to execute a flank movement. The first party had
some stiff bush fighting, in which Lieutenant Bowen was wounded, and
three Germans were captured. When the first two forces joined hands,
Lieutenant-Commander Elwell was shot dead; and they were glad to see
the main expeditionary force, with machine-guns, arrive on the scene
of action.
The machine-guns settled the question, and the German commander,
Lieutenant Kempf, at once hoisted the white flag. With some
Australians he proceeded to a second line of trenches, and ordered
the occupants to surrender. A number of them were taken prisoners;
and then resistance broke out, and they all tried to escape. They
were fired upon, and eighteen were shot in the act of running away.
In the end the remainder were content to surrender.
The surrender of the wireless station was negotiated by Lieutenant
Kempf himself, after giving his parole. He cycled alone to the
place, and announced that he had arranged that there should be no
resistance. Three Australian officers followed him and, placing
reliance upon his word, boldly entered the station late at night.
They found it strongly entrenched, but the natives who formed the
majority of the defending force had quite understood Admiral Patey's
threat that he would shell the place unless the flag were hauled
down, and had no relish for such an ordeal. The next afternoon the
British flag was hoisted over the station.
[Illustration: Rear-Admiral Sir George Patey, commanding the
Australian Squadron.]
The next objective was Toma, a town inland whither the German
administrator of the Colony had fled when the warships appeared
before Rabaul. An expedition against this place, with the complement
of a 12-pounder gun, was accordingly arranged. The _Australia_ paved
the way for this expedition by shelling the approaches to the town,
with the result that a deputation was sent out by the Administrator
to meet the force half-way. The column continued its march without
paying any attention to this deputation, and entered Toma the same
day in a dense cloud of tropical rain.
The Administrator sent another messenger to the officer in charge,
promising to repair to Herbertshöhe the next day to negotiate a
surrender. As the French cruiser _Montcalm_ had now arrived the most
sanguine German could not expect any continued resistance, and the
surrender was signed.
Thus on September 13 all resistance had been crushed in the Bismarck
Islands, and the Colony had been reduced by the Australians at a cost
of two officers killed--Captain Pockley and Lieutenant-Commander
Elwell--and three men. One officer, Lieutenant Bowen, and three men
were wounded.
On September 24 the warships put in an appearance at Friedrich
Wilhelmshafen, the chief settlement in German New Guinea, where no
resistance was encountered. That evening the German flag was blotted
out of the Pacific Ocean, the last of the German colonies there
having fallen to the energetic Australian navy.
Two wireless stations established by the Germans, one at Nauru and
the other at Anguar, were seized and destroyed, to the disadvantage
of the German Pacific squadron against which the Australian navy
now directed its operations, taking a prominent part in the driving
movement which finally committed them to the battle of the Falkland
Islands and their destruction by Admiral Sturdee on December 8.
THE YOUNGEST NAVY IN THE WORLD