Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force

Between the 10th and 18th of August 1914 an expeditionary force was assembled under the banner of the Australian Navy and Military Expeditionary Force to attack the German Colonies in German New Guinea and Rabaul. Germany had few colonies of worth in the Pacific, but the outposts at Samoa, and New Guinea were strategically important for the German Navy in acting as posts for disrupting the allied shipping in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Further the locations were ideal for the monitoring of radio traffic and gathering intelligence on allied shipping. The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force was raised to remove this threat in the Pacific.

The Expeditionary Force was commanded by Colonel William Holmes, a citizen force officer commanding the 6th Brigade in Sydney as well as the Secretary of the Sydney Water Board. The ground forces comprised of a battalion of infantry enlisted in Sydney, a 500 strong Naval Boarding party recruited from naval reservists and part of a battalion of Queensland forces which had been sent to the garrison at Thursday Island at the outbreak of hostilities. As would remain in place throughout the war, servicemen had to volunteer to serve in the military outside of Australia. All men who took part in the operation were volunteers. After the operation many of these same men were to re-enlist with the Australian Forces for overseas service and were to see action later in Gallipoli and France.

The fledgling Flying Corps supplied two aircraft for the expeditionary force. A Maurice Farman Floatplane and a BE2a, both of which were crated and loaded aboard the H.M.A.S Una. The pilots supplied were Lieutenant E Harrison, an Australian from Melbourne who had learnt to fly in England before returning home and being given an honourary commision in the Australian Military Forces as a flight instructor. The second pilot was Lieutenant G.P. Merz a former graduate in medicene from the University of Melbourne born in Prahran and previously to his Australian Flying Corps service, a member of the Melbourne University Rifles.

The Expeditionary force was required to wait for the escorting capital ships including the Battlecruiser H.M.A.S Australia and the famous cruiser, H.M.A.S Sydney who was to sink the German cruiser Emden off the Coco Islands. The captial ships having escorted the New Zealand Expeditionary force to Samoa, the Force left Sydney on the 19th of August 1914 and met up with the escorting squadron at Port Moresby. While in Port Moresby, Colonel Holmes left the Queensland Militia there, due to lack of equipment and poor training. The Expeditionary force reached Rabaul on the 11th of September, after several small engagments, the Germans came to terms to surrender and by the 21st of September the surrender came into operation. Forty German soldiers and one hundred and ten indiginous peoples surrendered. Australian casualties for the operation were two officers and four men killed and one officer and three men wounded. Sadly these were the frist of many deaths and casualties the Australian Expeditionary Forces were to suffer through World War I.

Due to the speed with which the Australian Forces prevailed in New Guinea, the aircraft were to never come out of their crates, and they were to remain there until 9 months later when they finally reached Point Cook again.