This quick guide outlines some significant military
anniversaries during 2024. In particular, it will focus on the 110th anniversary
of the beginning of the First World War and the 80th anniversary of events in
1944. It does not deal with anniversaries
such as Anzac Day and Remembrance Day that are commemorated every year.
First World War
On 4 August 1914, Britain declared war against Germany, the first of 4 declarations
of war; the
second was against Austria-Hungary on 12 August 1914; the third against Turkey
(as it was known then) on 5 November 1914; and the fourth against Bulgaria on
15 October 1915.
Parliament
was not sitting during the period in which war broke out in Europe, having
had been prorogued on 27 June 1914 and then dissolved during July of that year.
A double dissolution election was held on 5 September 1914 leading to the
election of the Fisher ALP Government.
The Governor-General had been informed on 30 July that war
was imminent, but the Australian Government, like the other parts of the
British Empire, was not consulted about the decision to declare war. Regardless,
most Australians would probably have agreed with Prime Minister Joseph Cook
who said:
If there is to be a war, you and I shall be in it. We must be
in it. If the old country is at war, so are we.
By 1915, Australian forces would be at war in the Dardanelles,
but during the remaining months of 1914 the war was considerably closer to
home.
Bitapaka,
11 September 1914
Australia’s war started in German New Guinea between 9
and 11 September 1914 when personnel from the Australian
Naval and Military Expedition Force (AN&MEF) landed at Rabaul and
Kabakaul Bay with the intention of forcing the surrender of the German
authorities in the colony, thus preventing the use of its facilities by the
German navy.
The Kabakaul party headed down the Bitapaka Road in search
of a German wireless station that was known to be in the area and it was here
that the first casualties of Australia’s war occurred. The advancing
Australians met a group of Melanesian soldiers under the command of German
officers, with one of the Germans, Sergeant Major Mauderer, wounded in the hand
(later amputated without anaesthetic).
In the somewhat confused fighting on the road and in the
surrounding jungle Australia suffered a number of casualties with Able Seaman William Williams
of Northcote (Victoria) becoming the first death of the war. Captain Brian Pockley of
the Australian Army Medical Corps treated both Mauderer and Williams and was
himself killed in the fighting, becoming the first Australian officer killed
during the war.
The attack on the wireless station also resulted in
Lieutenant Bond winning the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). The citation reads:
On 11th September, 1914 during the attack upon the wireless
station, Bita Paka, German New Guinea, Lieutenant Bond displayed conspicuous
ability and coolness under fire in leading his men through most difficult
country and enforcing the terms of surrender whilst drawing off an attack by
another body of the enemy. He showed great daring, when accompanied by only one
officer and one man, in suddenly disarming eight Germans in the presence of
twenty German native troops drawn up under arms, all of whom were marched off
and held prisoners. Later he personally captured five armed natives.
The wireless station was captured, albeit damaged, for the
loss of 7 Australian lives. One German officer and thirty Melanesian troops
were also killed. The German Governor surrendered the colony on 17 September
1914.
Further reading
G. Swinden, ‘First to Fight! The Australian Naval and
Military Expeditionary Force and the Capture of New Guinea’, The Navy 71,
no. 2 (April–June 2009).
C. Coultard-Clark, ‘Bitapaka’,
in Where Australians Fought: The Encyclopaedia of Australia’s Battles, 2nd
ed. (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2001), 96–97.
S. Mackenzie, ‘The Australians at Rabaul:
The Capture and Management of the German Possessions in the South Pacific’,
in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–18, volume X (Canberra:
Australian War Memorial, 1934).
AE1
The loss of Australia’s first submarine AE1 on 14
September 1914 while patrolling off the coast of New Guinea resulted in the
death of all 35 crew members. AE1 was Australia’s first submarine and was
almost new at the time of her loss, having been built by Vickers in its shipyard
at Barrow-in-Furness (UK) during 1913.
During September 1914 AE1 was part of the forces taking
part in the capture of German New Guinea. On the day of her loss, she was
patrolling with the destroyer HMAS Parramatta (I) in St George’s
Channel to the south and east of the Duke of York Islands. The 2 vessels became
separated during the afternoon and AE1 was never seen again. The wreck of AE1
was found on 20 December 2017 by a team comprised of the Silentworld
Foundation, the Australian National Maritime Museum, Find AE1 Ltd, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN)
and Fugro, N.V. The
process by which AE1 was located has been described by Peter
Briggs.
Experts from the Australian
National Maritime Museum assessed the images of the submarine and stated
that it is possible that a ventilation valve which was open to allow air into
AE1 in the warm conditions around New Guinea malfunctioned or was not properly
closed when the submarine dived. This would have allowed water into the engine
room, causing AE1 to sink below her crush depth of 100 metres.
Cocos
Islands – Emden, 9 November 1914
The German light cruiser SMS Emden
had commenced raiding allied shipping in the Indian Ocean almost as soon as war
was declared. On 9 November 1914, the Emden arrived at the Cocos Islands
intent on destroying the wireless station on Direction Island and cutting one
of the underwater communications cables that linked Australia to Great Britain.
Unbeknown to the Emden’s captain, Carl von Muller, the first troop
convoy to leave Australia was only 80 kilometres from the Cocos Islands and
HMAS Sydney was excused from escort duties in order to investigate.
The Emden sailed out to meet the larger and faster Sydney,
but 90 minutes later the
battle was over and the Sydney’s Captain John Glossop was able to
signal ‘Emden beached and
done for’.
Glossop
later described the action in somewhat colourful terms:
My God, what a sight! Her captain had been out of action ten
minutes after the fight started from lyddite fumes, and everybody on board was
demented – that’s all you could call it, just fairly demented – by shock, and
fumes, and the roar of shells among them. She was a shambles. Blood, guts,
flesh, and uniforms were all scattered about. One of our shells had landed
behind a gun shield, and had blown the whole gun-crew into one pulp. You
couldn’t even tell how many men there had been. They must have had forty
minutes of hell on that ship, for out of four hundred men a hundred and forty
were killed and eighty wounded and the survivors were practically madmen. They
crawled up to the beach and they had one doctor fit for action; but he had
nothing to treat them with – they hadn’t even got any water. A lot of them
drank salt water and killed themselves. They were not ashore twenty-four hours,
but their wounds were flyblown and the stench was awful – it’s hanging about
the Sydney yet. I took them on board and got four doctors to
work on them and brought them up here.
Further reading
R. Nichols, ‘Emden
Beached and Done For’, Wartime (Spring 2001).
M. Carton, First Victory: 1914 (North Sydney:
Random, 2013).
The first convoy of Australian
troops leaves Australia on 1 November 1914
The first contingent of the Australia Imperial Force (AIF)
set sail for Europe from Albany in Western Australia on 1 November 1914. The
convoy consisted of 38 transport ships (as well as a further 10 from New
Zealand) escorted by 7 warships. While in transit, the troops were ordered to
disembark in Egypt where they formed into the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps.
Further reading
Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘First
Convoy of Australian Troops in World War I’,
Anzac Portal, 2 September 2021.
Department of Veterans’
Affairs, ‘Transport
of Australians to War Zones in World War I’, Anzac Portal, 24
February 2022.
Peter Burness, ‘Going
to War in 1914’, Wartime (Spring 2014): 20–24.
Second
World War
Shaggy
Ridge, New Guinea, 19–31 January 1944
Shaggy Ridge is a long ridge line which is the highest
part of the Finisterre Ranges in what was then north-eastern New Guinea. It was
steep and difficult terrain and during December 1943 and January 1944 it was
the scene of intense fighting as the attacking Australians pushed towards the northeast
coast attempting to wrest the Huon Peninsula from the Japanese. During the
second half of January 1944 the 18th Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Frederick
Chilton, took part in Operation Cuthroat. The aim of this operation was to
capture the Kankiryo Saddle, at the northern end of the Ridge. The Japanese
defenders contested this advance with great vigour. When the 18th had taken
Kankiryo Saddle, the Japanese continued to fight from Crater Hill, which
overlooked the saddle. By this time, they were all but surrounded, and by 31
January those who had not been killed or wounded, retreated. The 18th Brigade suffered
46 deaths and 147 casualties. The Japanese are thought to have suffered up to
500 casualties.
Further reading
C. Coultard-Clark, Where Australians Fought: The Encyclopaedia
of Australia’s Battles, 2nd ed. (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2001), 245–246.
D. Dexter, The
New Guinea Offensives (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1961), 680–755.
Australian War Memorial website, Shaggy Ridge Operations.
Department of Veterans’ Affairs, To
Shaggy Ridge, Australia’s War 1939–45.
Phillip Bradley, The Battle for Shaggy Ridge:
The Extraordinary Story of the Australian Campaign Against the Japanese in New
Guinea’s Finisterre Mountains in 1943–44 (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin,
2021).
Cowra – Japanese
prisoner breakout, 5 August 1944
On 5 August 1944, Japanese prisoners of war housed at the
detention camp in Cowra (NSW) attempted to break out. Many of the POWs were
armed and the guards opened fire on the would-be escapees. Some 231 prisoners
were killed, along with 4 Australians.
Further reading
National Archives of Australia factsheet 198: ‘Cowra Breakout,
1944’.
Harry Gordon, Die Like a Carp! The Story of the Greatest
Prison Escape Ever (Stanmore: Cassell, 1978).
Steve Bullard, Blankets
on the Wire: The Cowra Breakout and its Aftermath, Australia Japan
Research Project (Australian War Memorial, 2006).
C. Coultard-Clark, Where Australians Fought: The Encyclopaedia
of Australia’s Battles, 2nd ed. (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2001), 246–247.
Leyte Gulf,
October 1944
Few Australian ground forces played a part in the campaign
to reclaim the Philippines from the Japanese, which took place from October
1944. The Australia Government and General Douglas MacArthur had been unable to
reach an agreement about the involvement of Australian troops, with MacArthur
wanting 2 Australian Divisions strictly under his control and the Curtin Government unwilling to cede so much control.
As a result of this lack of agreement, Australia’s main
involvement in the campaign to retake the Philippines was through the RAN and
the Royal Australian Air force (RAAF). Many of Australia’s casualties in the
campaign to retake the Philippines were the result of kamikaze attacks and of
these, the majority were on the Country Class heavy cruiser HMAS Australia. The
losses included HMAS Australia’s outstanding commanding officer, Emile
Dechaineux.
The Americans decided that the initial attack would be at
Leyte because they had identified that Japanese defences were weak there. The
target date, named ‘A day’, was set for 20 October 1944.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs provides some
background to Australian involvement on its Australia’s
War 1939–45 website:
As the naval invasion fleet approached Leyte, at its
forefront was a hydrographical survey group plotting and marking the approaches
to the beaches. It included the Australian frigate HMAS Gascoyne and
Fairmile motor launch HDML 1074 laying buoys to mark the approach
channels. The ships that followed delivering American troops included the three
Australian landing ships, or LSIs (Landing Ships, Infantry), HMA Ships Kanimbla,
Manoora and Westralia. As well as the Americans on board, they
carried landing craft to ferry the troops ashore. On board also were several
Australian soldiers who served in landing craft liaison teams. Protecting the
force were many more Allied warships including the Australian cruisers HMA
Ships Australia and Shropshire and the destroyers HMA Ships Arunta
and Warramunga. The warships bombarded enemy positions on the shore
before sailing further out to sea to protect the flanks of the invasion fleet.
In the days that followed, the Allied ships endured repeated
air attacks as the Japanese reacted to the landing. The Australia became
the first Allied warship struck by a kamikaze
(suicide) aircraft when it was rammed on 21 October. Thirty of Australia’s
crew, including Captain Emile Dechaineux DSC, were killed or died of wounds.
Another 64 men, including a soldier who was a member of a liaison team from the
Army’s 1st Australian Naval Bombardment Group, were wounded; 26 of
these were classified as seriously wounded with burns and shrapnel wounds.
Badly damaged, the Australia was escorted out of the battle area by the Warramunga
for repairs. The Shropshire and Arunta stayed on battle station
and took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, part of the wider Battle of
Leyte Gulf, in which the Allied naval forces defeated the Imperial Japanese
Navy’s attempt to attack the invasion fleet.
At this point, kamikaze attacks were a new development in
the war and undoubtedly a shock to those on board the vessels being attacked.
The Nichols article below captures some of this:
On the morning of 21 October, Trafalgar Day, a Japanese Val
dive bomber suddenly appeared between Shropshire and Australia. Australia had
just weighed anchor, making ready to provide fire support for the Americans
ashore. Captain Nichols in Shropshire reports what happened next: During the
dawn stand-to a low aircraft approached from the land between Australia and
Shropshire. It was taken under fire and retired to the westward. Observers in
Shropshire report that the aircraft was hit and touched the water but
recovered. It then turned east again and although under heavy fire, passed up
the port side of Australia, and crashed into the foremast at [6.05 am].
Lieutenant Commander Richard Peek, Australia's gunnery
officer, was on the bridge at the time. He called to Captain Emile Dechaineux,
"Just look at this. She's aiming for us." The Val was heading
straight for the bridge and the safety training stops on the 4 inch guns and
the pom poms prevented their firing till the aircraft had dropped to an angle
of about 30 degrees. By that time it was over the stern. Its cannon played over
the upper deck, causing many casualties. According to one observer on
Australia, the gun crews "engaged the enemy with no appreciable result,
although the pilot's aim was slightly upset, so that he hit the foremast with
his wing root and went over the side, instead of falling on board and adding to
the fires." But its petrol tanks had exploded, soaking those on the
bridge. Commodore John Collins, commander of the Australian Squadron, suffered
bums and other wounds; Dechaineux and the navigator, Commander John Rayment,
were mortally wounded.
In all, 30 officers and men were killed or died of wounds,
with 64 wounded, 26 of these seriously. Many of the men were badly burnt, and
almost unrecognisable. The luckiest survivors were two men in the crow's nest
when the plane struck it just a metre below them. The explosion cut away two of
the legs supporting it, and bent the mast back. Neither was injured.
Further reading
Robert Nichols, ‘The First Kamikaze Attack?’, Wartime
28, (1 October 2004).