Description
Title: Australia’s Bluejackets in German New Guinea 1914
Author: Smith, Neil AM (Lieutenant-Colonel)
Condition: Near Mint +
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 2016
ISBN: 1876179309
Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 65 pages
Comments: The sailors of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force to German New Guinea in 1914 made an indelible mark on Australia’s rich military history during World War One.
They were the first Australians to fight and die in the conflict. They conducted the first bayonet charge and won the first gallantry decorations. Now, the story of these unique Bluejackets can be told and they can at last be identified by name.
The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) was a small volunteer force of approximately 2,000 men, raised in Australia shortly after the outbreak of the First World War to seize and destroy German wireless stations in German New Guinea in the south-west Pacific.
Britain required the German wireless installations to be destroyed because they were used by the German East Asian Cruiser Squadron of Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee which threatened merchant shipping in the region. Following the capture of German possessions in the region, the AN&MEF provided occupation forces for the duration of the war. New Zealand provided a similar force for the occupation of German Samoa.
Signed by Author
