History of The Royal Australian Navy - World War I

World War I

See also: Military history of Australia during World War I

On 3 August 1914, as the prospect of war with the German Empire loomed, the Australian Government sent the following message to the Admiralty.

In the event of war Government prepared place vessels of Australian Navy under control British Admiralty when desired.

The United Kingdom declared war on Germany the next day, and on 8 August, the Australian Government received a reply, requesting that the transfer be made immediately, if not already done. Two days later, On 10 August, the Governor General officially transferred control of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to the Admiralty, which would retain control until 19 August 1919.

At the outbreak of war, the RAN stood at 3,800 personnel and consisted of sixteen ships, including the battlecruiser Australia, the light cruisers Sydney and Melbourne, the destroyers Parramatta, Yarra, and Warrego, and the submarines AE1 and AE2. The light cruiser Brisbane and three destroyers were under construction, and a small fleet of auxiliary ships was also being maintained. As a consequence the Royal Australian Navy at the start of the war was a small but formidable force.

Australian ships first saw action Asian and Pacific theatre; assisting in the attack on German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF). Germany had colonised the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups in 1884, and the colony was currently used as a wireless radio base, Britain required the wireless installations to be destroyed because they were used by the German East Asia Squadron which threatened merchant shipping in the region. The objectives of the force were the German stations at Yap in the Caroline Islands, Nauru, and Rabaul in New Britain. On 30 August 1914, the AN&MEF left Sydney under the protection of Australia and Melbourne for Port Moresby, where the force met the Queensland contingent, aboard the transport HMAHS Kanowna. The force then sailed for German New Guinea on 7 September, leaving Kanowna behind when her stokers refused to work. Sydney and her escorting destroyers met the AN&MEF off the eastern tip of New Guinea. Melbourne was detached to destroy the wireless station on Nauru, while on 14 September, Encounter bombarded a ridge near Rabaul, while half a battalion advanced towards the town. The only major loss of the campaign was the disappearance of the submarine AE1 during a patrol off Rabaul on 14 September 1914.

On 9 November 1914, the German light cruiser SMS Emden attacked the Allied radio and telegraph station at Direction Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The inhabitants of the island managed to transmit a distress signal, which was received by Sydney, only 50 miles (80 km) away. Sydney arrived within two hours, and was engaged by Emden. Sydney was the larger, faster and better armed of the two, and eventually overpowered Emden, with captain Karl von Müller running the ship aground on North Keeling Island at 11:15 am. At first, Emden refused to strike its colours and surrender; Sydney fired on the stationary Emden until it eventually struck its colours. The Battle of Cocos was the first ship-against-ship engagement for the Royal Australian Navy.

On 6 February 1915, the obsolescent light cruiser HMAS Pioneer joined the East African campaign. On 6 July, she engaged the German cruiser SMS Königsberg and German shore batteries, during the Battle of Rufiji Delta. Pioneer remained off East Africa and took part in many bombardments of German East Africa, including Dar-es-Salaam on 13 June 1916. Pioneer then returned to Australia, to be decommissioned in October 1916.

During the Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign the Australian submarine AE2 became the first Allied warship to breach the Turkish defences of the Dardanelles. AE2 spent five days in the area, was unsuccessfully attacked several times, but was unable to find any large enemy troop transports. On 29 April 1915, she was damaged in an attack by the Turkish torpedo-boat Sultan Hisar in Artaki Bay and was scuttled by her crew. The wreck of AE2 remained undiscovered until 2 July 1998, 83 years after she was scuttled.

Ships of the Royal Australian Navy also assisted the Royal Navy in the blockade of the German High Seas Fleet. In February 1915, HMAS Australia joined the British Grand Fleet, and was made flagship of the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. Australia was not involved in the Battle of Jutland; in April, the battlecruiser was damaged in a collision with sister ship HMS New Zealand, and she did not return to service until June. Three RAN ships were present during the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet; Australia, Sydney, and Melbourne, with Australia leading the port division of the Grand Fleet as it sailed out to meet the Germans.

Expansion during the war had been limited, with the RAN growing to include thirty-seven ships and more than 5,000 personnel by 1918. The RAN's losses had also been modest, only losing the two submarines AE1 and AE2, whilst casualties included 171 fatalities – 108 Australians and 63 officers and men on loan from the Royal Navy, with less than a third the result of enemy action.