AE1 Remembered

Ninety six years ago, on 14^th September 1914, the newly commissioned Royal Australian Navy submarine, the AE1, was lost with all hands aboard perishing.
The AE1 and the AE2 were launched in May 1913 and commissioned into the Australian Navy in the United Kingdom on 28 February 1914.

Photo: Royal Australian Navy submarine AE1
[Australian Department of Defence]

The Australian War Memorial states: At the outbreak of the First World War, the AE1 and the AE2 were sent from Sydney to German New Guinea with the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force and helped to capture the German colony. On 14 September, a day after the official German surrender of the colony, the AE1, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Thomas Besant, left Rabaul harbour to patrol Cape Gazelle, and never returned. The fate of the submarine was never known, but it is probable that the submarine was caught on a coral reef and sunk.

Present day members of the Australian Defence Forces paused during a recent deployment to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea as part of Pacific Partnership 2010 to allow the ship’s company and embarked forces onboard HMAS Tobruk to remember the lost submariners of AE1. The chance to honour the sailors so close to their last known position was a special event for the Australian Defence Force personnel onboard Tobruk.

Photo: Commanding Officer HMAS Tobruk, Commander Paul Scott (left) and United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Bill Lance (back left) lay wreaths in waters off the coast of Duke of York Islands during a memorial service for the loss of AE1.
[Australian Department of Defence]

The following press release was issued by the Department of Defence: HMAS Tobruk sailors pause to remember lost WWI submariners

HMAS Tobruk Ship’s Company and embarked forces have commemorated the 96^th anniversary of the loss of Australian World War I submarine AE1 and its 35 man crew on 14 September 1914, by laying wreaths at sea.
The ceremony was held on 11 September as Tobruk passed through the last known position of the AE1, following a recent deployment to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea as part of Pacific Partnership 213010.
“The opportunity to honour these sailors so close to their last known position was a special event for the Australian Defence Force personnel onboard Tobruk, said Commanding Officer, Commander Paul Scott.

Photo: Musician 3rd Class Colleen Cave sounds the last post as Australian Defence Force, United States Navy and Papua New Guinea Defence Force members salute in honour of the men of AE1 who were lost with all hands in the vicinity of Duke of York Islands during a memorial service on the flight deck of HMAS Tobruk.
[Australian Department of Defence]

“The men of AE1, along with the sailors and Officers of AE2 had completed the longest journey ever conducted by a Submarine at the time when they delivered the newly built boats to Sydney from England. Not long after, the crew of AE1 was sent to Rabaul as part of Australia’s World War I effort against the German Pacific Fleet: where they went missing,” Commander Scott said. 
“The sea remains an unforgiving, dangerous environment, even more so during war. The chance to honour our first generation of Submariners in this way is particularly poignant; their exact location may be unknown but their contribution and sacrifices will not be forgotten.” 
The memory of the tragedy is especially hard for the families of the lost submariners said AE1 Incorporated spokesperson Dr Kathyrn Spurling.
“For generations of relatives of the 35 crew there has been no closure. We need to honour these men for their service and sacrifice and this means finding AE1 and resolving how they died,” she said.
“The disappearance of AE1 was Australia’s first naval tragedy and the 96 year old mystery remains unresolved.” Dr Spurling said.

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Amongst the 35 crew members who were lost was 1138 Able Seaman Jack Jarman from St Kilda, Melbourne Victoria. 

Photo: Able Seaman Jack Jarman
with a young woman thought to be his sister.
[AWM P09222.001]

Jack Jarman was born on 11^th June 1893 in Dookie, Victoria and was eighteen years old when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy for 5 years service in May 1911. At 5’ 8^1/2” Jack would have presented a very impressive figure as a sailor with his service record stating that he was already sporting a number of tattoos including:
R.arm. Nellie over clasped hands. 3 horseshoes, heart and cross, ship in wreath. L.arm. Full rigged ship. Shield and heart. Floral design on left hand.

Jack was part of the original crew of combined English and Australian men who sailed the AE1 and the AE2 from England to Australia in early 1914. Jack was 21 years old when he perished at sea.

LEST WE FORGET

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The Families and Friends of the First AIF applauds the joint Australian–UK decision, to conduct a full DNA testing program on the remains of Australian and British soldiers found in mass graves at Pheasant Wood (Fromelles), and for their continuing commitment to identify as many of the fallen as is possible. We also thank the Australian, UK and French governments for affording dignified individual reburials for these soldiers, buried by German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.  

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AN & MEF Casualties

The first Australian casualties of the Great War were members of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (A.N & M.E.F.). They were Able Seaman W G V Williams, a member of the 1^st Battalion A.N & M.E.F and Captain B Pockley, a medical officer with the Australian Army Medical Corps.

Photo: Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force Memorial
Bitapaka War Cemetery [Greg Knight]

The A.N & M.E.F. was formed after a request to Australia from the British Government on 6^th August to occupy the German colonies in the South Pacific and secure the German wireless stations to prevent transmission to the German Pacific naval squadron.

The A.N & M.E.F, under the command of Colonel William Holmes, departed Sydney aboard the P & O Liner Berrima. The force consisted of one battalion of infantry, which included militia men from the Scottish Rifles, plus 500 naval reservists and ex-sailors who served as infantry. The Berrima proceeded to Palm Island, off the coast from Townsville to rendezvous with the New Zealand force, escorted by the cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Melbourne.  

The A.N & M.E.F, then sailed on to capture Rabual. Able Seaman Williams and Captain Pockley died on the 11^th September 1914 from wounds sustained during this action and died aboard HMAT Berrima.

Within three months Colonel Holmes’s forces had garrisoned the remainder of Germany’s Pacific possessions south of the Equator, stretching from northeast mainland New Guinea to the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, Bougainville, and Nauru.

Details of the campaign are contained in The Official History of Australia in the War1914-1918 – Volume X: The Australians at Rabaul. The Capture and Administration of the German Possessions in the Southern Pacific.  All volumes of The Official History are available on line at the Australian War Memorial website. Click here to read Volume X.

If you are interested in researching someone who served in the A.N & M.E.F the Australian War Memorial website also contains the Embarkation Rolls of the A.N & M.E.F and Service Records of personnel can be accessed through the National Archives of Australia.

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FFFAIF Member Greg Knight in his DIGGER article, The WW1 Australian Grave in the Old German Cemetery, Madang – Papua New Guinea, recalls his findings during a visit to Papua New Guinea:
Whilst walking through the Old German Cemetery in Madang (known as Friedrich Wilhemshafen in 1914) in Papua New Guinea in August 2003, my wife Margaret and I came across the lone grave of a WW1 Digger, dated 24 January 1915.
These days Madang and its beautiful coastline and islands, is a Mecca for international divers and the welcome destination for the budding Shaggy Ridge Trek. Back in 1914 it was the mainland centre for the German Lutheran Church and its missionaries, the German New Guinea Company and a haven for malaria and other then untreatable tropical diseases. Many of the Germans died from Malaria and an ornate cemetery developed on the outskirts of the small town.
Today, due to Madang’s post WWII growth, the cemetery lies next to the exotic Madang Markets and only a short walk from the centre of the Provincial Township, sandwiched in between Kudam, Badaten and Nanulon Streets. As the ground is coral and the water table is very high, the cemetery was artificially elevated, which meant the ground was unstable and subject to years of erosion. Also, due to allied bombing during WW2, many of the graves and headstones have been upset and upturned. Today the area is used as a local meeting area and subject to graffiti and other acts of vandalism.
All the other identifiable graves in this cemetery are German except the one of Private Frederick Golden Howes, Service Number 148 – 3 Bn, Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force. A brass Commonwealth War Graves plaque is bolted to the cement plinth. This lone Australian grave had me puzzled – why was it there?
On our return to Sydney I began to unearth the story…………………………….

If you would like to read the conclusion to Greg’s story past copies of DIGGER are available to members of the Families and Friends of the First AIF. Annual membership is inexpensive and includes quarterly copies of DIGGER delivered to your door. Membership is $A40 p.a. For more details visit our Join Us page

Each edition of DIGGER contains many articles and photos, the majority of which are published for the first time and are provided by members. Details of the contents of past DIGGER magazines can be viewed by clicking here.
Copyright © DIGGER Magazine. All material in DIGGER is copyright. Subject to the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, reproduction in any form is not permitted without written permission of the Editor or Author/s.

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Another interesting snippet: …

Elena Govor, in her book Russian Anzacs in Australian History, writes that the cook aboard the HMAT Berrima was Julian Szablowsky.  Julian was one of several Russians who served in the A.N & M.E.F. Szablowsky had worked as a ship’s cook on Australian ships before the war, and was the first Russian to enlist and serve outside Australia.

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First to see action.

The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (A.N & M.E.F.) sailed from Australia on 19^th August 1914 to occupy the German colonies in the South Pacific and prevent wireless transmissions to the German Pacific naval squadron.

Photo: The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force at Randwick, Sydney August 1914

The Australian War Memorial describes the A.N & M.E.F as the first Australian fighting force in the First World War. In September 1914, while the Australian Imperial Force was still being formed, the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force under Colonel William Holmes captured Rabaul. Within three months, Holmes’s forces had garrisoned the remainder of Germany’s Pacific possessions south of the Equator, stretching from northeast mainland New Guinea to the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, Bougainville, and Nauru.

A detailed account of the actions of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force can be read on line at the Australian War Memorial in the Official Histories Volume X The Australians at Rabaul: The Capture and Administration of the German Possessions in the Southern Pacific. This volume presents the background to and a detailed account of the capture of German New Guinea, and it also covers many aspects of administration until 1921, when Australia’s civilian rule of those territories began as a League of Nations mandate. This story of Australia’s military occupation “up north” is crucial to our understanding of this country’s role as a colonial power and of W.M. Hughes’s campaign at the Paris Peace Conference to shore up the post-war defence of Australia’s interests in the Pacific. It is also pertinent to the history of the infamous White Australia Policy.

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