The idea for this presentation began during discussion around a table at
a FDG dinner in April this year when several members raised comments
about a statement made in New Zealand during the recent Royal Visit
that on a particular day in April 1914 the First World War had started –
most of us in earshot disagreed, though thankfully not violently.
It was generally agreed and accepted a date more likely would be the
4th August 1914.
Further discussion ensued and one question led to another most of
which will be covered in this presentation which covers some of the
main events of 1914, particularly those affecting Australia with some
leading into other years.
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The start date of the First World War may well depend on your nationality but essentially wars start with a
formal declaration of war between two or more nations. But let’s have a look at these dates.
JUNE 28 1914 (REMEMBER THIS DATE) The Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to
the Austro-Hungarian throne, who was killed in Sarajevo along with his wife Duchess Sophie by Bosnian
Serb Gavrilo Princip one of group of six assassins intent on killing the Duke. This event is generally
accepted to be the catalyst that sparked the First World War. But most historians agree was not the start
of the First World War. NEXT SLIDE
On July 23 Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia but the Serbian response was seen as
unsatisfactory.[3]
On July 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Some historians say this is the start date of the First
World War. But only a few. On the same day Russia mobilizes.
Three days later on July 31 Germany warns Russia to stop mobilizing. To appease Germany Russia says
mobilization is against Austria-Hungary only.
On August 1 Germany declares war on Russia (some historians of German or Russian extraction agree
that this was the start date of the First World War) . Incidentally on the same day Italy declares its
neutrality but later aligns with the Allies and endures a bitter defence of her north-eastern borders
against the Austro-Hungarians and later the Germans almost unaided. Germany and the Ottoman Empire
sign a secret alliance treaty.
On August 2 Germany invades Luxembourg. And a minor skirmish at Joncherey, on the Franco- German
border with Alsace German forces led by an overambitious junior officer of cavalry swept across the
border and was beaten back, probably got his orders wrong or couldn’t wait for the next day, this is often
cited as the first military action on the Western Front.
August 3 Germany declares war on France and Belgium when asked to denies access to the German
forces through Belgium to the French border.
August 4 Germany, however, invades Belgium to outflank the French army. Britain protests the violation of
Belgian neutrality, which England had guaranteed by a treaty; German Chancellor replies that the treaty
is just a chiffon de papier (a scrap of paper).
Responding quickly The United Kingdom declares war on Germany. And Australia follows suit. The United
States declares neutrality.
August 5 Montenegro declares war on Austria-Hungary. The Ottoman Empire Turkey
closes the Dardanelles.
August 6 Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. Serbia declares war on Germany.
August 7 The British Expeditionary Force arrives in France
NOW we definitely have a war … TRALIA enters the war by declaring War on Germany on 8
August in support of England and promises a force of 20,000
We all know what happened to the Archduke BUT what was the fate of Gavrilo Princip.
First Princip immediately attempted suicide with cyanide, then with his pistol, but he vomited the past used by date poison and the pistol was wrested from his hand before he had a chance to fire another shot.
Despite being found guilty Princip was too young to receive the death penalty being only 19 and 27 days short of 20 years the required age under Habsburg law for the death sentence.
Instead he received the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
He was held in very harsh conditions and contracted tuberculosis. Weakened by disease and malnutrition he weighed around 40 kilograms and his body was so wracked by skeletal tuberculosis which so ate away at his bones that his right arm was amputated. He died on 28 April three years and 10 months after the assassination. Secretly buried in an unmarked grave a Czech soldier assigned to his burial remembered the location and in 1920 his remains were disinterred and taken to Sarajevo and buried beneath a chapel “Built to commemorate for eternity our Serb heroes”.
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The picture depicts members of the 1st Battalion AN&MEF, onboard the ferry steamer Kulgoa, as it left Fort Macquarie, Sydney for Cockatoo Island. At Cockatoo Island they were embarked on HMAT Berrima bound for Rabaul in German New Guinea (now New Britain and part of Papua ‐ New Guinea).
A combined Navy and Army Force it was an entirely separate formation to the Australian Imperial Force and was raised by the Australian Government at the specific request of the British Government and tasked to take possession of the German colonies, coaling ports and radio stations throughout the South Pacific. It is noted that the first Battle Honour awarded to an Australian unit in the First World was the Honorary Distinction Herbertshohe awarded to the 1st Infantry Battalion, AN&MEF for its service at Rabaul.
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The first recorded Australian serving in the Australian Defence Forces to become a casualty in the First World War was AB Williams who died on 11 September 1914 on HMAT Berrima, after receiving wounds from German sniper fire during the seizure of a German wireless station at Rabaul, New Britain. He is buried in Bita Paka War Cemetery, Rabaul, East New Britain, New Guinea and commemorated on Panel 188, Commemorative Area, AWM, Canberra, ACT.
It is interesting to note that he was first commemorated at the AWM Commemorative Area on Panel 1 before being moved to Panel 188.
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Colonel William Holmes, Commander of the Navy and Military Expedition Force (AN&MEF) and the first Military Administrator of German New Guinea. 9
William Holmes was born at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, the son of a British Army Officer and began his citizen soldier service in the infantry at the age of ten, probably a bugler or drummer. He served in the Boer War in South Africa with the first NSW contingent during which he was commissioned, awarded the DSO, Mentioned in Despatches, wounded and finished up as a LTCOL. After service with AN&MEF Holmes enlisted in the AIF and commanded the 5th Infantry Brigade at Gallipoli and the 4th Division in France and Belgium. While GOC of the 4th Division on the Western Front he was mortally wounded on 2 July 1917 at Messines in Belgium. General Holmes, was the second AIF divisional commander killed in action in the war. More on the first later.
General Holmes Drive in Sydney was named in his honour.
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At the outbreak of the First World War, Bridges was selected to raise and command an Australian force for overseas service which, at Bridges suggestion, was called the Australian Imperial Forces. He was also appointed as General Officer Commanding 1st Australian Division.
He landed with the 1st Australian Division at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. On 15 May 1915 Bridges was mortally wounded by a Turkish sniper while inspecting positions in Monash Valley, Gallipoli. He was initially buried in Alexandria, Egypt but his body was exhumed on 27 July 1915 and returned to Australia and re‐interred on Mount Pleasant, overlooking Duntroon Military College. NEXT SLIDE
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With the exception of the Unknown Australian soldier reinterred at the Australian War Memorial in 1993, Major General Bridges was the only Australian to die overseas during the First World War to be returned to Australia for burial.
It is worth noting that Sandy his horse was the only horse among the tens of thousands sent from Australia for service overseas in the First World War to be brought back to Australia solely for the purpose of participating in the funeral for General Bridges.
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HMAS AE1 was an E Class Submarine of the RAN. She was the first submarine to come into service with the RAN and sadly was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain, Papua New Guinea on 14 September 1914 after less than seven months in service while providing Naval support to the AN&MEF. The wreck has never been found despite several searches. 15
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The Event was the departure of first convoy taking the AIF and the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to serve overseas.
This painting titled the First convoy leaving Albany depicts the 38 ship convoy carrying Australian and New Zealand troops leaving King George's Sound, Albany, Western Australian on 1 November 1914. 17
In this painting thirty‐eight troop ships, escorted by four naval ships, with the British cruiser HMS 'Minotaur' in foreground leading the convoy. Thes Minotaur is followed by SS 'Orvieto' carrying General Bridges and the AIF Headquarters staff. The other naval escort ships were the RAN light cruisers Sydney and Melbourne and the Japanese cruiser 'Ibuki'.
It needs to be noted that Japan was a staunch ally during WW 1
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During the early weeks of the war the Emden was responsible for capturing and sinking a number of
allied war ships in the SW pacific and Indian Ocean and the destruction off a number of on-shore
facilities and ports but following a highly successful attack on Penang, Malaya the Emden commander
Muller ordered his ship to the Cocos Island intent on destroying the strategically vital British telegraph
Station on remote Direction Island. However as a heavily armed landing party approached the station a
quick-witted employee of the Eastern Telegraph Company managed to get off a distress signal before
his post was captured.
Unfortunatey for Muller, the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney happened to be just over the horizon on
escort duty with the first Australian and NZ convoy to head overseas when the distress signal was picked
up and the Sydney arrived at the scene three hours later
Muller abandoned his shore party and ordered the Emden into action against the more heavily armed
and faster Sydney. Within 90 minutes Emden had been hit more than 100 times and Muller ordered the
Emden beached onto a sandbar to avoid her sinking but still refused to strike her colours and Glossop
the captain of the Sydney continued to fire on the hapless Emden until she struck her colours signifying
her surrender.
More than 130 of the Emden’s crew were killed in the action. The landing party managed to escape by
seizing a decrepit schooner and after an epic voyage returned to Germany.
The survivors of the Emden were taken into captivity and were eventually repatriated back to Germany
towards the end of the war. They were greeted as heroes and Muller was awarded an Iron Cross First
Class and every other member of the crew was awarded an Iron Cross 2nd Class,
Also in recognition of their service all the surviving crew were authorised to add Emden to their
surnames and this honorific was allowed to be passed down to future generations.
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Generally those enlisting signed on for “THE DURATION OF THE WAR AND 4 MONTHS. The extra 4 months was the anticipated period that it would take to repatriate the AIF back home to Australia.
However, due to an extreme shortage of shipping at the war’s end it would take over 12 months for all the AIF to be returned home. One of the last to be repatriated was General Sir John Monash who was responsible for implementing the repatriation of the AIF.
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Some Councils in their haste to have a Memorial chose to use the signing of the Armistice as being the end of the war.
However a state of war still existed until the formal signing of the Tearty of Versailles in June 1919.
The armistice between the Allies and Germany – also known as the "Armistice of Compiègne" after the location where it
was signed – was the agreement that ended the fighting in western Europe that comprised the First World War. It went
into effect at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918, and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany,
although not technically a surrender. The Germans were responding to the policies proposed by American president
Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of January 1918. The actual terms, largely written by French Marshal Ferdinand
Foch, included the cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of German troops to behind their own borders, the preservation
of infrastructure, the exchange of prisoners, a promise of reparations, the disposition of German warships and
submarines, and conditions for prolonging or terminating the armistice thereby returning to a state of war. Although the
armistice ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the
peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles.
The armistice was signed in a railway carriage part of Foch's private train, It was later put back into regular service with
the but after a short period it was withdrawn to be attached to the French presidential train.
From April 1921 to April 1927, it was on exhibition in Paris. In November 1927, it was ceremonially returned to the forest
in the exact spot where the Armistice was signed. Marshal Foch, General Weygand and many others watched it being
placed in a specially constructed building. There it remained, a monument to the defeat of the Kaiser's Germany, until 22
June 1940, when swastika-bedecked German staff cars bearing Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim
von Ribbentrop and others swept into the site and, in that same carriage, demanded and received the surrender of
France.
During the Occupation of France, the building was destroyed and the carriage taken to Berlin, where it was exhibited in
the Lustgarten. After the Allied advance into Germany in early 1945, the carriage was removed by the Germans for safe
keeping to the town of Ohrdruf, but as an American armoured column entered the town, the detachment of SS guarding
it set it ablaze, and it was destroyed. Some pieces were however preserved by a private person; they are also exhibited
at Compiègne.
After the war, the Compiègne site was restored, but not until Armistice Day 1950 was a replacement carriage, correct in
every detail being an identical carriage also built in 1913 in the same batch as the original was re-dedicated to replace
the original.
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Earlier I asked you to remember a particular date? What was that date? The
Treaty of Versailles was signed exactly five years after the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand!
The First World War finally and formally ended with the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles on 28 June 1919. For all of its known imperfections, the Treaty was
seen as a symbol of hope. It looked to the past and brought a formal end to the
First World War. German representatives, led by the Foreign Minister Hermann
Muller, had been required to sign first. President Woodrow Wilson of the United
States was then the first representative of the victorious nations to sign. The
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George can be seen seated at the table,
adding his signature, and standing nearby is the Australian Prime Minister,
William Hughes, waiting his turn amongst the other representatives of the British
Empire. Hughes had been a vigorous participant at the Peace Conference,
anxious that Australia make some territorial gain in the Pacific, in recognition of
the sacrifices Australians had made. The French Prime Minister Georges
Clemenceau signed last.
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So from the beginning of the First World War I have chosen to end this presentation by a leap to the present day with a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier.
Plans for a tomb for an Australian unknown soldier were first put forward in the 1920s but it was not until 1993 that an unknown soldier was at last brought home. With great reverence, the remains of an unknown Australian were removed from Adelaide Cemetery, on the outskirts of Villers‐Brettoneux in France in 1993 and transported to Australia. After lying in state in King’s Hall in Old Parliament House, he was interred in the Hall of Memory at the Memorial on 11 November 1993.
The Unknown Australian Soldier was buried in a Tasmanian blackwood coffin, with a bayonet and a sprig of wattle, and soil from the Pozières battlefield was scattered on his coffin before he was entombed. He represents all Australians who have been killed in war.
Despite some recent attempts by certain misguided members of the governing council of the AWM to have it removed the epitaph Known unto God which also appears on thousands and thousands of headstones of Australian’s war dead graves remains at the foot of the tomb.
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