Did you think that everything that could be written about World War I had been written? Author Greg Raffin begs to differ. He has dedicated much of his retirement to researching little-known events from the ‘war to end all wars’. Here, he shares the story of Conrad Eitel and the first time an Australian force was sent into battle after war was declared.
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This is a story of a battle which, comparatively speaking, was a miniscule blip on the radar of military history. Yet that battle was Australia’s baptism of fire.
Paradoxically, most Australians are unaware that it even took place. It is also a story about a man with a German father who made a significant contribution to Australia’s history, including fighting for Australia during World War I.
Just a handful of days after World War I was declared, the British government saw fit to call on the fledgling nation of Australia to capture a German wireless station based in Rabaul in German New Guinea.
Germany had several such bases throughout the south-west Pacific and they were essential for the operation of their large naval squadron based in the region. Within a matter of weeks, the Australian Government had gathered a force of some 1500 men, put them in uniform, provided them with rudimentary training and sent them off for German New Guinea.
This was the first time that an Australian force had been sent into battle, equipped and trained by the Australian Government and accompanied by vessels from the Royal Australian Navy. As such, it was our true baptism of fire and it occurred some seven months before Gallipoli.
The men of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), as it was called, were involved in hostilities that took place near Rabaul on 11 September 1914. During that mission, six of them were killed, thereby becoming our first casualties of the World War I. Also during this mission, Lieutenant Thomas Arthur Bond, a 42-year-old accountant and member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR), earned a Distinguished Service Order (DSO), thereby becoming our first recipient of a bravery award from WW I.
A few days later, the AE1 (one of two Australian submarines accompanying the men) went missing with 35 British and Australian seamen on board. The remains of that submarine were located about 18 months ago.
This particular campaign was one of only two amphibious attacks on the enemy during World War I. The other was at Gallipoli but, unlike Gallipoli, this attack was a military success as it achieved its objectives.
New Zealand and Japan were also involved in securing some of the German wireless outposts. The campaign lasted about four months overall. The large German fleet was forced to leave the Pacific region, which helped to reduce the danger to the Anzacs heading overseas to Egypt and Gallipoli.
Involved in this campaign was one Conrad Constantine Eitel, and it is his story that is particularly unique. Eitel’s mother was British but his father was German and that was the language used in the family home for the first eight years of his life.
Later, as an adult, he worked as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, often writing articles under the name ‘Darnoc’ (Conrad backwards). He also made a significant contribution to Australian history as the secretary for the highly successful Mawson expedition. This meant he was in charge of fundraising activities within Australia.
When the AN&MEF was formed, he signed up as a member of the militia and was one of the men in the original landing in German New Guinea.
The Australians began to move inland towards the wireless station they were to destroy. As they did so, they came under fire from German soldiers and their native troopers. It was during this advance that six Australians, one German officer and more than 30 native troopers were to lose their lives.
A situation arose where there was a need for someone who could speak German and it was then that Eitel revealed that he was fluent in German. As a consequence, he was in the leading group of three who were first to arrive at their designated target.
The men of the AN&MEF were deployed for six months, and on their return to Australia some 70 per cent re-enlisted in the AIF. Among these men was Eitel, but he reasoned that as it was now known that he was of German descent he should enlist under an assumed name. He chose the name Lionel Leonard Easton; ‘Easton’ was his mother’s maiden name.
He was sent to Liverpool camp for further training, but a few months later his real identity was discovered. It was decided to court martial him on the grounds that he had lied when filling in his enlistment papers. When asked if he had previous military training, he answered ‘No’. Despite a glowing recommendation from a Captain William Sara and other superior officers, he was found guilty, discharged from the army and sentenced to 30 days’ confinement.
For decades, I knew about the six Australians who died in New Guinea and wanted to learn who they were. In researching this campaign, I came across several unusual stories such as the one involving Eitel. There was even a German soldier who refused to surrender and hid in the jungle until finally being forced to give himself up.
I wanted to give this campaign (and the men involved) a higher profile and so I wrote Australia’s real Baptism of Fire; heroes known only to a few (Five Senses Education, 2013) which was launched by Sir Peter Cosgrove (then head of NSW Centenary of Anzac committee).
Anyone interested in reading about other little-known episodes from World War I may like to read my second book, Mutiny on the Western Front: 1918 (Big Sky Publications, 2018). It discusses one of only three mutinies involving men from the AIF when more than 100 men were gaoled. It focuses on one of the mutineers who spoke (anonymously) in an award-winning documentary of the same name that was produced in 1979. My purpose here was not to take sides but to better understand how the horrors of the Western Front affected the men involved.
Greg Raffin had a lengthy career as an English/history teacher in NSW secondary schools. In 2006, he was awarded the NSW Premier’s Military History award, which enabled him to travel to four south-east Asian countries to study the Burma-Siam (Death) railway. Since his retirement, he has published two books on the little known events of World War I.
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