Occupation of German Samoa
The Occupation of Samoa was the takeover – and subsequent administration – of the Pacific colony of German Samoa by New Zealand during World War I. It started in late August 1914 with landings by the Samoa Expeditionary Force from New Zealand. The landings were unopposed and the New Zealanders took possession of Samoa for the New Zealand Government on behalf of King George V. The Samoa Expeditionary Force remained in the country until 1915, while its commander, Colonel Robert Logan, continued to administer Samoa on behalf of the New Zealand Government until 1919. The takeover of Samoa was New Zealand's first military action in World War I.
Background[edit]
Upon the outbreak of World War I on 5 August, the New Zealand Government authorised the raising of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) for service in the war. Mobilisation for the war had already begun, with preparations discreetly beginning a few days prior.[3] The day after the declaration of war, the British Government requested New Zealand seize the wireless station at German Samoa, a protectorate of the German Empire,[4] deeming it "a great and urgent Imperial service."[5]
Since the days of Richard Seddon, the Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1893 to 1906, the New Zealand Government had aspired to control Samoa.[6] Even prior to the war, plans for the occupation of Samoa had been laid down by the Commandant of the New Zealand Military Forces, Major General Alexander Godley, who believed that this would be one likely usage of New Zealand's military in the event of an outbreak of hostilities.[7] The British request was immediately accepted and instructions issued to Godley to raise a composite force specifically tasked for this purpose.[5]
Prelude[edit]
What was to be known as the Samoa Expeditionary Force (SEF) was formed with volunteers drawn primarily from the Auckland and Wellington Military Districts. It included an infantry component, with three companies of infantry from the 3rd (Auckland) and 5th (Wellington) Regiments, a battery of field guns, a section of engineers, companies of railway engineers and signallers, as well as personnel from the Royal Naval Reserve, Army Service Corps, a Field Ambulance section, as well as nurses and chaplains. There was also a detail from the New Zealand Post & Telegraph Company.[5]
Colonel Robert Logan, a member of the New Zealand Staff Corps and commander of the Auckland Military District, was appointed to command of the SEF.[8] At the time of its first formal parade on 11 August 1914,[9] the SEF consisted of over 1,400 personnel.[10]
The SEF departed New Zealand on 15 August in a convoy of troopships escorted by the New Zealand Naval Forces' HMS Philomel along with the Australian Navy's HMAS Pyramus and HMAS Psyche.[11] The escorting cruisers, all "P" class ships, were third-rate vessels deemed to be obsolete and no match for Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron with its armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau.[Note 1] Therefore, it was arranged that the convoy would liaise at Fiji with the modern battlecruiser HMAS Australia and the French cruiser Montcalm. However, the day after departing New Zealand and unbeknownst to the New Zealand Government, the British Admiralty decided that the convoy would rendezvous with the modern escorts at Noumea in New Caledonia.[12]
Here the convoy was joined by HMAS Australia and the Montcalm, along with the cruiser HMAS Melbourne,[13] the entire expedition, now under the command of Rear Admiral George Patey,[14] went on to Fiji. Here several Legion-of-Frontiersmen and Samoan interpreters joined the SEF and it then sailed for Samoa on 27 August.[15]