A Royal Australian Navy AE1 Submarine Mystery Lives On!

During the last decade, the ocean has been kind to Australians waiting on word of what happened to their countrymen, lost at sea during the war years. The wrecks of the HMAS Sydney, HMAS AE2 and the Centaur have been found in recent years. Much evidence has been found by studying the wrecks. A clearer picture can be painted as to what happened to love ones in the last minutes before the sinking of the vessel.
One of the oldest Royal Australian Naval mysteries still remains unsolved.
The AE1, the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, was commissioned in the United Kingdom on Saturday 28th February 1914. Along with her sister submarine the AE2, they set off for Australian waters on the 2nd March 1914. After a journey, plagued with mechanical problems, which required the towing of both submarines they sailed through Sydney Heads on the 24th May 1914.
Following the outbreak of war on 5th August 1914, Australia was requested by Britain to capture German interests in New Guinea. The Australian Naval Board deemed it important to destroy the German naval presence in the Pacific around New Guinea. The Admiralty suspected that at least five German Naval ships were located in the Pacific area.
The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) a small force of approximately 2,000 men, was raised in Australia. Australia also sent a large proportion of its fledging Navy. On the 11th September the ANMEF and the main naval force comprising the Australia,Sydney,Encounter,Warrego,Yarra,Parramatta, Berrima and the two submarines AE1 & AE2 were located off of Rabual New Guinea. The German wireless station located 7kms inland from Rabual was to be destroyed. Armed resistance was experienced so 100 men from the Naval contingent were landed. They succeeded in destroying the wireless station and the next day ANMEF took control of Rabual. The success was not without cost with 6 Australian lives lost.
Although history is not always kind to remember the action at Rabual it's interesting to reflect a number of 'firsts' were recorded for World War One.
*First time any Australian or British force fought the Germans on their own Territory.
*The ANMEF secured the 1st surrender of WWI.
*The Naval Men conducted the 1st bayonet charge of WWI.
* The first decorations of WWI were awarded for action at Rabual.
The Navy immediately turned their attention to finding the German Capital Ships of Gneisenau and Scharnhorst. On the 14th September 1914 the Australian submarine AE1 set sail with Destroyer HMAS Parramatta to reconnoiter. At 3.20 pm the Destroyer lost sight of AE1. Nothing was ever seen of AE1 again, disappearing with her full compliment of 35 souls. No SOS wireless message was ever received, no oil, bodies or wreckage ever sighted. What happened to AE1 has remained a mystery to this day.
The link below will provide a more substantial account of a very brief life of the HMA Submarine AE1, the circumstances surrounding her loss and the attempts to locate the wreck in Papua New Guinea waters. Click here to read more about this Australian Navy Mystery AE1 Submarine Military Book .

Australian Battalion Regimental History Books

Australian Battalion Regimental History Books

Australian Battalion History Books were some of the first Australian military war books to be published about Australia’s military involvement in WWI.
At the start of World War One Australian Infantry Battalion soldiers were recruited from the Civil Militia Battalion Units. Subsequent recruitment was structured on the Pals Battalions as devised by Lord Kitchener. Kitchener recognised that men who were from the same locality would be more inclined to join if they were serving alongside their friends – men from the same town or state. This formed a deep military camaraderie and mateship amongst the soldiers.
There were some Australian military books written prior to the ending of World War One . Some of the earliest were the ANZAC Gallipoli Books that were written by Anzac campaign veterans. These Gallipoli war books were mostly formed from the diary kept by the diggers during the Battle of Anzac. Books like, Love Letters of An Anzac (1916) by Oliver Hogue, straits impregnable (1917) by s. de loghe and Over There With the Australians (1918) by R.H.Knyvett.
An important exception was the ANZAC BOOK which was written by the troops at Anzac during the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign. The anzac book was the idea of Australia’s foremost military historian Charles Bean who at that time was the War Correspondent at Anzac Cove. It was the first Australian war book to document the military records or memories of the veterans of Gallipoli. When published in 1916, the ANZAC BOOK that was to benefit Patriotic Funds and early RSL Legacy movements, was very popular. This military book installed a sense of recording historical military facts amongst the troops of the Australian Imperial Forces AIF.  Therefore, even before the end of WWI Australian diggers were collecting information to be included in their Battalion / Unit History Book. Men like Charles Bean (latter to publish the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 and inspired the Australian War Memorial) and General Monash encouraged the collection of war records to be included in the Battalion History. Thus it was not long after the end of World War One that the Australian Battalion History books started to appear.
Some of the earliest Battalion Regimental History Books were:
whale oil guards 53^rd Battalion by Chaplain Kennedy published 1919
history of the 7th light horse regiment by lt col j d richardson1919
westralian cavalry in war – 10th light horse regimental history byA.C. Olden
With the 22^nd Battalion AIF by Captain E Gorman 1919

Sixty Minutes original Fromelles segment

Click here to view the 60 Minutes program on the Battle Of Fromelles.
Click here to view the documentary LOST DIGGERS OF FROMELLES

To Villers - Bretonneux A History of The 13th Brigade AIF

This Australian Military book traces the battle history of Brigadier-General Glasgow’s 13th Australian Infantry Brigade, which was made up of the following battalions:

• 49th Battalion (Queensland)
• 50th Battalion (Sth Australia)                                                     
• 51st Battalion (Western Australia)



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• 52nd Battalion (South Australia, Western Australia & Tasmania)

The Author begins the book by following the military history of the influential men who would eventually become the Officers of the abovementioned battalions in 1916. Thus, he researches their war experiences during the Boer War and a more in-depth study of their operations during the Gallipoli campaign.  There is an emphasis on the 13th Brigade Commander William Glasgow DSO. In between military life, Glasgow called Gympie Home, he lived there for much of his life after being born on a farm which was close to the Queensland Town of Tiaro. Tiaro is midway between Gympie and Maryborough . Glasgow was a friend of the A.I.F. stalwart, Brudenell White both of who become members of the Wide Bay Regiment Queensland Mounted Infantry, which was in part an early forerunner of the 2nd/5th Light Horse Regiment.

Follows the History of the 13th Brigade from its formation in Egypt in 1916 then onto the Western Front. Details its costly double encounter with the enemy at Mouquet Farm days after the Battle of Pozieres. The book details the Brigade’s operations into 1917 with difficult victories at Noreuil and Messines and an easier advance at Zonnebeke.


In the beginning of April 1918, the Western Front was in turmoil. German forces had broken through the Allied lines, most expected the Germans to advance to the Channel Ports and Paris. Allied commanders had to rally every available force. Most Australian divisions were out of the lines when the Germans had first undertaken their offensive called Operation Michael at the end of March 1918. The Australian 4^th Division was urgently sent to the front, this force included the 13^th Brigade’s 49th Battalion (Queensland), 50th Battalion (South Australia), 51st Battalion (Western Australia), and the 52nd Battalion (South Australia, Western Australia & Tasmania)
On the 5th April 1918, they fought the decisive Battle of Dernancourt on the railway embankment and cuttings in Dernancourt, just south of Albert. The under strength Australian Brigades (numbering about 4,000) faced 4 German Divisions totalling about 25,000. Situated on the western side of the Nacre River valley, the Australians formed a defensive line at the railway embankment, from which they held back German attacks. The Australian Battalions soon found themselves outflanked by German forces to its rear. They were ordered to hold on at all costs but by midday the 48^th Battalion was facing annihilation and the senior officer ordered a withdrawal. This action cost the 12th and 13th Brigades (4th Division) 1,100 casualties.
On the 24th April 1918, the 13th Brigades' Commander Brigadier General William Glasgow received an urgent order to march his brigade towards the sound of the guns. A renewed German attack had taken Villers-Bretonneux, threatening Amiens and the Allied line of defence and the thrust towards Paris had to be halted at all costs. Glasgow had only a few hours to reconnoitre, plan the counter-attack, brief his men and send them forward to meet the enemy.

Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial

These Battles resulted with the Brigades of the 4^th Division halting the largest-ever German attack on Australian troops at Dernancourt on 5 April 1918. Following then three weeks later, the successful advance of the 13^th Brigade and ‘Pompey’ Elliott’s 15^th Brigade which were triumphant in the retaking of Villers-Bretonneux. The Honour of which resulted in the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial being made at this site. The Memorial lists 10,773 names of soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force with no known grave who were killed between 1916, when Australian forces arrived in France and Belgium, and the end of the war.
Not long after the end of the 1st World War Glasgow become a Senator of the Australian Parliament. In 1939, Glasgow was appointed first Australian High Commissioner to Canada. Returning to Brisbane in 1945 he died in 1955. Two tribute statues, which are located in Brisbane commemorate his life.

The Book's detailed text is supported by numerous maps click to see more of this valuable research book

More on the lost Bullecourt Diggers and Major Percy Black

More on the lost Bullecourt Diggers and Major Percy Black

Could the bravest Digger could be found in mass grave in France?
Leave our fallen war heroes to rest in peace near Bullecourt ?
The History of the Bullecourt Battle 1917
The Bullecourt Battalion Histories - 14th 13th 15th 16th 48th 47th 45th
Australian Doco About the Battle Bullecourt