The fighting for the wireless station had occupied eighteen hours, and it fell into the hands of the Australians at 1 o'clock in the morning on the 12th September. Between twenty and thirty Germans were killed; there were many wounded, and the Commandant and one other officer, fifteen German non-commissioned officers, and fifty-six native police were taken prisoners. The Australian losses were Lieutenant-Commander B. Elwell, Captain B. A. Bockley, R.A.M.C., and four seamen killed, and Lieutenant Rowland B. Bowen and three seamen wounded.
The Governor of New Pomerania (now restored to its earlier name of New Britain) remained at large for a day or two, and then was captured with his suite ten miles inland, and they were sent as prisoners to the port of Rabaul.
The capture of this port of Rabaul was one of the most daring and successful episodes in the campaign on New Pomerania. It was thought possible that the German cruisers were somewhere in the vicinity, and the Australian Commander had no knowledge of Rabaul Harbour, and knew nothing of its fortifications; nevertheless, with all lights out he raided the port at night, caught the Germans napping, and landed a naval force without opposition. They had taken possession of the post and telegraph stations and destroyed the plant before the inhabitants were roused and came out to find it was too late for them to attempt to do anything. Some of the German residents subsequently refused to take the oath of neutrality, and these, with two German officers, were sent as prisoners to Sydney. There was also some little trouble with the natives, who resorted to a sort of guerilla warfare, but it was not long before these were reduced to order, and the Australian garrison remained in peaceable control of the island, which had been the centre of the German government in the Bismarck Archipelago.
Whilst Rabaul was being raided, another Australian warship landed a small squad of sailors under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Bloomfield at Nauru, the capital of the Marshall Islands. With the party were Lieutenant Cooper, Engineer-Lieutenant Creswell, and Staff-Surgeon Brennard, to act as interpreter. The surf round the island is very heavy, and there were difficulties in getting a boat through it, but this once accomplished the rest was easy. There were no defences, and the landing was unopposed. The Governor surrendered at discretion, and the wireless station, one of the most powerful in the German Pacific series, was demolished.
Shortly after the fall of Rabaul, the Australian fleet captured a German steamer that was making for the harbour there, and learned from two Englishmen who were aboard that the elusive German cruisers had recently been sighted off Kaweing, New Hanover. But though a warship was dispatched forthwith to that quarter and toured all about the islands, searching diligently, no enemy vessels were anywhere discoverable. They had been seen thereabouts a few days previously, but had mysteriously vanished again.
The conquest of the German Pacific islands was completed on 24th September, when Kaiser Wilhelmsland (German New Guinea) surrendered without firing a shot, the British flag was hoisted at Friedrich Wilhelm town, and a garrison established there. Most of the available German soldiers had been sent thence a fortnight before to assist in the defence of New Pomerania; but when they arrived it was already taken over by the victorious Australians and they simply fell into their hands as prisoners. The principal officials of Kaiser Wilhelmsland were also absent; the four that remained, with some fourteen other Germans, took the oath of neutrality. So, with every German wireless station in the Pacific put out of action, and the British flag flying over all enemy territory in those waters, the Australian fleet was free to render more assistance to the New Zealand, the British, and French fleets in their dogged hunt after the German commerce raiders, and presently added a new glory to its name by overtaking, giving battle to, and sinking that most dashing raider of them all, the Emden.
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