When the ships of the new Royal Australian Navy made their first grand entry into Sydney Harbour in October 1913, a young nation was at peace.
Less than a year later Australia had gone to war in what was seen as a noble fight for king, country and Empire. Thousands of young men joined up for the adventure of having ‘a crack at the Kaiser’. And indeed the German threat to Australia was real, and very near - in the Pacific Islands to our north, and in the Indian Ocean.
In the opening months of the war, a German raider, Emden, wreaked havoc on the maritime trade of the British Empire. It’s battle against the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney, when it finally came, was short and bloody - an emphatic, first victory at sea for the fledgling Royal Australian Navy.
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