MESSAGE INTERCEPTED BY PORT MORESBY - 2 August 1914

Nauru to Planet: First mobilisation day. Central

OTHER COMMUNICATIONS OVERHEARD BY AUSTRALIAN

WIRELESS STATIONS

Thursday Island;

Scharnhorst communicating with Yap Is, and

Scharnhorst communicating with Nurnberg.

Cooktown;

Scharnhorst communicating with Nauru.

Port Moresby;

Scharnhorst communicating with Planet

Broome;

Geier communicating with SS Bochum, and

Geier communicating with SS Frieberg.

Reported Positions of German Warships

5 August Geier has not moved far from her previous position.

Call signs ASA and KCA appear to have moved to south east.

Emden heard possibly at Apia. Germans sending cable material via Guam and not Yap.

5 August Geier 500-600 miles from Darwin

6 August IO, two letter call sign of Scharnhorst and two ships with her.

Two letter call sign of either Gneisenau or Nuremberg

Emden 400/500 miles north west of Yap

Geier 500/600 miles north west of Darwin

Scharnhorst and accompanying ships have not moved.

7 August Call sign ASB moving away from Australia. In vicinity of Santa Cruz Islands.

Geier near Timor

Planet near or in Rabaul. Acting as a radio relay ship.

DKT (Komet) near Rabaul.

KCA (Yap) sending to Emden. Emden could be near Yap.

PACIFIC CABLE and WIRELESS NETWORK c1914

ATTACKS ON COMMUNICATIONS FACILITIES

DATE LOCATION COMMENT

12 August Yap Is. Landing party from HMS Hampshire

30 August Samoa NZ Expeditionary Force

8 September Fanning Is Attacked by Germans

9 September Nauru Destroyed by Germans

11 September Rabaul Captured by ANMEF

26 September Anguar Landing party from HMAS Sydney

9 November Cocos Is SMS Emden

16 November Tsingtau Occupied by Japanese and British forces

August 1915

Admiralty asks Naval Board to decypher a German message in the HVB code intercepted by the SS Orama.

April 1916

ACNB requested that Commonwealth wireless stations monitor Dutch stations in the Netherlands East Indies and forward any messages intercepted to Navy Office for investigation. By the end of April this instruction was rescinded as no useful information was found in the messages that had been intercepted.

June 1918

ACNB forwarded copies of wireless telegraph messages, to and from Japanese residents in the Pacific, to the Attorney-General’s Department. In the main these messages were either commercial in nature or requests for funds and payments.

July 1918

The radio station at Broome also forwarded details of intercepted Dutch traffic to Navy Office.