Marines were sent ashore; the
public buildings were occupied, the telegraph and telephone wires
cut, the wireless station destroyed and the German flag hauled
down, to be replaced by the Union Jack. The Germans taken prisoners
were rewarded for the kind treatment they had accorded British
residents before the appearance of this British force, and were
sent to New Zealand.
The next German possession to be taken was that in the Bismarck
Archipelago. It was known that there was a powerful wireless station
at Herbertshoehen, the island known as New Pomerania. A small landing
party was put ashore on the island in the early morning of September
11, 1914, and made its way, without being discovered, to the town.
The surprised inhabitants were too frightened to do anything until
this party left to go further on to the wireless station. By that
time it met with some resistance, but overcame it. A few days later
another landing party had captured the members of the staff of the
governor of New Pomerania, together with the governor himself, at
Bougainville, Solomon Islands, whence they had fled. The wireless
stations on the island of Yap, in the Carolines, and on Pleasant
Island were destroyed during the following month.
Perhaps the strangest operations of naval character ever performed
were the inland "sea" fights in Africa. The great Nyassa Lake in
Africa was the scene of this fighting.
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