New Zealand's first conquest: Ian McGibbon recalls New Zealand's occupation of German Samoa just over a century ago.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: Report

A hundred years ago, on 29 August 1914, New Zealand took possession of Germany's Samoan colony--the territory that is today the independent state of Samoa. It was New Zealand's first overseas military operation of the war that had begun 25 days earlier, and the first time that it occupied enemy territory.

On 5 August news arrived in Wellington that the British Empire had entered the conflict already underway between the French and German empires. Although this momentous step was prompted by action in western Europe, especially the German invasion of neutral Belgium, no time was lost in acting against German interests worldwide, among them colonies in the South Pacific. On the 6th the British authorities asked New Zealand as a great and urgent Imperial service' to capture the wireless station in Samoa.

Coming as it did while New Zealanders were volunteering for the force to be sent to Europe, and promising fulfillment of a long-held aspiration to control western Samoa, this request was well received by William Massey's government. A 1374-strong composite force of mainly Territorials was quickly put together. Its commander, Colonel Robert Logan, would have three companies of infantry, a field artillery battery and sundry support units to carry out his task.

Abundant myths

Myths abound about the expedition. One holds that New Zealand, on enquiring what German military forces might be encountered, was told by London to look up Whitaker's Almanac. This is undoubtedly apocryphal. The documentary record indicates that information was obtained from intelligence authorities in Australia. This indicated the presence of a German-officered constabulary of about 80 men, which might be reinforced by a few reservists, and a gunboat.

A second myth relates to the safety of the passage of the force to Samoa. The whereabouts of the main German force in the Pacific, the German Asiatic Squadron, was unknown. This squadron's main elements, the two armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, outclassed the two old cruisers HMS Philomel and HMS Psyche available in New Zealand to escort the force. The force finally set off for Suva on 15 August, but en route it was diverted to Noumea to allow for an earlier junction with the battlecruiser HMAS Australia and the French cruiser Montcalm. Because of this unexpected change, a myth soon developed that the German squadron had narrowly failed to intercept the New Zealand ships. In reality they were never in danger, for...