Battle of Bita Paka

Part of the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I

An Australian soldier of the AN&MEF and his mother in Sydney, 1914, prior to departing for Rabaul.

Date	11 September 1914
Location	Bita Paka, south of Kabakaul on New Pomerania, German New Guinea
Result	Australian victory

Belligerents

Australia

Germany

German New Guinea

Commanders and leaders

Charles Elwell †

Hans Wuchert

Strength

~500 men
several destroyers

61 Germans
240 Melanesian police

Casualties and losses

7 killed
5 wounded

31 killed

1 German
30 Melanese police

11 wounded

1 German
10 Melanese police

75 captured

Germany

31 killed

11 wounded

The Battle of Bita Paka (11 September 1914) was fought south of Kabakaul, on the island of New Britain, and was a part of the invasion and subsequent occupation of German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Similar to New Zealand's operation against German Samoa in August, the main target of the operation was a strategically important wireless station—one of several used by the German East Asiatic Squadron—which the Australians believed to be located in the area. The powerful German naval fleet threatened British interests and its elimination was an early priority of the British and Australian governments during the war.

After an unopposed landing, a mixed force of German reservists and half-trained Melanesian police mounted a stout resistance and forced the Australians to fight their way to the objective. After a day of fighting during which both sides suffered casualties, Australian forces captured the wireless station at Bita Paka. The battle was Australia's first major military engagement of the war and the only significant action of the campaign; in its aftermath the remaining German forces on New Britain fled inland to Toma. Following a brief siege there the German garrison capitulated, ending resistance to the Australian occupation of the island.

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