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Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 2:42 pm
Posts: 1927
Location: Sydney
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Well today marking the 100th anniversary since England (and inturn Australia) declared war on Germany to kick off WWI I read this article which chronicles the events of the first shots fired in anger for WWI and it was in Australia.....I never knew this. Quite interesting to read.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-05/t ... ia/5647724
World War I: British Empire's first shot in Great War, fired in Victoria, commemorated
By Sarah Farnsworth
A gun crew stationed on the Mornington Peninsula fired the British Empire's first shot of WWI across the bow of German cargo steamer SS Pfalz.
The first shot fired by the British Empire in World War I, at Portsea on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, has been commemorated.
Less than four hours after the British Empire was plunged into war on August 5, 1914, the shot rang out - not in England, Belgium or France, but 17,000 kilometres away at Point Nepean, as the German cargo ship, SS Pfalz, desperately tried to leave Australian waters.
About a thousand people gathered at the parade ground at Point Nepean, south-east of Melbourne, to mark Australia's historic role.
Descendants of the first shot participants laid wreaths at the service and a howitzer shot was fired at 12:45pm (AEST) to replicate the precise time the shot was fired 100 years ago.
Bombardier John Purdue fired the historic shot and his granddaughter, Carolyn Smyth, said the story remained a surprise to many.
"A lot of my work colleagues didn't even know about the first shot and didn't realise it was fired from here and that Australians had that significant role in the first World War," she said.
"We grew up with a story about the first shot because you couldn't find information about it.
"I thought maybe it was just a tall tale that grandpa liked to tell. But no, he was definitely there and definitely pulled the trigger."
Australians fired warning shot across bow of SS Pfalz
Bernie Gaynor, a member of the First Shot Committee, knows the story behind the shot well.
"The German captain, as much as anyone else, knew war was about to be declared at anytime."
"The ship was very close to the heads; the German captain would have been extremely excited freedom was just there, just within his grasp."
But just 10 minutes before SS Pfalz was to reach open seas, the artillery headquarters at Queenscliff received the order to stop the ship or sink it.
The gunners at the Fort Nepean gun emplacement fired a warning shot across its bow, much to the surprise of Australian pilot Captain Montgomery Robinson, who was on board guiding the Pfalz out of the heads.
"So for a second or two there was a physical tussle on the bridge [of the ship] between the German captain and the Australian pilot," Mr Gaynor said.
"The pilot was adamant that they must stop because the next shot was going to be into the ship."
The Pfalz surrendered.
"No-one was killed, no-one was hurt. It was a very good day for Australia," Mr Gaynor said.
The German seamen spent the rest of the war in an internment camp.
British secretary of war sends thanks for 'very first shot'
Retired teacher turned local historian, Keith Quinton, grew up hearing tales about the first shot among the Queenscliff artillery ranks.
Four years ago he took on the complex task of piecing it all together.
"On August the 6th, the day after the Pfalz was fired upon, newspaper headlines stated it was the first Australian shot of the war," he said.
"But they had no way of knowing who would have fired a shot anywhere else and at what time."
Mr Quinton said one of the few references to the shot surfaced more than a decade later in the form of a letter from the British secretary of war, Sir Maurice Hankey, in 1925.
"He says, 'thank you very much for sending me your account of the firing of the very first shot of the war'," he said.
Mr Quinton said there was still some ongoing confusion over who fired the first shot.
People in the United Kingdom believe the first shot came from the destroyer HMS Lance at a German mine layer on August 5 at 10:30am.
The gunfire that stopped the Pfalz was thought to have been at 3:00am Greenwich Mean Time, hours before the British troops took aim.
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Lest We Forget.
Cheers
GKW
Front wheel drive cars are the work of the Devil. 
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GKW
