Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 325
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[Page 325]
[Ger]man colonies captured. The New Zealanders, convoyed by the Australia and the Melbourne, had taken Samoa, and there is no possible doubt that the fear of the Australia kept von Spee away from away from our coasts and drove him east to South America to be destroyed finally by Admiral Sturdee. The Australia was then available to replace the Lion in the North Sea when that ship was temporarily out of action after the Dogger Bank chase. The Sydney and the Melbourne had assisted in the Pacific operations, and then convoyed their countrymen across thousands of miles of sea to Egypt. The Sydney got one raider herself, and with the Melbourne played a big part in the sweeping tactics in the Atlantic which finally narrowed the Germans down to intolerable limits and compelled them to forsake the trade routes. Other ships of the Australian Navy and the destroyers remained to police the coasts of Australia and to keep order in the Captured colonies. So altogether, and apart from any parochial boasting, one can reasonably claim that up to May 1915 the Australian Navy had justified itself. Had we been without our big battle-cruisers and forced to rely on such venerable exhibits of naval architecture as had previously graced our shores, it might have gone hard with us in the Pacific, and Sydney might have heard for the first time the sound of hostile guns.