Iles war diary, 1914-1919 / G. H. Iles - Page 16
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[Page 16]
Samoa, - this naturally caused great excitement among our boys as they were just getting very eager to do their bit and the "Sydney" was to convoy Australian Forces to New Britain preparatory to annexing German New Guinea & Mecklenburg.
We had several days journey to reach Noumea, and the period was taken advantage of in exercising the ships company in the many and varied evolutions and exercise that were essential to the efficiency of a man-o-war, and none of us was aware as to how soon we may be called upon to test our strength against our enemy ships,- and at sunset ship was darkened and watch to man and arm ship, the weather becoming more pleasant as the day closed.
On Aug 19th [1914] during the morning a wireless message was received by us from our flagship "Australia" to the effect that she was following on our course for Noumea and that she would join us the following