Item 01: Fred Hamilton-Kenny letter diary, 29 August-19 October 1914 - Page 19
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[Page 19]
We don't talk about it because they say the fleet would laugh - You should have seen the way the men entered into the idea of slaying someone even though their failure must cause our destruction - Fancy now we'd go up with a shell into an oil ship & 8 war heads full of gun cotton forward - Well, well, it's a funny queer game -
2 pm - Not so bad - We are in the thick of things - Raboul has not surrendered & and that is why all the German flags are up - At 11 am I went off to the Parramatta with Patterson & Herbert - I met Warren – the Commander - Everybody was dressed anyhow - We had gin cocktails & heard that there had been fighting at Kagakaul a wireless station - Commander Elwell dead & Surgeon Pockley also - Native police led by German officers had mined & entrenched the place - It was captured & destroyed - Kagakaul was evidently the place the fleet were sending reinforcements to yesterday - There has been fighting at Herbert Hohe but we've no details - The Admiral hadn't touched Raboul - We left the Parramatta & got back - Presently in came the Melbourne, the boat R & I were on in Brisbane - She anchored - then the Aorangi came in ditto - Then our 2 submarines hove in sight - then some colliers & then the flag ship - Australia - The Australia lies anchored 5 cables (1C= 600 feet) in front of us - We lie between her and the shore line about opposite the centre of Raboul -