Seizing German Samoa

NZ troop ships leaving for Samoa

With hindsight, New Zealand's capture of German Samoa on 29 August 1914 was an easy affair. But at the time it was regarded as a potentially risky action with uncertain outcomes. As it happened, New Zealand had a great deal of luck on its side.

At the outbreak of war, Samoa was of moderate strategic importance to Germany. The radio transmitter located in the hills above Apia was capable of sending long-range Morse signals to Berlin. It could also communicate with the 90 warships in Germany's naval fleet. Britain wanted the threat neutralised.

After agreeing to seize the territory, New Zealand asked for details of German troop numbers and fortifications. British military intelligence would have been able to report that German Samoa's defences were limited to a native constabulary of about 50 men with two European superintendents. (An often repeated claim that London responded with: 'For information regarding the defences of Samoa see Whitaker's Almanac' is now considered apocryphal.)

New Zealand's troops were vulnerable as they crossed the Pacific. The ships Monowai and Moeraki, requisitioned from the Union Steam Ship Company as transports, were slow and unarmed. After sailing from Wellington on the morning of Saturday 15 August, they rendezvoused with HMS Psyche, Philomel, and Pyramus. These aging British cruisers were initially their only escorts across the Pacific.

German naval flag

The danger to the New Zealand convoy was real. At the outbreak of war, Germany had two heavy cruisers, SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau, as well as three light cruisers and various other ships stationed in the Pacific. Throughout the two-week voyage to Samoa, the location of the German East Asia Squadron remained unknown to the Allies.

Naval support was strengthened when the New Zealand convoy reached Noumea in French New Caledonia five days later. There they were joined by the Royal Australian Navy’s battlecruiser HMAS Australia, the light cruiser HMAS Melbourne and the French armored cruiser Montcalm. In his diary, trooper John Reginald Graham hints at the tension on board ship after leaving Noumea:

22 Sat - left daylight & when about 300 miles out sighted steamer in distance but proved to be a British collier…The sighting of this ship caused great excitement as we all thought it was a German…

Samoa yielding postcard

It was only on reaching Samoa that New Zealand realised the limitations of Germany’s defences. Twenty troops and special constables had access to some 50 aging rifles. The islands’ fortifications consisted of one gun at Apia, fired every Saturday afternoon, which took half an hour to load. It was later discovered that the German administration had received orders from Berlin not to oppose an Allied invasion.

The Samoa Advance Party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force that landed at Apia on 29 August met with no opposition. But had Germany placed greater importance on Samoa, or had the German East Asia Squadron intercepted the New Zealand convoy en route, the story could have been very different.