[3] Another battalion of militia from the Queensland based Kennedy Regiment, which had been hurriedly dispatched to garrison Thursday Island, also contributed 500 volunteers to the force.

Landing parties from the destroyers were sent ashore to demolish the telephones in the post offices in Rabaul and at the German gubernatorial capital of Herbertshöhe (now Kokopo), located 20 miles (32 km) to the south-east.

[citation needed] The Battle of Bita Paka took place on 11 September, during an Australian attempt to capture the German wireless station.

After a day of fighting in which both sides suffered casualties, the more numerous Australian forces finally succeeded in capturing and destroying the wireless station.

[citation needed] Australian forces first landed in Nauru on 9 September and it was fully occupied on 6 November without opposition by Australia.

[9] Organized and completed with remarkable speed, the occupation of German New Guinea was significant as the first independent military operation carried out by Australia and the second one for Japan.

[10] Lieutenant Hermann Detzner, a German officer with some 20 native policemen, evaded capture in the interior of New Guinea and managed to remain free for the entire war.