Portal:Military history of Australia/Units/February 11

Australian fleet arriving at Rabaul, 12 September 1914.

The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) was a small volunteer force, approximately 2,000 men, raised in Australia shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The AN&MEF was distinct from the more famous Australian Imperial Force and its purpose was to seize and destroy German wireless stations in the south-west Pacific to prevent their use by the German East Asia Squadron which threatened merchant shipping in the region. The first Australian to die in combat during the war was a seaman with the AN&MEF. Following the capture of German possessions in the region, the AN&MEF provided occupation forces for the duration of the war.