Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Owen Martin

When news of the outbreak of World War 1 was received on the 5th August 1914, Australian ships at sea, now on a war footing, were ordered to rendezvous in waters south of New Guinea in a bid to seek out and destroy the German Navy's Pacific Squadron.

The capture and occupation of German Pacific colonies during the first six months of the war was the Royal Australian Navy’s (R.A.N.'s) first wartime operation. Although the operations included the capture and occupation of a number of German colonies, the major landing occurred at Rabaul, New Guinea.

William Owen Martin of Square Street, Solomontown, Port Pirie was born on the 9th September 1891 in Petersburg (Peterborough) South Australia. He was a Plasterer by trade and joined the British Navy on the 14th July 1910 for a five year engagement.

As a Leading Stoker aboard H.M.A.S. Warrego [1], a Torpedo Boat Destroyer, William was among an armed landing party that was sent ashore 8 miles from Rabaul on the 12th August 1914 to establish the location of and capture a German wireless station believed to be in the area.

Here he recalls…

"When we were approaching Herbertshohe (a village in New Britain on the shores of Blanche Bay now known as Kokopo) to seize the wireless plant, we had not gone far before we were fired at by the enemy from their trenches. We immediately took cover and returned the fire. The enemy's trenches were occupied by black-fellows and behind them were the German officers. The black-fellows were all drunk, having been given a liberal allowance of liquor, but their shooting was none the less fairly accurate. I had never before taken part in a battle, and at first didn't take it seriously. I felt as though I could not fire to kill. But it was not long before those views were changed. One of my mates just behind me got shot in the stomach with an expanding bullet, and the sight of the poor chap at once put fight into me. After that every bullet that left my rifle was directed to kill.”

“The German officers concocted a clever ruse, which we fell into. We could not make out how it was that the black-fellows were exposing their heads over the trenches. We began to snipe them and when our bullets found the man these "heads'' would scatter in all directions. Presently, however, our officer gave the order to cease fire. Looking through his glasses he detected that these "heads" were nothing more or less than coconuts, which had been singed and placed in front of the trenches. We wasted no ammunition on them after that, and all enjoyed the joke. The fighting continued for three days, and on the third day some of our men got parallel with the trenches and shot nearly all of the black-fellows. The German officers then surrendered to us."

William contracted fever during the landing and spent some time in hospital. When he returned to Port Pirie, he brought with him some arms that were captured from the Germans and had them displayed in Mr. Bert Steele's window in Ellen Street.

On December 26th 1915 aboard H.M.A.S. Una, William was crushed by a shell explosion that caused him to suffer from incontinence of urine. The injury that had occurred near his bladder had him urinating blood for 3 weeks. On the 31st May 1916 he was discharged from the R.A.N. medically unfit.

His condition improved enough for him to enlist with the Australian Infantry Force (A.I.F.) on the 12th June 1917, Service Number 3874. His brothers D and James Daniel Martin were attached to the 52nd and 27th Battalions respectively.

William spent time with the 5th Pioneer Battalion and the 32nd Infantry Battalion until the 25th Jan 1918 when he was admitted to a Military Hospital suffering from a further case of incontinence of urine. He was discharged medically unfit and returned to Australia on the 27th September 1918.