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| In early December 1940
during World War 2, I travelled to the Island
of Nauru, just a few miles below the equator in the Central Pacific. Nauru
was also known as Pleasant Isle many years ago. The ship Triaster on which I travelled arrived off the reef at about 8 am. I was asked if I would like to have breakfast on board or go ashore with luggage on the speedboat into the small boat harbour, as ships had to tie up at the world's deepest moorings to load phosphate rock via giant cantilevers. Luckily, I made the right decision to go ashore early as a strong westerly gale blew up half an hour after I had landed and blew for a week. Five ships arrived for phosphate and to land supplies and drifted off the island, some away out on the ocean. The German raider, Komet, crept up at night and sank the five ships. We thought the flashes and noise was due to the big storm. The raider landed civilian passengers on an island off New Guinea but took ships crews and officers as prisoners. |
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 German raider Komet |
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The raider returned on the 27th December 1940 at 6 am (sunrise) and
began shelling the installations and set the oil tanks on fire. It was
quite an exciting time. There was damage done to the cantilevers, but there
were no civilian casualties. On Christmas Eve 1940, I met at a party a beautiful young lady named Betty. She was born in Bath, Somerset, England. Her father, mother and herself had lived on the island for about 14 years. Her father was an overseer for the British Phosphate Commission on the open cut fields. We were evacuated later in 1941 back to Australia due to the imminent conflict in the Pacific. We kept in touch and were married on the 10th of September 1941 and celebrated our 60th Wedding Anniversary on 10th September 2001 |
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| Aerial view of Nauru from 4880m |
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| Photos of Interest | |
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These include photos of the results of the bombardment of Nauru by the German raider Komet. Photos taken from on land, and also from the Komet |
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| About Nauru | |
| Early history until the time when Nauru became a Republic | |
