Reviews

FIRST VICTORY 1914
HMAS Sydney’s Hunt for German Raider Emden
MIKE CARLTON
William Heinemann: Australia 2013
http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/mike-carlton/first-victory-

Reviewer: Desmond Woods

THIS timely book is about much more than just the search for Emden, though her legendary cruise and the Battle of the Cocos Islands are very well covered from both the German and the Australian viewpoint.  But the book is also about the urgent transition that had to be made from peace to war in the last half of 1914, for Australia, the RAN and the RN. It also explains the fate of the ships and men of the German East Asia Squadron which was rightly perceived in 1913 as being a real threat to Australia’s maritime trade and potentially her cities.