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Russia’s Rambo and Other Fascinating WWII Figures and Facts

Khalid Elhassan September 16, 2019 55 min

Lydia Litvyak - World War II — Soviet pilot Captain Mariya Dolina, standing in front of her Petlyakov Pe-2 light bomber. Defense Media Network

The 6-inch Fort Nepean gun that fired the first shot of WWI. Wikimedia

34. The Australian Fortification That Fired the First Allied Shots of WWI and WWII

The first Allied shots of both WWI and WWII were fired not in Europe or even the Northern Hemisphere, but on the opposite side of the globe, in Australia. In both cases, the shots were fired from Fort Nepean, a defensive facility whose construction began in 1873, as a means of protecting the entrance to Port Phillip in Victoria. On August 5^th, 1914, soon after receiving news that war had been declared, a German ship in Port Phillip, the SS Pfalz, tried to slip out. A 6-inch gun from Fort Nepean fired a shot across her bow, which convinced the Pfalz to turn around and surrender.

Incredibly, the same Australian defensive facility also ended up firing the first Allied shots of the next world war. At 1:30 AM on September 4^th, 1939, just hours after war was declared, a vessel passed by Fort Nepean. The fort’s personnel called upon the ship to identify itself, but when it failed to immediately do so, orders were given to fire a shot across the bow. This time around, however, Fort Nepean’s target turned out to be a friendly ship, the Australian freighter SS Woniora. Still, although it had turned out to be a huge mistake, Nepean had once again fired the opening Allied shot of WWII.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.