Bitapaka

Bitapaka is a village in New Britain. In 1914 it was the site of a German radio station and thus a target for the troops of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF). After landing at Kabakaul on the morning of 11 September 1914, troops from the AN&MEF were involved in a series of skirmishes with German forces, mostly local Melanesian troops, along the track to Bitapaka. The radio station was finally secured at 7 pm at a cost of seven Australians killed and five wounded. One German and thirty Melanesians had died in the effort to defend it.