The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&amp;MEF) began forming following a request by the British government on 6 August 1914. The AN&amp;MEF comprised one battalion of infantry of 1,000 men enlisted in Sydney—known as the 1st Battalion, AN&amp;MEF—plus 500 naval reservists and ex-sailors who would serve as infantry. Another battalion of militia from the Queensland-based Kennedy Regiment, which had been hurriedly dispatched to garrison Thursday Island, also contributed 500 volunteers to the force. Under the command of Colonel William Holmes, the AN&amp;MEF departed Sydney on 19 August aboard HMAS "Berrima" and halted at Palm Island off Townsville until the New Zealand force, escorted by the battlecruiser , cruiser , and the French cruiser "Montcalm", occupied Samoa on 30 August. The AN&amp;MEF then moved to Port Moresby where it met the Queensland contingent aboard the transport TSS "Kanowna". The force then sailed for German New Guinea on 7 September but the "Kanowna" was left behind when her stokers refused to work. The soldiers from the Kennedy Regiment were also left in Port Moresby as Holmes felt that they were not trained or equipped well enough to be committed to the fighting that was expected. Following the capture of German possessions in the region in September, the AN&amp;MEF provided occupation forces for the duration of the war. Holmes returned to Australia in early 1915 and re-enlisted in the AIF, as did most of his men. They were replaced by the 3rd Battalion, AN&amp;MEF, which was known as the "Tropical Force" because it had been specially enlisted for service in the tropics.