<P> On 5 August 1914, the German ship SS Pfalz attempted to escape from Port Phillip . Within minutes of being notified that war had been declared, Lieutenant - Colonel Sandford at Fort Queenscliff gave an order to Lieutenant C Morris, the Fire Commander at Fort Nepean, to "stop her or sink her". After the Pfalz ignored signals to halt, the B1 gun fired across her bow . The Pfalz then turned around and the crew was arrested at Portsea . </P> <P> At 1.30 am on 4 September 1939, within hours of war being declared, the A1 gun fired across the bow of a ship which failed to identify itself . The ship then identified as the Australian freighter SS Woniora . </P> <P> These were the only occasions any of the Port Phillip batteries fired in anger . </P> <P> With the removal of coastal artillery after World War II, the guns were dismantled and sold for scrap . The barrels of the historic Mk VII guns which fired in anger were retrieved from the Port Wakefield artillery proving ground and a scrap yard at Brooklyn, Victoria in the 1960s and returned to the fort . </P>

Which country fired the first shot in ww1