War Classics

John Monash

• Publisher: Black Inc.
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781863957465
• eBook ISBN: 9781925203356
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

Monash in his own words … War Letters of General Monash This collection of extraordinary, intimate letters from General Sir John Monash to his wife and daughter, records his experiences throughout World War I, from landing at Gallipoli to leading decisive victories on the Western Front. Monash writes with remarkable insight and candour. Republished in full for the first time since the 1930s, this collection includes an introduction and historical notes by A.K. Macdougall, new photos of Gallipoli and the Western Front, and additional letters, including Monash's moving final letter to his wife before the Gallipoli landing. The Australian Victories in France in 1918 First published in 1920, this famous work by General Sir John Monash, regarded as the best allied commander of World War I, immediately garnered glowing praise as one of the most entertaining and informative accounts of war ever written. It is now recognised as one of the most important records of World War I. This edition features a new foreword, stunning photos, and colour reproductions of the original maps that were hand-drawn under Monash's supervision. The War Classics offer unparalleled insight in the role of Australians in World War I, and into the experience of one of Australia's greatest leaders, General Sir John Monash.General Sir John Monash is regarded as the best Allied commander of World War I and as Australia's greatest general, whose brilliant leadership turned the tide of the war. Monash was also a born writer, and an intellectual as well as an engineer. His writing displays a delight in detail, mastery and grace.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction: The Australian Army Corps

I.BACK TO THE SOMME

II.THE DEFENCE OF AMIENS

III.HAMEL

IV.TURNING THE TIDE

V.THE BATTLE PLAN

VI.THE BATTLE PLAN (CONTINUED)

VII.THE CHASE BEGINS

VIII.EXPLOITATION

IX.CHUIGNES

PICTURE SECTION

X.PURSUIT

XI.MONT ST. QUENTIN AND PÉRONNE

XII.A LULL

XIII.HARGICOURT

XIV.AMERICA JOINS IN

XV.BELLICOURT AND BONY

XVI.MONTBREHAIN AND AFTER

XVII.RESULTS

APPENDIX A

Grouping into Australian Divisions of Artillery and Infantry Brigades, During the Period of May to October 1918, and the General Officers Commanding Them

APPENDIX B

Selection from the Records of Deeds of Gallantry of Soldiers Awarded the Victoria Cross

APPENDIX C

General Rawlinson’s Message to the Australian Corps, 1918

Index

FOREWORD

This book enlarges our understanding of the contribution of the Australian Imperial Forces to the final battles of World War I in France. Its strong and detailed narrative was provided by a general whom superiors, fellow generals and, most importantly, the Australian and American troops he commanded acknowledged as a master of the art of soldiering and winning.

Monash wrote Australian Victories over a couple of months in the latter part of 1919, while the battles were fresh in his mind and he had essential papers to hand. It was published in 1920. Monash was keen to get his version of the events in which Australia had played such a crucial role into the public domain before other accounts were produced which might downplay that contribution. There was also the question of his future. No doubt Monash believed that his recent achievements, if properly set down and explained, would increase his profile and open doors to greater influence.

Throughout the war Monash felt the achievements of the AIF were not sufficiently recognised, and he blamed, among others, Charles Bean, the official Australian war correspondent, for this. Monash regarded Bean as a political and intellectual lightweight – he said of his report on the Battle for Messines that it was ‘the apotheosis of banality … Not only is the language silly tosh, but his facts are, for the most part, quite wrong.’ But he had reason to hold an even more critical view of him. Bean had contrived with another journalist, Keith Murdoch, to deprive Monash of his appointment to head the new Australian Corps formed in 1918. The pair shamelessly lobbied senior British and Australian officers and politicians, including the mercurial Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, with the argument that Monash was not the man for the job. Hughes was inclined to concur, until he discussed the appointment with senior Australian military figures in France, all of whom supported Monash.

Bean’s objections were racist and some appeared in his diaries: ‘Yes – Monash will get there – he must get there all the time on account of the qualities of his race; the Jews will always get there,’ (17 May 1918). In his biography of Monash, Roland Perry wrote that, ‘Bean would not have someone he described as a “pushy Jew” running the most important position in the AIF.’ In the last volume of The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–18, published in 1942, Bean refers to Monash as Jewish-Australian and hints that some were still unhappy with his appointment. He also claimed Australian Victories contained errors, but did not identify any.

Monash understood, as few other generals did, the changed nature of warfare. Not hampered by the groupthink of professional army officers, he turned being outside the club to his advantage. Monash the engineer saw that war was a matter of machines, timetables, roads, railways, resupply and – above all – meticulous planning. The machinery of war, with its massive destructive power, was best deployed to advance and protect men. He pioneered combined infantry/tank operations and resupply by aircraft and mobile artillery, and adopted and adapted many new ideas and procedures. His use of tanks so impressed the Germans that they used his tactics in World War II.

Monash begins Australian Victories with the German offensive of 21 March, when he was commander of the 3rd Division. He moves quickly to his appointment as Corps Commander on 18 May 1918, without any mention of the plotting and scheming against him by Bean and Murdoch.

By June Monash commanded a corps the size of a small army; it was the biggest in the British Army. On that basis alone, he should have been made a full general, and for the brilliance of his leadership should have been made a Field-Marshal. By the end of the war, he was seen as having the ability to be Commander-in-Chief of the British and Dominion Forces.

Monash demonstrated his moral courage when the American troops assigned to him for the Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918 were withdrawn by their commander, General Pershing. Monash threatened to cancel the operation, which forced the British Commander, Field-Marshal Haig, to overrule Pershing. The Hamel action was successful and formed the basis of Monash’s attack along the Somme Valley on 8 August, known as the Battle of Amiens.

This attack exceeded all except Monash’s expectations, with the momentum gained taking his Corps through to Péronne and the famous attack on Mont St. Quentin. By this stage, his battle-hardened troops were the tip of the Allied spear. Monash gives an integrated account of the plans, tactics and engineering logistics required to move his fighting Corps over previous battlegrounds and the River Somme. His success as leader arose from combining the skills of engineer, meticulous planner and soldier.

Monash believed he was breaking the resolve and the structure of the German army in front of him. It brought out an opportunistic and ruthless streak, for which he was criticised. ‘Every mile … meant a saving of effort on the part of the fresh waiting Divisions [earmarked for attack on the Hindenburg Line]. It was for this reason, that I was compelled to disregard the evident signs of overstrain …’

Monash was assigned two American Divisions for the Hindenburg attack. They failed, primarily due to a lack of training and an excess of enthusiasm. He says, ‘Our American Allies are … entitled to high credit for a fine effort. But … in this battle they demonstrated their inexperience in war, and their ignorance of some elementary methods of fighting … For these shortcomings they paid a heavy price.’

Monash kept his troops fighting right up until 5 October, the day before their withdrawal for rest and recuperation. Montbrehain was the last village taken by the Australians, although no one knew it at the time. Monash and the 1st and 4th Divisions were on their way back to the front on 11 November when they were notified of the cessation of hostilities.

Australian Victories revives an important Australian historical text, one that gives Australia’s greatest general a voice in the momentous events that he helped to shape and direct.

Bruce Haigh

BRUCE HAIGH is a retired diplomat who served in South Africa, twice in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Iran. He has an honours degree in history and politics from the University of Western Australia. He writes and comments on international and domestic affairs, and is working on a study of the Australian battles in France and Flanders of 1916–18.

DEDICATED

to the

AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER

who by his military virtues, and by his deeds
in battle, has earned for himself a
place in history which none
can challenge

PREFACE

THE following pages, of which I began the compilation when still engaged in the arduous work of repatriation of the Australian troops in all theatres of war, were intended to be something in the nature of a consecutive and comprehensive story of the Australian Imperial Force in France during the closing phases of the Great War. I soon found that the time at my disposal was far too limited to allow me to make full use of the very voluminous documentary material which I had collected during the campaign. The realisation of such a project must await a time of greater leisure. So much as I have had the opportunity of setting down has, therefore, inevitably taken the form rather of an individual memoir of this stirring period. While I feel obliged to ask the indulgence of the reader for the personal character of the present narrative, this may not be altogether a disadvantage. Having regard to the responsibilities which it fell to my lot to bear, it may, indeed, be desirable that I should in all candour set down what was passing in my mind, and should attempt to describe the ever-changing external circumstances which operated to guide and form the judgments and decisions which it became my duty to make from day to day. It may be that hereafter my exercise of command in the field and the manner in which I made use of the opportunities which presented themselves will be the subject of criticism. I welcome this, provided that the facts and the events of the time are known to and duly weighed by the critic.

My purpose has been to describe in broad outline the part played by the Australian Army Corps in the closing months of the war, and I have based upon that record somewhat large claims on behalf of the Corps. It would have overloaded the story to include in it any larger number of extracts from original documents than has been done. I may, however, assert with confidence that the statements, statistics and deductions made can be verified by reference to authoritative sources.

The maps have been prepared under my personal supervision, and are compiled from the official battle maps in actual use by me during the operations.

John Monash

INTRODUCTION

THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY CORPS

THE renown of the Australians as individual fighters, in all theatres of the Great War, has loomed large in the minds and imagination of the people of the Empire.

Many stories of the work they did have been published in the daily Press and in book form. But it is seldom that any appreciation can be discovered of the fact that the Australians in France gradually became, as the war progressed, moulded into a single, complete and fully organised Army Corps.

Seldom has any stress been laid upon the fact that because it thus became a formation fixed and stable in composition, fighting under a single command, and provided with all accessory arms and services, the Corps was able successfully to undertake fighting operations on the grandest scale.

There can be little question, however, that it was this development which constituted the paramount and precedent condition for the brilliant successes achieved by these splendid troops during the summer and autumn of 1918 – successes which far overshadowed those of any earlier period of the war.

For a complete understanding of all the factors which contributed to those successes, and for an intelligent grasp of the course of events following so dramatically upon the outbreak of the great German offensive of March 21st of that year, I propose to trace, very briefly, the genesis and ultimate development of the Corps, as it became constituted when, on August 8th, it was launched upon its great enterprise of opening, in close collaboration with the Army Corps of its sister Dominion of Canada, that remarkable counter-offensive, which it maintained, without pause, without check, and without reverse, for sixty consecutive days – a period full of glorious achievement – which contributed, as I shall show in these pages, in the most direct and decisive manner, to the final collapse and surrender of the enemy.

In the days before the war, there was in the British Service no recognised or authorised organisation known as an Army Corps. When the Expeditionary For...

Table of contents

• War Letters of General Monash
• The Australian Victories in France in 1918