General Sir John Monash GCMG, KCB, VD (27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian military
commander of the First World War.
Early life
Monash was born in Dudley Street[1],
West Melbourne, Victoria, the son
of Louis Monash and his wife Bertha, née Manasse.]][2] Both parents were of Prussian-Jewish origin (the family name was originally spelled Monasch and pronounced with the emphasis on the 'ash' sound).
He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne under Alexander Morrison where he passed the matriculation examination when only 14 years of
age, at 16 he was dux of the school[1]. He graduated
from the University of Melbourne: B.A.
(1887), Master of Science in civil
engineering in 1893, law in 1895 and Doctor of Engineering in 1921.
On 8 April 1891, Monash married Hannah Victoria Moss, and their
only child, Bertha, was born in 1893. He worked as a civil engineer, introducing
reinforced concrete to Australian engineering practice; he was engineer of the
Morrell Bridge/Anderson Street bridge over the Yarra
River, Melbourne, which opened in 1899. He took a leading part in his profession and became president of the Victorian Institute of Engineers and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London.[1]
Monash joined the university company of the militia in 1884 and became a lieutenant in the North Melbourne battery
militia unit in 1887. He was made captain in 1895, major in 1897 and in 1906
became a lieutenant-colonel in the intelligence corps. He was colonel commanding the 13th infantry brigade in 1912; on the
outbreak of World War I he was appointed chief censor in Australia.[1]
World War I
When war broke out in 1914, Monash became a full-time Army officer. Despite the anti-German hysteria of the time, there seems
to have been no adverse comment on his German origins. When the Australian
Imperial Force was formed, he was sent as commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade to Egypt.
In 1915 his brigade, as part of the New Zealand and Australian
Division under Major General Godley, participated in the disastrous
Gallipoli campaign against the Ottoman Army.
The brigade initially defended the line between Pope's Hill and Courtney's Post, and the valley behind this line became known as "Monash Valley". There he made a name for
himself with his independent decision-making and his organisational ability. He was promoted to brigadier-general in July.
During the August offensive, Monash's objective was the capture of Hill 971, the
highest point on the Sari Bair range, but a failure to get his troops through poorly mapped mountainous terrain prior to the
battle resulted in disaster for the last co-ordinated effort to defeat the Turkish forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula. This marked the lowest point of his military career.
He commanded the final significant assault of the Gallipoli fighting in the attack on Hill 60 on August 21, which was only partially
successful. His war letters are full of accounts of the gallantry of the men he commanded. When orders came in December 1915 for
the evacuation, he methodically supervised the exact course to be followed by members of his own command, and was in one of the
last parties to leave.
Great as the disappointment had been over the failure at Gallipoli, there was some comfort in the fact that the evacuation had
been so successful. Forty-five thousand men, with mules, guns, stores, provisions and transport valued at several million pounds,
had been withdrawn with scarcely a casualty, and without exciting the slightest suspicion in the enemy. Hours afterwards the
Turks opened a furious bombardment on the empty trenches.
Monash during the First World War
After a rest period in Egypt, by June 1916 Monash was in north-west France. In July, with the
rank of major-general, he was in charge of the new Australian 3rd Division. He trained the division in England with the minutest attention to
detail, and led stage by stage to the nearest approach that could be improvised to the conditions of actual warfare. He was
involved in many actions, including Messines, Broodseinde, and the First Battle of Passchendaele, with some
successes, but with the usual heavy casualties. The British High Command was impressed by Monash's abilities and enthusiasm. In
May 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant-general and made commander of the
Australian Corps, at the time the largest corps on the Western Front[citation needed].
Commander of the Australian Corps
Monash, not being a professionally trained officer, was free of the antiquated doctrines of many First World War officers. He
believed in the co-ordinated use of infantry, aircraft,
artillery and tanks. He wrote:
- The true role of infantry is not to expend itself upon heroic physical effort, not to wither away under merciless
machine-gun fire, not to impale itself on hostile bayonets,
but on the contrary, to advance under the maximum possible protection of the maximum possible array of mechanical resources, in
the form of guns, machine-guns, tanks, mortars and aeroplanes; to advance with as little
impediment as possible; to be relieved as far as possible of the obligation to fight their way forward.
Charles Bean, the official Australian war historian, noted that Monash was more
effective the higher he rose within the Army, where he had greater capacity to use his skill for meticulous planning and
organisation, and to innovate in the area of technology and tactics. Bean had been no great admirer of Monash in his early
career, in part due to a general prejudice against Monash's Prussian-Jewish background, but
more particularly because Monash did not fit Bean's concept of the quintessential Australian character that Bean was in the
process of mythologising in his monumental work 'Australia in the War of 1914-1918'. (Both Bean and Monash, however, having seen
the very worst excesses of British military doctrines and the waste of life on the Western Front, were determined that the role
of the commander was to look after, and protect as far as possible, the troops under their command.) Bean, who had said of Monash
"We do not want Australia represented by men mainly because of their ability, natural and inborn in Jews, to push themselves",
conspired with Keith Murdoch to undermine Monash, and have him removed from the command of
the Australian Corps. They misled Prime Minister Billy Hughes into believing that senior
officers were opposed to Monash (Perry 2004, p346). Hughes arrived at the front before the Battle of Hamel prepared to replace Monash, but after consulting with senior officers, and after seeing
the superb power of planning and execution displayed by Monash, he changed his mind (Perry 2004, p349).
At the Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918 Monash applied his
doctrine of "peaceful penetration", and led Australian Divisions, along with a small detachment of US troops, to win a decisive
victory for the Allies. On 8 August
1918, the Battle of Amiens was launched. The British used
Australian and Canadian troops under Monash and Arthur Currie as an attacking spearhead
into the Germans. The battle was a strong victory for the British. The defeated German leader, General Ludendorff, described it in the following words: "August 8th was the black day of the German
Army in the history of the war". On 12 August 1918 Monash was
knighted KCB on the battlefield by King George V[2], the first time a British monarch had honoured a commander in such a way in 200 years. The
Australians then achieved a series of victories against the Germans at Chignes, Mont St Quentin, Peronne and Hargicourt. Monash eventually had 208,000 men under his command, including 50,000 inexperienced Americans.
Monash planned the attack on the German defences in the Battle of the Hindenburg
Line between 16 September and 5 October
1918. The Allies eventually breached the Hindenburg Line by the 5th of October, and the war was
essentially over. On 5 October, Prinz Max von Baden, on behalf of the German
Government, asked for an immediate Armistice on land, water and in the air. (Perry 2004, p443)
By the end of the war Monash had acquired an outstanding reputation for intellect, personal magnetism, management and
ingenuity. He also won the respect and loyalty of his troops: his motto was "Feed your troops on victory". Field Marshal Bernard
Montgomery later wrote: "I would name Sir John Monash as the best general on the western front in Europe".
Impact
Monash's impact on Australian military thinking was significant in three areas. Firstly he was the first Australian overall
commander of Australian forces and took, as subsequent Australian commanders did, a relatively independent line with his British
and US superiors. Secondly, he promoted the concept of the commander's duty to ensure the safety and well-being of his troops to
a pre-eminent position. And finally, he, along with the brilliant Staff Officer Brudenell
White forcefully demonstrated the benefit of thorough planning and integration of all arms of the forces available, and of
all of the components supporting the front line forces, including logistical, medical and recreational services. Troops later
recounted that one of the most extraordinary things about the Battle of Hamel was not the use of armoured cars, or simply the
tremendous success of the operation, but the fact that in the midst of battle Monash had arranged delivery of hot meals up to the
front line.
After the war
Soon after the conclusion of hostilities Monash was placed in charge of a special department to carry out the repatriation of
the Australian troops. He returned to Australia on 26 December 1919 to a tumultuous welcome[2].
Later, Monash worked in prominent civilian positions, the most notable being head of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) from October 1920. He was also
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 1923 until his death. Monash
was an active member of the Rotary Club of Melbourne, Australia's first Rotary Club, and served as its second President
(1922-23). He was called upon by the Victorian Government of Harry Lawson in 1923 to
organise 'special constables' to restore order during the 1923 Victorian Police
strike. He was one of the principal organisers of the annual observance of ANZAC Day,
and oversaw the planning for Melbourne's monumental war memorial, the Shrine of
Remembrance. Monash was honoured with numerous awards and decorations from universities and foreign governments. He died
in 1931 in Melbourne, where the City of Monash, Monash Medical Centre (the location of his bust, which originally resided in former SECV town
Yallourn) and Monash University are named
after him. His face is on Australia's highest value currency note ($100).
Also named in his honour is Kfar Monash ("Monash village") in Israel. Monash's success in part reflected the tolerance of Australian society, but to a larger degree his
success - in the harshest experience the young nation had suffered - shaped that tolerance and demonstrated to Australians that
the Australian character was diverse, multi-ethnic, and a blend of the traditions of
the 'Bush' and the 'city'.
In a final sign of humility, despite his achievements, honours and titles, he instructed that his tombstone simply bear the
words "John Monash". He is buried in Brighton General Cemetery. [3]
Further reading
- Roland Perry, Monash: The Outsider who Won A War, Random House, 2004
- P. A. Pedersen. Monash as military commander, Melbourne University Press, 1985
- Geoffrey Serle, John Monash: A biography, Melbourne University Press, 1982
- John Monash, The Australian Victories in France in 1918, Hutchinson & Co, 1920
References
- ^ a b c d Percival Serle (1949). Monash, General Sir
John. Dictionary of Australian Biography. Angus &
Robertson. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
- ^ a b c Geoffrey Serle (1986).
Monash, Sir John (1865 -
1931). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10 pp
543-549. MUP. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
- ^ A picture of Sir John and Lady Monash's tombstones http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/travis.html].
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