John Monash

General Sir John Monash, GCMG, KCB, VD (27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the First World War. He commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade before the war and then, shortly after its outbreak, became commander of the 4th Brigade in Egypt, with whom he took part in the Gallipoli campaign. In July 1916 he took charge of the newly raised 3rd Division in north-western France and in May 1918 became commander of the Australian Corps, at the time the largest corps on the Western Front.

Quotes

The Australian Victories in France in 1918

London: Hutchinson & Co., 1920

• I had formed the theory that the true rôle of the Infantry was not to expend itself upon heroic physical effort, nor to wither away under merciless machine-gun fire, nor to impale itself on hostile bayonets, nor to tear itself to pieces in hostile entanglements — (I am thinking of Pozières and Stormy Trench and Bullecourt, and other bloody fields) — 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; to march, resolutely, regardless of the din and tumult of battle, to the appointed goal; and there to hold and defend the territory gained; and to gather in the form of prisoners, guns and stores, the fruits of victory.
  • Ch. 5

• This achievement is, above everything else, an illustration, which should become classic, of the maxim that in war the moral is to the material as three to one.
  • Ch. 16

• "Feed your troops on victory," is a maxim which does not appear in any text-book, but it is nevertheless true.
  • Ch. 17

• The nation that wishes to defend its land and its honour must spare no effort, refuse no sacrifice to make itself so formidable that no enemy will dare to assail it. A League of Nations may be an instrument for the preservation of peace, but an efficient Army is a far more potent one.
  • Ch. 17