Hello friends!
Just blowing the dust off this blog to see if it works.
I get a semi-regular quotation from an an email list run by an officer in the Royal Canadian Regiment, and this particular quote below seems like a good pairing with a photo of minis I painted over ten years ago. I learned quite a bit on Monash when I toured the museum at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra last year. A great soldier.
Cheers,
Mike
"The true role of infantry is not to expend itself upon heroic physical effort, not to wither away under merciless machine-guns 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."
- General John Monash, Australian Corps Commander on the Western
Front during The Great War (1914-1918).
He put his writings into practice in his combined arms approach
during the battle of Le Hamel, France on 04 July 1918 (101 years ago
today). All of his objectives were achieved in 93 minutes, only three
minutes longer than he had calculated in his planning.
Success! Your blog still works!
ReplyDeleteLooks like we are all still here.😉
ReplyDeleteGeneral Monash was in stark contrast to the prodigality with which the British high Command (and the German, early in the war) expended the lives of their troops. The likes of historian John Terraine notwithstanding, I reckon the 'lions led by donkeys' tag applied aptly to most of the British commanders.
ReplyDeleteYou might find John Laffin's 'Butchers and Bunglers of World War One' interesting reading. Bear in mind, John Laffin was himself Australian. A certain John (quite a lot of 'Johns', here) C Clare has offered a critique of Laffin, but in my view takes the same approach that Laffin did.
(I note that Clare has no high opinion of Norman F. Dixon 'On the Psychology of Military Incompetence', neither, though to my mind writing off Dixon's analysis - that of a professional psychologist - as 'psycho-babble' doesn't do Clare's credibility any favours, whether or not one agrees with Dixon's conclusions.)
Cheers,
Ion
Huzzah
ReplyDeleteNeed to keep up on your gaming.
Twitter is ok but blogs have more substance
Sir John was quite the citizen soldier, thinker and leader.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed your visit to Canberra and that special place
Speaking of Norman C. Dixon's book, I recommend it highly, especially the first, historiographical, section. That part is a great read: highly entertaining. The second section is a wee bit of a chore - not too bad, but the analysis there has probably rather dated since the book was written. The tone lightens in the last section.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion