Hailing Monash’s World War I endeavours

A NEW memorial centre to be built in France commemorating the tens of thousands of diggers who lost their lives on the Western Front during World War I is to be named in honour of Australia’s Jewish military leader General Sir John Monash.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott made the announcement during a visit last Saturday to Villers-Bretonneux, site of an Australian military cemetery and the Australian National Memorial.

On Friday, Abbott had joined world leaders at a service in Normandy marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings which marked the turning point of World War II.

Speaking at Villers-Bretonneux, the Prime Minister focused on the contribution of Australian soldiers, and in particular Monash, to the Allied forces between 1914 and 1918.

Noting that “No place on earth has been more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than these fields in France,” Abbott insisted “Australians should be as familiar with the story of the Western Front as we are with Gallipoli. Australians should be at least as familiar with the achievements of Monash as we are with the heroism of John Simpson Kirkpatrick.”

Stating that diggers “comprised less than 10 per cent of total British Empire forces but made almost a quarter of all the gains in the war’s decisive final months,” Abbott continued, “It’s the only time Australian forces have been in the main battles of the main war theatre and made a major difference to its outcome.”

“Their commander, General Sir John Monash, brought organisation and technology to the battlefield to break the stalemate of trench warfare and the futility of men charging against barbed wire and machine guns. Prime Minister Lloyd George called him ‘the most resourceful general in the whole British army’.”

Urging Australians to congregate at the site just as they do at Anzac Cove on April 25, Abbott said, “On Anzac Day, four years hence, the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, I’m sure they will. Because that’s the day, all going well, a new interpretive centre, the Sir John Monash Centre, will open here on the principal site that Monash and his fellow soldiers chose to dedicate to their comrades’ service and sacrifice.”

Parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister Josh Frydenberg, a long time admirer of Monash, said “This is appropriate recognition of the enormous contribution Sir John Monash made during the Great War. He is not only Australia’s greatest citizen soldier, but arguably our greatest Australian.”

ZEDDY LAWRENCE

A new WWI memorial centre in France will be named in honour of General Sir John Monash.