Scotch College

In the steps of Monash

In June 2008 General Peter Gration AC OBE (’48), former chief of the Australian Defence Force, will lead a special Remembrance and Pilgrimage tour to the battlefields of Gallipoli and the Western Front. You can join him.

Words: Tim Shearer

The tour will be in the footsteps of General Sir John Monash (1881, dux) and the other Old Scotch Collegians who served in the First World War. Scotch College made an enormous contribution to Australia’s effort in the First World War and had many representative high-ranking officers in the armed forces, including General Sir John Monash, Major-General Sir James McCay (1880, dux), Brigadier-General Robert Smith (1898) and Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Marshall DSO, MC, who was the first soldier to enlist in AIF as a private to rise to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He enlisted in the Public Schools Company of the 5th Battalion.

The tour will first travel to Istanbul in Turkey, before travelling to Gallipoli. In Gallipoli General Gration and local guides will escort the group through Anzac Cove where Major-General McCay (then a Colonel) commanded the 2nd Brigade ashore and Lieutenant A. P. Derham won a Military Cross on the first day of the landing. Many other Old Boys died around Anzac Cove and Lone Pine during the campaign, including Corporal J. D. Burns, an editor of the Collegian who was well known for his poetry.

On the Gallipolli campaign General Sir John Monash was given command of the 4th Brigade. The 4th Brigade began landing at Anzac Cove on the evening of 25 April 1915. The brigade took over the critical left centre of the line, Quinn’s, Courtney’s and Steele’s Posts and Pope’s Hill, while the valley behind them became known as Monash Valley. Monash organised the defence so as to minimise the strain on his men, especially those holding the worst parts of the line, emphasising the defensive role of machine guns. After defeating the Turkish attack of 19 May, the 4th Brigade was withdrawn into reserve on 29 May.

The tour will then travel back to Istanbul and fly to Paris, France. After some time in the capital, the group will travel to Amiens, Cambrai and Ypres in Belgium to visit the Western Front. We will visit the major battle sites including Poziers where Australia’s first major battle occured on 23 July 1916, Fromelles, Pachendale, Ypres where we will attend the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate. We will visit La Boiselle, Mouquet Farm, Thiepval and Newfoundland Park. We will see the 1st Australian Division memorial and the 1916 museum. We will visit Bullecourt, the WWI museum and ‘the Digger’ memorial.

We will visit the 1918 Somme battlefields including Villers Brettoneux where on the famous night counter-attack, of 24-25 April 1918, Old Scotch Collegian Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Marshall took control of the attacking battalions of the 15th Brigade at their forming-up position and got the whole brigade straightened up and moving forward on the right lines; the operation was a brilliant success. He was awarded a Bar to the DSO for his part in the battle. We will visit the 3rd Division museum, the ANZAC museum and the digger memorial.

We will see the site where the Red Baron was shot down, controversy remaining to this day to who shot the famed aviator down. Flight-Commander R A Little (’15) battled the German air force in this area in an aircraft decorated in the Scotch colours of Cardinal, Gold and Blue. His tally of at least seventy-six German aircraft and decorations of DSO and Bar, the Distinguished Service Cross with two Bars and the Croix de Guerre was probably never equaled.

On 31 May 1918, Monash assumed command of the Australian Corps and was promoted to lieutenant-general. His appointment was recommended by Haig, and supported by the Australian government, against the opposition of correspondents Bean and Murdoch. With a strength of 166,000 men, the Australian Corps was the largest of the 20 corps in the BEF, and the largest field force in Australian history. As Monash noted, it was larger than either Wellington’s or Napoleon’s armies at Waterloo.

Monash’s first battle as corps commander, at Hamel, was a spectacular success. The battle plan combined an innovative approach to the use of aviation and armour with the most detailed artillery and administrative preparations yet. This was but the first of a series of great victories, on which Monash’s reputation as a great commander now rests. We will be at the site of the battle of Hamel on 4 July 2008, exactly 90 years to the day of the battle. Feel what it was like to be there on the day! We will celebrate Monash’s first major victory, which led to further success and the end of the war. We will also commemorate those who served.

Monash’s next battle was a larger one, incorporating all the innovations of Hamel, at Amiens on 8 August 1918. Few battles of the war were so successful, the Australians and Canadians driving all before them. Some 7925 prisoners were taken and 173 guns were captured as the corps rolled over the German gun lines. In the wake of the victory, Monash was presented with his KCB on 12 August by King George V in a ceremony at his headquarters at Bertangles, which we will also visit on the tour.

Monash pushed his troops forward in the wake of the attack, with diminishing results over the next few days. On 23 August Monash made another attack at Chuignes, which forced the Germans to retreat back to the Somme River. A few days later the corps won perhaps its greatest victories at Mont St Quentin and Peronne. Unlike most of Monash’s battles, which were set pieces, this was a battle of manoeuvre, in which Monash’s flexibility, foresight, imagination and skill had full play, and the corps forced the Germans from positions that they could not afford to lose, compelling them to retreat to the Hindenburg Line. Monash drove both his men and himself to the limits of their endurance, pressing the Germans all the way. The tour will visit the sites of these famous battles that led to victory for the Allies. We visit Peronne and Mt St Quentin. We will also visit the Hindenburg Line, the St Quentin tunnel, Bony and the 4th Division memorial and the AIF’s final battle sites.

General Gration will guide the group through these sites and explain General Monash’s tactics and battle plans and why he was victorious. While in France enjoy the camaraderie of group members as we celebrate the contribution of Scotch and Australia to the First World War. Enjoy the fine food and wine that France is famous for while exploring these historic battlefields.

The tour will then travel by train through the Chunnel to London where it will visit the new Australian War Memorial. There will be a final night dinner before the conclusion of the tour.

The tour will be a celebration and commemoration of all the Old Scotch Collegians who served in the First World War. They will not be forgotten.

Please contact Simon Walliss (’86) at Travelrite International for a detailed brochure about the tour, which is open to all members and friends of the Scotch Family on 1800 630 343.