When Australian Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash was put in charge of almost all of the Australians in France in World War 1, he immediately set about to win a local victory at Le Hamel, but ended up helping all of the Allies win the war. This video goes into great detail about Australia's own John Monash, the architect who saved lives by developing tactics that are still followed today. Even British King George V honored him for his efforts with a field knighthood, something that hadn't happened in over 200 years up to that point. How did Monash do this? Watch the video and find out!

Note to the viewer: In one part of the video, it's mentioned that the Mark V tank is faster and the Whippet tank is mentioned right before this. I meant that the Mark V was faster than the Mark IV, not the Whippet tank. Just wanted you to know that in advance! Thanks for watching!

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Monash's Masterpiece: The Battle of Hamel

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Once in a century, a leader rises to the occasion that history provides. In the early days of the twentieth century, Australia was fortunate to have Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash at the right place and at the right time.

In July 1918, The war on the Western Front teetered on the brink. Russia had formally withdrawn from the war four months earlier to fight an internal civil war.

For the German High Command in the West, the main benefit of this Eastern peace was a sudden influx of almost 50 veteran divisions. This gave the Germans a temporary advantage in numbers on the frontline. German General Erich Ludendorff, of the Imperial Army's General Staff, couldn't clearly foresee the full effect of America's entry into the war at that time. However, Ludendorff did understand that the Central Powers could not continue with a war of attrition.

Therefore, he decided that the only way for Germany to keep its war gains was to launch massive offensives, using the newly arriving extra divisions from the East.

Starting on March 21, 1918, and continuing on for three months, the German army launched one major offensive after another, using Storm Troopers and creeping barrages to unhinge Allied trench lines.

The German army made massive territorial gains, but their success became their downfall, as their troops were severely depleted, exhausted and in exposed positions. German flanks were over-stretched and no longer protected by entrenchments. On top of all this, their supply situation was in a bad state.

After mid-June, most of the so-called Ludendorff offensives had ground to a halt with no advantages for the German side.

In response to the German Spring Offensive, the Australian 3rd Division, commanded by Major-General John Monash, was deployed to defend the area around Amiens.

After an opening became available, British Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig decided that Monash was the right man to command the Australian Army Corps, and on May 31st, Monash was promoted to Lieutenant-General in charge of almost all of the Australian Field Army in France.

Both sides were slowly learning how to overcome the deadlock on the Western Front. Gone were the days when men simply charged machine guns and were slaughtered en masse. To overcome the Germans, the Allies needed to use a combined arms approach that utilized the strengths of each of the weapons at their disposal.

Although the concept of combined arms goes back to antiquity, it was slow to be implemented in World War 1.

It also helped that the Germans had expanded their flanks to an extreme degree and this meant that Allied troops were attacking thinly-held enemy lines.

Many generals on both sides had recognized the importance of the new weapons, such as the aeroplane and new combat techniques, like the creeping barrage, where the artillery would fire in front of advancing infantry. For example, massed tanks had been used in Cambrai the year before, where it was demonstrated that tanks were more effective when used as an infantry weapon rather than as an artillery replacement.

However, very few generals had a full grasp of how to use the combined-arms approach as Lieutenant-General Monash did.

John Monash was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1865 to Prussian German immigrant parents. Monash spoke and wrote German fluently and loved German culture.

At the beginning of the Great War, Monash was a prominent Melbourne civil engineer and a Colonel in the reserve.