The offensive at Le Hamel was planned by John Monash, commander of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on the Western Front. Launched on 4th July it was carried out by the Australian 4th Division and four companies of the United States Army. The offensive was a complete success and demonstrated the effectiveness of Monash's peaceful penetration tactics. The village of Le Hamel was secured within two hours and nearly 1,500 prisoners were taken.




Sir John Monash presenting a decoration to a soldier in the
Australian Imperial Force after the Battle of Le Hamel in 1918.

 

 

 


 


(1) Philip Gibbs was a journalist who reported the war on the Western Front.

General Monash was another great general without professional training. He was an Australian Jew - tall, heavily built, big-nosed. It was to him, and to his acute brain and quick decision, that we owed the surprise attack by the Australians at Villers Bretonneux which saved Amiens, and perhaps the Channel ports, after the retreat of 1918, when disaster was very near and but little stood in the enemy's way that night.

Some years after the war I met General Monash at a luncheon in Guildhall. We came out together and I walked beside this tall hook-nosed man whose uniform was dangling with orders and decorations.

"Shall l fetch you a taxi-cab, sir?" I asked.

"No, my boy," he answered. "I shall go on the twopenny tube. I never waste money on taxis unless I can't help it."

 

Storm of Steel is available from Amazon

 

 


Google
 

Educational Websites

Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History,
HistoryWorld, I Love History,
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20,
Sintermeerten, ICT4LT


News and Search

Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times,
Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4, ZDNet,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, Ask, Search,
Go, Looksmart, Dogpile, Raging Search, All the Web, Kartoo, Search Engine Watch, About