Feed the Troops on Victory : A Study of the Australian Corps and its Operations During August and September 1918

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Copyright: Stobo, Richard
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Abstract
This thesis examines reasons for the success of the Australian Corps in August and September 1918, its final two months in the line on the Western Front. For more than a century, the Corps’ achievements during that time have been used to reinforce a cherished belief in national military exceptionalism by highlighting the exploits and extraordinary fighting ability of the Australian infantrymen, and the modern progressive tactical approach of their native-born commander, Lieutenant-General Sir John Monash. This study re-evaluates the Corps’ performance by examining it at a more comprehensive and granular operational level than has hitherto been the case. What emerges is a complex picture of impressive battlefield success despite significant internal difficulties that stemmed from the particularly strenuous nature of the advance and a desperate shortage of manpower. These played out in chronic levels of exhaustion, absenteeism and ill-discipline within the ranks, and threatened to undermine the Corps’ combat capability. In order to reconcile this paradox, the thesis locates the Corps’ performance within the wider context of the British army and its operational organisation in 1918. While the study shows that the Australian Corps did comprise an unusually large percentage of experienced, well-trained and battle-hardened soldiers, it concludes that its high level of combat effectiveness was due essentially to the massive, sophisticated and resilient network of supply and support systems in place by that stage of the war. At its core, therefore, this is a study in microcosm of the BEF's doctrinal, tactical and technological evolution (or ‘learning process’), of which the Australians were prime beneficiaries. The thesis argues that, given the serious internal difficulties it faced, the Australian Corps’ success in August and September 1918 was only possible because it advanced for those two months at the absolute pinnacle of the British Army’s military development and operational capability, and against an enemy in serious decline.
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Stobo, Richard
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Publication Year
2021
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Thesis
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PhD Doctorate
UNSW Faculty
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