New-York tribune., 1919-08-03
Sir nMonash
Says Americans
Never Failed
No Matter Where u. S. Sol
diers We're Placed They
Delivered Goods, He De-
clares in London Speech
Commanded First 1000
Australians Accepted Them
at Once as Blood Broth
ers, Their Leader Asserts

ASe HUI LCdUcT ASScflS
:
LONDON, July 4 Correspondence Of
Thes Associated Press Australian and
American soldiers are "full blood broth
ers.Y in the opinion of Lieutenant Gen
eraE Sir John Monash, commander in
chief of the Australian forces il the
war, because the Americans were never
placed in any position. nor called upon
to perform any duty. when. as the
general expressed it in an Independ-
ence Day speech here tonight. they did
not tdeliver the goods"
General Monash said he first reached
thissconclusi in the early dawn of the
Fourth of July. 1918, when for the first
:time Australian troops. fighting side
by side with the Americans in the
Somme sector won >the battle of Hamel
and gave to the Allied arms the first
success they had achieved since the
Germans began their memorable ad-
vance on March 81.
"Phis battle was the turning point of
the war;" said General Monash. "It
was, brilliant and unqualified success
.andSlts effect upon the morale both of
the enemy and Of our own men, was
electric and startling. 1t became the
modsi OF all subsequent achievements
in France, and it paved the way for the
'great counter offensive in August"
1000 Americans Engaged
The American troops engaged, the
General said, were 1000 men from the
s;2d DlUlclOn oJ
John Bell. The 33d Division was then
undergoing training. General Monash
said he had asked and obtained per-
mission to employ 1000 of the Amer
leans in the battle of Hame. but on
the eve of the battle the permission
was withdrawn.
u passed strenuous and exciting
two hours continued General Monash
so far as | could learn the order orig
mated in some misunderstanding at
American General Headquarters as to
the state of preparedness for battle of
this division.
81 could not afford to have my battle
plans ruined at the last moment by the
withdrawal of a large fraction of my
assaulting infantry, so | went to my
army commander and delivered an
utmatum. If the Americans were not
allowed to remain in the order of bat
tie, then the battle in the morning
would be off. Unless decision was
given by o'clock that night the bat
tic would go on with the Americans in
1T as planned. We managed to inter
cept the commander in chief and he
gave the order, carry on
Took Them to Their Hearts
"fhose 900 American covered them
selves with glory, and | can pay them
no greater compliment than by saying
that from that day on our Australian
veterans took them to their hearts as
fulleblood brothers,"
General Monash declared that the
1876 American Regiment of the 33d
Division, in company with the 18th
Australian Brigade, "fought a most
gallant and successful series of actions
which resulted in the capture of
Chipilly Spur when the great counter
offensive was launched by Australians
and Canadians in the Somme sector on
August 8, 1918. "This," he said, made
secure my left flank, thereby enabling
me to get astrde the Valley of the
Somme and hunt the enemy clean out
OF 1T for twenty miles"
General Monash had under his COM
mand in the closing days of the war
the whole Second American Army
Corps, more than $4,000 men of the
27th and 30th American divisions. This
army, he said, overthrew the Hinden-
burg defence system at its most
strongly defended point" The share of
the American divisions in these opera
tons was characterized by General
Monash as "probably the greatest single
American feat of arms achieved in the
whole war" The operations were COM
pieted on October 5, he said. and it was
on that night that "the Germans threw
up the sponge and declared their will
lngness to make peace on our own
terms"
Delivered the Goods
have been asked over and over
again to express my opinion of the
American troops" General Monash
continued. 81 am not going to be so
foolish "a to attempt to do so here and
now, am only going to say in your
own expressive vernacular that at all
times and in every place whore | have
used them, the American II OOPS de
livered the goods
"You may we'll believe that this close
association in war of such large bodies
OF Australians and Americans has
erected very real and lasting friend
ship, between our two democracies,
The foundations of that friendship had
already been laid many years before by
the visit of the American battle feet
to Australia
"li can assure you that Australia at
taches much Importance to securing
and maintaining the friendship of
America. We look upon the United
States as our big brother in the Pacific,
and if any one Of you has reflected on
the problems of the Pacific which are
going to arise in the future, he will
know what | mean by that observation {"