Chapter 66 – John

John Monash’s transcription of General Godley’s speech to the 4th Brigade in Reserve Valley of 2 June 1915 is reproduced (less one paragraph) from War Letters of General Monash (p. 46-48). In a letter to his wife Victoria, dated 18 July, Monash notes the “total lack of perspective that the Australian Public have acquired, as a result of Ashmead-Bartlett’s story of the original landing, and the fact that for a long time it was the only account which the War Office allowed to be published. Australia seems to think that our work began and ended with that first rush ashore.” (p. 58).

Roland Perry describes a confrontation between Monash and the Australian war correspondent Charles Bean on 2 June in his biography Monash: The Outsider Who Won a War (pp. 206-207).  Perry states that Bean stayed close to the 1st Division and was ignorant of the exploits of the 4th Brigade, particularly during the Turkish counter-attack of 19 May “when the brigade’s defence was at its most magnificent…Monash took the opportunity to complain that the 4th was not getting its due in press coverage. He grew heated when Bean demonstrated that he knew very little of the brigade’s hard work.”

Peter Pederson, in Monash as a Military Commander , states that around this time Monash accused Bean of misrepresenting the 4th Brigade’s role at the landing on 25 April, and quote’s Monash as complaining that Bean “has on several occasions, gone out of his way to emphasise that the troops of the 4th Brigade did not take part in the landing”. Pederson states “Thus began Monash’s campaign for publicity for himself and those he commanded, which continued throughout the war.” Monash sent the words of Godley’s address home to his wife Victoria, urging her to have it published in full. Monash sent another copy to his brother-in-law in London, stating that “One ought not to hide one’s bright light under a bushel” (p. 81). Pederson quotes Monash as saying, of the landing, at about the end of June 1915: “I gave [Bean] a good talking to about it and perhaps he will mend his ways” (p. 106).

Charles Bean describes “The Landing at Gaba Tepe” in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol II, chapter XII (pp. 245-281) . This chapter describes the landing of 1st Division troops (initially 3rd Brigade, then 1st and 2nd Brigades). The only mention made in this chapter of the New Zealand and Australian Division, including Monash’s 4th Brigade, is in a table of all units landed at Anzac between 25 April and 1 May 1915 (p. 281). Involvement of the 4th Brigade troops is described later (from p. 468). However, in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol IV, Charles Bean describes the holding of the head of Monash Valley by the 4th Brigade as one of the four finest feats of the AIF up to 1917 (p. 488).

In his diary, Charles Bean notes that on 31 July 1915, that he “spent all day getting particulars of work of 4th Bde on first day…”