Defence analysis

with

Ross Eastgate is a military historian, writer and journalist specialising in defence. A graduate of Duntroon and the Army Command and Staff College, he has served in the Middle East, PNG and East Timor.

FORMER deputy prime minister Tim Fischer is a fighter in all senses of that word.

Conscripted in 1966, he was commissioned and served in South Vietnam in 1968-1969 with 1RAR, fighting at the battle of Coral.

Diagnosed in October 2018 with acute myeloid leukaemia, he is now in a fight for his life.

If that wasn’t enough, Fischer is fighting to have Australian World War I general Sir John Monash posthumously promoted to the highest military rank.

A train buff and a prolific author, Fischer wrote Maestro John Monash: Australia’s Greatest Citizen Soldier, a biography suggesting Monash was denied the ultimate accolade for his service, promotion to field marshal.

In British military tradition it is a rank usually conferred upon a general who has achieved a major battle victory.

For example, General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery was promoted to field marshal after his victory leading the 8th Army at the battle of El Alamein in October-november 1942.

He was later created Montgomery of Alamein.

Montgomery, a prolific military historian who also served in World Viscount

War I, considered Monash the most capable Allied general of that war.

Only one Australian has been appointed field marshal, Sir Thomas Blamey, who on his deathbed was recalled to duty for a day and appointed to the rank in 1950.

Fischer and Monash have some things in common.

Monash was initially raised at Jerilderie in rural Victoria, Fischer across the NSW border in Lockhart.

Both men had German ancestry, though Monash was Jewish and Fischer Roman Catholic.

Monash’s religion was problematical throughout some sections of Melbourne’s military and social establishment, where Australia’s army headquarters were then located.

There had been fierce opposition to his appointment to senior commands.

After his victories on the European Western Front in World War I, Monash was considered a favourite of Britain’s King George V.

The King bestowed several honours on him, including breaking tradition to knight him in the field.

Monash’s greatest victory was undoubtedly the Battle of Hamel in July 1918.

Monash commanded the 1st Australian Corps but also had British and uniquely soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force under his command.

He was nearly sacked before the battle when Australian prime minister Billy Hughes was persuaded to intervene after official historian Charles Bean and war correspondent Keith Murdoch, among others, attempted to convince Hughes that Monash did not enjoy the confidence of his senior officers.

Hughes was unconvinced and refused to remove Monash, whose concept, planning, preparation and conduct of Hamel remains a textbook example of modern, largescale operations.

After the November 1918 Armistice, Monash’s plans for the repatriation of Australian soldiers also provided an inspirational, administrative model.

As ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer was at the forefront of efforts to canonise Australia’s first saint, Mary Mckillop.

He has approached his campaign to promote Monash posthumously with the same passion and determination.

Not everyone agrees with Fischer’s views on posthumous promotions, but none should underestimate his tenacity.

Nor has he ever walked away from a fight.