Australia
John Monash
1865–1931 Commander, Australian Corps, from May 1918
Monash, an engineer and lawyer from Melbourne, of German-Jewish descent, was appointed to command the Australian Corps in May 1918, and almost at once showed that he was the best planner on the Allied side. His method was to treat battle as an industrial process: precise timetables, models of the ground, enormous amounts of artillery, and tanks and aircraft to spare men. At Hamel on 4 July he won a victory in 93 minutes, and at Amiens, Mont Saint-Quentin and the Hindenburg Line he repeated his success. King George V knighted him on the battlefield in August 1918. After the war he organized Australia's demobilization and later directed the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.