Mont St Quentin: A soldier's battle

[Crunchy]

Mont St Quentin: A soldier's battle. Bill Billet. Rosenberg Publishing. 192 pages.

The capture of Mont St Quentin and Peronne by the Australian Corps in 1918 was a masterful feat of arms that earned eight Victoria Crosses, and the acclaim of General Rawlinson, Commander of the Fourth Army.

In Mont St Quentin A soldier’s battle Bill Billet narrates two elements of this battle: the capture of Mont St Quentin by the 2nd Australian Division, and of Peronne by the 5th Australian Division. The third element, the 3rd Australian Division’s action to secure the Bouchavesnes Spur overlooking the Mont, is not discussed, which is a major omission given the hard fighting that occurred there, including the award of two Victoria Crosses, and the need to secure the spur if Mont St Quentin was to be held.

The author has mastered the details of this fine action, as far as he covers it. He provides an account of the prelude to the battle, and the five days fighting to secure the Mont and Peronne, followed by an analysis of the ingredients of victory; tactics and training; and command and strategy. His explanations of the tactics and weaponry that enabled severely depleted battalions to achieve this extraordinary victory, are useful but not new given the enormous amount written on them by other historians.

The presentation, however, is disappointing. The writing lacks polish, and, despite two excellent maps on the inside covers of the book, one has difficulty following the action as the author becomes immersed in detail, and digresses on issues that, while interesting, disrupt the narrative, and some are quite irrelevant to the main story. Nor does the structure help; it might have been better to present the narrative chronologically rather than by the detailed actions of each formation. Thus, one loses an overall picture of the progression of the battle.

The analysis at the end of the book, while good in parts, is often shallow, especially with his judgements on command and strategy. While Billet generally rates Monash well, mainly through the assessments of others, his criticism that Monash should have led from the front is unconvincing. The comparison with Stonewall Jackson fails to recognize the significant differences in the size and nature of the battlefields, weaponry and formations each controlled 55 years apart. Comparison with Elliot, a brigade commander controlling four battalions, and Monash, a corps commander controlling six divisions (including one British) of 18 brigades and 76 battalions, plus Corps troops, fails to recognize the vastly different span of control and responsibilities each had. Nor does he suggest how Monash could have effectively carried out his responsibilities over a Corps frontage of ten kilometers by leading from the front. At Cambrai, Ellis of the Tank Corps found all he could do by leading from the front was control the tank he was in; he quickly returned to his headquarters where he was much more effective in directing his Corps.

Clearly, this was a labour of love, but overall it is a disappointing and confusing book to read, that does not do justice this fine victory, which despite Billet's sub title was more than a soldier's battle.