Monash - the brilliant and yet largely unknown Australian General who defeated Germany and put an end to WW1

John Monash is arguably the greatest Australian ever and yet he is largely unknown in his own country. It is our view that this needs to change.

Monash can certainly be credited with bringing WW1 to an end much earlier than would have otherwise occurred, with his revolutionary battle tactics on The Western Front, leading to the German surrender in 1918.  When Monash was finally given command of the Australian armies and many allied troops in July 1918 and when his battle plans and tactics were fully implemented across all the Allied Forces, the war ended in a few months and saved the lives of thousands of allied and German soldiers and countless civilians. 

This part-time soldier was also a brilliant engineer, with the design and construction of many bridges to his credit in Victoria still in use today, including Princes Bridge and the Anderson Street Bridge across the Yarra. He was a mathematician, journalist, lawyer, a classical pianist of some standing and an accomplished illusionist; all skills he put to great use on the battlefield. 

Three hundred thousand people turned out for his funeral in Melbourne in 1931 - a massive crowd not equalled in Australian history - and yet, less than a century later - he is hardly known by the Australian public, let alone the rest of the world. Monash is all but ignored in British military history and under represented in Australia's official history.

How did a Melbourne-born Jew, fluent in German, get to lead the Allies to victory after years of stalemate on the Western Front? Who was this unlikely hero and why has he been all but forgotten?

"If General Monash was an American we would have a statue of him in every town square." 

(Joel Roberts - American Broadcaster and Communications Guru - November 2011)

For this unlikely Australian to find himself in command of much of the Allied Forces is a tribute to his incredible intelligence, confidence and ability to overcome anti-semitism and a conservative British Military Establishment, some of whom considered him a colonial interloper. Having seen years of useless slaughter he was determined to make a difference and to put an end to it as soon as he could.

If that wasn't enough to deal with; Monash had Australia's official war correspondent, Charles Bean and influential Australian journalist Keith Murdoch, determined to bring him down and who were urging the Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, to remove Monash from authority. All three were in France on that mission on the eve of the first major battle Monash was to conduct. America had committed troops for the very first time in WW1 and they were also trying to withdraw their men at the last minute.  Monash skilfully handled all the issues and on the following morning - July 4, 1918 - he launched the 'Battle of Hamel' which saw radical new ideas for battle introduced and an outstanding victory conducted in 93 minutes instead of days, weeks and months which was the norm. Germany never quite rallied from this crushing defeat and several battles later - with Monash's ideas blueprinted across all the Allied Forces and Monash himself in charge of huge numbers of troops - Germany was beaten and surrendered.

Yet Monash was much more than a soldier. He returned to Australia and used his incredible skills to develop the Victorian State Electricity System, a massive project which was delivered on time and on budget, providing all of Victoria with cheap, reliable electricity. He was instrumental in the building of the Shrine of Remembrance and was forever making sure Australia didn't forget the men who fought and died for its freedom and the thousands of damaged and wounded who returned home. He was influential and effective in many areas of public life until his death. Yet his life was not without considerable controversy and a lot of colour.

All Australians should know this story and a fully featured general release movie is the objective of this crowd funding exercise. Please choose to be a part of helping us to bring this movie to fruition.

• Incoporation legal fees                                      $3,000
• Accounting/Audit Fees                                      $2,000 
• Research and fact finding                                 $4,000
• Travel & Accom for writers/researchers         $4,500
• Production Management Fees                         $5,000
• Writers Fee  for initial screenplay                  $55,000
• Fund raising fees                                                 $7,000 
• Contingency Allowance                                    $9,000
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• Toal Required - Pre-Production  phase                        $ 89,500  
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