At 0800 precisely a WWI plane, a Sopwith Pup, overflew The Shrine of Remembrance to commence the 2006 commemoration of 0808.

Gathered on the forecourt below were representatives of the RAAF – successor of the Australian Flying Corps, especially being honored this year for their major part in winning the Battle, along with Shrine Trustees, 2 Great-Grandchildren of General Sir John Monash, Commander of all Australian Forces, the Director of the RAAF Museum, guests from the 39^th Battalion – being re-commissioned later that day – and the President and 20 members of The Rotary Club of Melbourne.

Kevin O'Flaherty, Convener 0808, welcomed the Gathering to The Shrine.

He said: ‘0808 is a commemoration to remember and honour all who took part in the Battle of Amiens.  This day 88 years ago about this time the Germans realised they could no longer win WWI.  This was their biggest blow – masterminded by General John Monash and carried out by the combined efforts of the AFC and the tanks, artillery and infantry of the Australian Forces’.

Roland Perry outlined the formation of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) 1916-18.  4 Squadrons were based 15km north of Amiens, while 4 Training Squadrons trained pilots in England.

‘Monash’s plan for 0808 asked for a 800 planes across the front.  I guess that up to 200 planes were under Australian control - at one point Monash had 12 squadrons operating.  There were estimated to be 200-250 Australian personnel, including Pilots, in the Battle of Amiens.

Planes were used to cover the noise of advancing tanks, to re-supply, for ammunition supply, reconnaissance and intelligence, dropping bombs, and machine gunning the enemy.   Artillery patrol planes called down fire on every enemy battery.  Counter attack planes signalled enemy infantry concentration, wirelessed reports, confirmed locations by flying straight towards the centre of a threatened counter-attack,

Roland Perry went on to report: ‘German analysis of Australian 0808 operations from the writings of Heinz Guderian, who fought at Amiens, and who in WW2 was in charge of the German armoured divisions that conducted the Blitzkriegs of Poland and France.

Guderian’s book, Achtung Panzer (1937), demonstrated how much the Germans had been studying Monash’s tank warfare following 0808. 

Guderian reported that on 0808 the Australian attack took the whole of the German infantry (in this sector) between 0920 and 1100 hours.  Towards 1030 German reserves tried to hold the ravine south of Morcourt, but already by 1100 they had been enveloped by the tanks and their position was hopeless; half an our later they were wiped out by the combined fire of aircraft, machine guns and tanks…and the Australians reached their second objective on schedule.

…. the AustralianCorps (broke) through the German battle zone (taking) all the German artillery with the exception of a few guns. The only forces that the Germans could throw against them were a few battalions resting in the rear; while they were still on their way they were badly mauled by aircraft and long-range artillery fire….Aircraft successfully attacked and pinned down the German reserves.

Guderian was scathing about the British High Command who did not push on - he ridiculed them time and time again.

The record is clear.  John Monash tried to persuade the British High Command to push hard East in order to finish WWI.  Had the British HQ heeded Monash’s advice, with which the Germans were in full accord, WW1 would have been over in mid-August, not 3 months later - and would have been an even more clear cut victory’, Perry concluded.

Maj Gen Jim Barry, AM, MBE, RFD, ED (Retd), National President, Defence Reserves Association, and Deputy Chair of the Spirit of Australia Foundation, and Chris Wang, President, The Rotary Club of Melbourne responded with commitments from their organisations to future 0808 activities.

Kevin O'Flaherty invited all present to inspect the Battle Flag of the 39^th Battalion which flew at Amiens on 0808-1918.  This flag, presented to The Shrine a day earlier, is in dire need of preservation – a project President Chris immediately claimed for RCM.

President Chris laid a wreath in The Sanctuary for all who fell in the Battle of Amiens, after which 0808 concluded with the Gathering moving to the Monash Monument at Government House Drive.