Gallipoli a sideshow, Western front our victory: Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott says the part Australians played on the western front in 1918 was “the one time thus far we impacted on wider world”.

Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: AAP.

Tony Abbott says the part played by the Australian Imperial Force on the western front in 1918 was “probably the one time thus far in our history when we have dramatically impacted on the wider world”.

The former prime minister told The Australian that Gallipoli “was essentially a side show” in the broader sweep of World War I, before taking his first stroll through the Sir John Monash Centre at the Australian national memorial at the French village of Villers-Bretonneux.

The centre was opened by Malcolm Turnbull on the afternoon before Anzac Day as he wound up his European trip after discussions with world leaders in London, Berlin and Brussels.

Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott at the official opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux. Picture: AAP.

Mr Abbott, who commissioned the centre’s construction as prime minister, told The Australian the purpose behind it was to recognise the role of Australian soldiers in shaping world affairs on the western front in the final year of the Great War.

He said it was imperative that Australia did not let the “heroic defeat of Gallipoli obscure the terrible victory of the Western front”.

“This was probably the one time thus far in our history when we have dramatically impacted on the wider world,” Mr Abbott said. “The Western front was a victory, not a defeat. And it was world shaping. Gallipoli for all of its importance was essentially a side show in the great strategy of the war”.

He said it was “a wonderful moment” to attend the opening of the centre, arguing it paid tribute to the “great men who saved France” and recognised the ideals of “duty and service”.

Mr Abbott said Monash was Australia’s “greatest ever general” and probably the “best allied general of the Great War”.

“Given the scale of that conflict, given its pivotal nature to the modern world, it is important that we remember what this one man achieved and what the five Divisions of the AIF under him achieved,” he said.

“We can only build a future if we appreciate where we have been and where we are. And I would like to think that our future will be that much better and stronger if we remember the greatest achievements of the past”.

“We were about 10 per cent of the British army. But even if you look at the raw statistics, in the last six months of the war we captured 20 per cent of the territory, 20 per cent of the guns and (on) August 8 — the Battle of Amiens — which the German High Command described as the ‘black day’ of the German army was the moment when the German spirit was broken and when their defeat became a matter of when, not if”.

“The Battle of Amiens was Monash’s conception and execution. And it was almost entirely the work of the first AIF”.

Mr Abbott also said he did not support the push to posthumously promote Monash to the rank of Field Marshal, saying it was “well intentioned” but an exercise in “rewriting history”.

“I think there are other and better ways of honouring Monash such as through this centre,” Mr Abbott said. “I’m not in favour of rewriting history. I don’t want to rewrite it for good or for ill and pretending that Monash was a Field Marshal when, no, he was a Lieutenant General which is the right rank for a Corps commander.”

“We don’t have to make him a Field Marshal to appreciate that he is our greatest ever soldier”.