Lieutenant General
Sir Carl Herman Jess CB,
CMG,
CBE,
DSO (
16 February 1884 –
16 June 1948) was an
Australian Army Lieutenant General who served in
WWI and
WWII. Jess was born in
Bendigo and started his military career in 1899 when he joined the First Victorian Volunteer Cadets. During WWI he served at
Gallipoli and on the
Western Front, reaching the rank of brigadier. Jess saw no action in WWII, he commanded the
6th Division for a short period but was replaced by general
Blamey. He became Director of Women's National Services in 1943 and organised the
Women's Land Army. He died at the
Heidelburg Repatriation Hospital in
Melbourne on
16 June 1948 and was cremated with full military honours.
Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean was a
sailor in the
Royal Australian Navy during
World War II. Teddy Sheean was posted on the
Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Armidale in
1942 when it was given the task of landing commandos at Betano. On
December 1 during the second attempt to reach Betano, Armidale came under attack. Teddy Sheean manned an
Oerlikon Anti-aircraft gun and was wounded by strafing
Japanese planes, he went down with the ship, still strapped into the gun and still shooting at the attacking aircraft. For his actions during the war the
Collins Class submarine
HMAS Sheean was named after him, with the motto "Fight On".
Vice-Admiral
Sir John Augustine Collins,
KBE,
CB (1899–1989) was an Australian naval officer who served in
World War I and
World War II, and who eventually rose to become the First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board and Chief of Naval Staff. Collins was one of the first graduates of the
Royal Australian Naval College to attain flag rank. During World War II, he commanded the
cruiser HMAS Sydney in the
Mediterranean. The latest class of Australian
submarine, the
Collins class bears his name. The first of these,
HMAS Collins, was launched by his widow in 1993.
General
Sir John Monash,
GCMG,
KCB,
VD (
27 June 1865 –
8 October 1931), Australian military commander of the
First World War, was born in
Melbourne,
Victoria, to parents of
Prussian-
Jewish origin. Monash began attended the
University of Melbourne in 1893 and studied engineering and later law. He joined a militia unit, becoming a colonel in 1913. He joined the
AIF at the outbreak off
World War I and steadily rose through the ranks. In May 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant-general and made commander of the
Australian Corps. He held several high public office position after the war, he also has a
University,
City and
Freeway named after him. Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery later wrote: "I would name Sir John Monash as the best general on the western front in Europe."
Field Marshal
Lord William Riddell Birdwood GCB GCSI GCMG GCVO GBE CIE DSO (
13 September 1865 –
17 May 1951) was a First World War general who is best known as the commander of the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. From 1899 to 1902 during the
Boer War Birdwood served as a military secretary on the staff of
Lord Kitchener an association that continued in India until the outbreak of World War I. In November 1914 Birdwood was instructed to form an army
corps of Australian and New Zealand troops training in Egypt, Birdwood lead these men during the
landing at Anzac Cove on
April 25, 1915. After the evacuation from
Gallipoli Birdwood took command of the newly formed
II Anzac Corps. When the
I Anzac Corps become the first corp to departed for France as senior commander Birdwood swapped with General
Alexander Godley. On the
May 31,
1918 Birdwood attained command of the British Fifth Army, with command of the Australian Corps passing to General
John Monash.
Alfred John Shout VC MC born in
Trentham New Zealand, (
7 August 1881 –
11 August 1915). Shout emigrated to Australia in 1907 and joined the 29th Infantry Regiment and commissioned as
second lieutenant on 16 June 1914. Shout was the most highly decorated
Australian during the
Battle of Gallipoli, 1915, being awarded the
Military Cross during the
landing at Anzac Cove in April and winning the
Victoria Cross posthumously during the
Battle of Lone Pine in August. He was also
Mentioned in Despatches twice.
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