AIR MARSHAL MARK BINSKIN SPEECH TO PAKISTAN COMMAND
AND STAFF COLLEGE
QUETTA
16 AUGUST 2013
Commandant, ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to be here at the Command and Staff College Quetta.
Staff Colleges are critical institutions in the education of any military. It is that point
in a junior officer‟s career where they move away from narrow regimental and tactical
concerns, and come to grips with the breadth and depth of their profession. The study
of operational art and insights into strategic thinking provide that deeper context –
although the study of art and strategic thinking usually result in more questions than
answers. And there is nothing wrong with this.
As an Airman, I join my navy and Army colleagues in acknowledging the importance
of professional military education. For me, one cannot conduct an air campaign (or a
joint campaign) without educated air staff officers at the squadron-leader and above
level. As Australia, Canada and other British Commonwealth nations found with our
large air forces and bomber forces of the 1940s, we had to form staff colleges to train
the leaders and thinkers who could fight air campaigns against our enemies – and win.
For land forces, the need for professional education was recognised much earlier.
Quetta is an early part of that tradition in professional education. The British Army
saw it as essential to have an institution to develop leaders and thinkers for war. Lord
Kitchener was the driving force behind Australia‟s Royal Military College at
Duntroon (1911), and he was the driving force behind the creation of a Staff College
in 1905 that ultimately moved to Quetta in 1907. Failure in war has devastating
consequences; the Staff College at Camberley in the United Kingdom was essentially
founded in response to the disasters of the Crimean War (1854-56). In fact, Quetta
and the subsequent reforms at Camberley were responses to failures in the South
African War (1899-1902).
In 1910, the first Australian Army officer, Captain and later Brigadier Eric Harrison
commenced at Quetta, completing the course in 1911. Thus, I am proud to say,
Australia‟s links with the Staff College Quetta go back some 103 years.
After Captain Harrison, the next Australian student to attend Quetta was Captain
Thomas Blamey from 1912-13. And it is an honour for me to be here to
commemorate 100 years, a milestone anniversary for the only Australian-born officer
to rise to five-star rank.
Regardless of your Nationality, or service for that matter, there is much that can be
learned from Blamey, his experiences and his handling of complex situations in
helping prepare all of us for senior rank.
So, who was this person? I can tell you that Thomas Blamey was a fascinating and
complex man. Quetta, I consider, was his first formative experience. From extremely
humble beginnings (his father was a contract drover from rural Australia – near
Wagga in New South Wales), Blamey rose to great eminence. Interestingly, he was
very religious in his 20s practicing as a Methodist lay preacher. He joined the
Australian Army in 1906 and through sheer persistence and hard work, won a place at
Quetta. In fact, this was by competitive examination against other British officers and
he was the first Australian to do so. The Quetta course – and Blamey‟s army service
in Rawalpindi – were very important formative influences upon him.
I‟m sure that today‟s Quetta students will be delighted to know that the Course was
then two-years in duration.
When Blamey arrived at Quetta, he had five years commissioned service and he
graduated with a B-Pass.
The Commandant‟s report said:
“he came here uneducated (in a military sense) but all his work during his first year
was characterised by a very genuine determination to overcome this defect. By the
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end of the first year he had succeeded beyond all expectation … [and] his views are
sound and thoughtful and his judgment, in general, is good.”
Polo was then the game – and as an Australian bushman, Blamey rode horses well,
even if in a style unorthodox to the British. During his two years here, he participated
on many “staff rides” into the nearby mountains – and studied the lessons of the great
tribal revolts in 1897, including the Battles of Chagru Kotal and Dargai, as well as the
American Civil War. Staff College students did unit attachments, and Blamey went to
Loralai (to our east). After Staff College, he did several attachments over four
months, including to a Battalion in Rawalpindi, and he was then on the staff of the
Kohat Brigade on the North West Frontier.
Blamey‟s career culminated with his appointment as Australia‟s top soldier and
Commander-in-Chief during World War II, 1939 to 1945. Quetta was his first
formative experience – but he had a second and third prior to this war. Both character
building.
The second formative experience was his exemplary service in the 1914-18 War, at
Gallipoli (Turkey) and then on the Western Front in France. He rose from the rank of
Major to Brigadier-General as deputy and Chief-of-Staff to the Australian Corps
Commander, General John Monash. Earlier, as a Colonel and Divisional GSO1, his
Division had played a critical role in repelling the German spring offensive of March
1918.
From early June 1918, Blamey was Corps Brigadier-General General Staff or Chiefof-Staff. That year, the five Australian infantry divisions on the Western Front, under
Monash but also with Blamey‟s intellect and energy, fashioned a new form of warfare
integrating infantry, armour, artillery and early airpower, and the Australian Corps
(under Monash and Blamey) played a critical role in smashing the German Army in
August, September and October 1918. You could say that Blamey was one of the
early proponents of joint operations.
Indeed, Blamey pursued this joint concept with the British as the Australian
representative on the Imperial General Staff after the war in 1922. However, the
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British Army saw little use in the concept of a combined staff which could coordinate
the defence of the British Empire, with Blamey subsequently reporting that the
concept was “absolutely dead”.
Blamey was also sceptical of the merits of the Singapore Strategy – a series of
defensive and offensive contingency plans developed over the period 1919-1941 to
counter aggression in the Pacific – as the strategy was dependent upon the British
Navy being able to respond and deploy from Britain in sufficient time to meet the
threat. The view amongst many military thinkers, as recorded by the Australian
historian Lionel Wigmore was that “We do not doubt that you are sincere in your
beliefs but, frankly, we do not think you will be able to do it”. And history proved
them right.
Blamey‟s views on Australia‟s defence strategy – an early formed maritime strategy –
were also shared by other leading thinkers. The Australian Labor Party adopted this
strategy as policy in 1923 with the development of a powerful air arm considered as
the first line of defence, supported by a well-equipped Australian Army. In fact,
Blamey was involved during the inception of the Royal Australian Air Force in 1920
when, together with Lieutenant Richard Williams (the father of the Royal Australian
Air Force) he argued strongly for the creation of a separate air force, albeit one that
was subordinate to the Army and Navy.
His third formative experience between the wars – his 11 years as Chief
Commissioner of Police of Victoria – one of Australia‟s largest states. It was a
tempestuous term-of-office, but a period through which Blamey learnt how to deal
with politics, and senior politicians and cabinet ministers. But not very tactfully. In
the end, he was sacked – three years before 1939. But in credit to his resilience that he
fought his way back into public life, to get the Army‟s best job as leader of Australia‟s
overseas expeditionary force on the outbreak of war.
In World War II, Blamey dominated Australian military affairs. He commanded our
three infantry divisions in the Middle East and North Africa, where he was given the
Charter by the then Australian Prime Minister to guarantee the integrity and autonomy
of the national force.
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His most demanding task in the Middle East proved to be keeping the 2nd Australian
Imperial Forces together, constantly resisting attempts by the British high command
to do otherwise. He stood up to General Wavell in 1940 on the forward deployment
of the 16th Infantry Brigade to Egypt, arguing that the brigade was not yet fully
equipped; he clashed with British General Auchinleck in 1941 over the relief of
Tobruk, where Blamey, supported by Prime Minister‟s Menzies and Curtin called for
the relief of Australian troops on medical grounds – Auchinleck and British Prime
Minister Churchill relented; and he took decisive action in Syria to resolve command
and control difficulties which led to tension with British General Wilson. In
Blamey‟s own words he had become “the most hated man in the Middle East”.
However, as the four-star Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the British “Middle East
Command”, Blamey earned the respect of his peers and superiors with General
Wavell considering Blamey to be “probably the best soldier in the Middle East”. Even
Auchinleck thought him to be “a tough old boy with plenty of commonsense”.
Blamey returned to Australia briefly for consultations on the eve of Pearl Harbour
where he observed that Australia was ill-prepared for what he considered to be an
imminent threat. In a newspaper interview Blamey was quite outspoken and stated
that the “apathy… sickens me”
Japan subsequently entered the War in December 1941 and in early 1942 captured the
Australian Territory of New Guinea. In doing this they captured and killed a large
number of Australian Government officials and others. Japanese forces subsequently
invaded large areas of the Australian Territory of Papua, bombed mainland Australia
(including 97 air raids on northern Australia, 64 which were directly against Darwin),
they sunk Australian shipping and mined Australian waters.
In March 1942 Blamey was recalled from the Middle East. The Government
appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Army – with enhanced legal powers. From
April 1942, Blamey was also Commander Allied Land Forces in the South-West
Pacific theatre, under General MacArthur.
Blamey was a brilliant organiser, re-equipping and reorganising the Army for war.
The Army was refashioned from a ramshackle structure into six superb infantry
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divisions and associated armoured regiments competent at jungle and amphibious
warfare, and mountain warfare in New Guinea and the Pacific.
He selected young, effective combat leaders, and dealt imaginatively with training,
doctrine, airpower and liaison with the Air Force, the reform of catering and medical
services and the threat of tropical diseases and the introduction of penicillin.
Under his command, the Australian Army and Air Force inflicted the first allied land
defeat of the war on the Japanese at Milne Bay in August 1942. And Australian
ground troops were the dominant allied forces in New Guinea until early 1944, when
United States forces became numerically superior.
Under Blamey‟s leadership, the Army grew into a fine force of some 400,000 men.
(Australia‟s population was then only 7 million). Blamey‟s troops defeated the
Japanese and liberated Papua by February 1943, and had recovered much of New
Guinea by January 1944.
For four months in 1945, he commanded a three-divisional amphibious operation and
assault (some 70,000 troops) onto the island of Borneo, launched from the Halmahera
Islands some 900 miles away, in what is now Indonesia. Among other achievements,
in 1944 Blamey initiated the proposals for the Australian National University. In line
with his devotion to the welfare of ex-Service personnel, he also promoted the work
of Howard Florey (who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945 for his role in the
making of penicillin), and helped enable Florey‟s vision for a national institute for
medical research in Australia.
All this being said, there was also a definite controversial side to Blamey. He has
been described by some who felt threatened by him to be selfish, corrupt and
cowardly. Indeed General Douglas MacArthur at one stage thought him a “sensual,
slothful and doubtful moral character but a tough commander likely to shine like a
power-light in an emergency”. General Vasey, one of Australia‟s best World War II
commanders (also a Quetta graduate and appointed by Blamey) thought him a
“tiresome fellow – swollen-headed and pig-headed beyond words”.
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The Australian public were more direct in their criticism, likely shaped by an
unfriendly media, calling him “that bastard Blamey” after he reportedly accused the
2/16th Militia Battalion serving on the Kokoda track of “running away like rabbits”.
To this day, what was actually said by Blamey remains highly disputed, with first
hand witness accounts differing markedly in their recollection. Perhaps it has more to
do with Blamey‟s personality which tainted the views and expectations of those who
served under him. He was described as ruthless, and despite what he had learned
during his time as Police Commissioner he was considered to have no sense of publicrelations” nor any great ability to relate to soldiers generally. If anything, this was his
failing.
However, he was clearly the „situational leader‟ Australia required in its time of need.
The Australian (SMH) journalist Peter Hastings put it well:
… one of the gifts that made Blamey tower over contemporaries and rivals, that made
him in fact the very model of a modern major-general, [was] his capacity to
understand and play politics.
Who else at that time could have assumed the enormous burdens of C-in-C which
require that the incumbent not only knew a great deal about running an army, had a
fundamental grasp of strategy and tactics and could oversee the cumbrous
administrative machine, but could also deal with a wartime […] government,
frightened politicians, an uncertain civil population, and a principal ally represented
by a US general who was not only devoted to denigrating Australia’s role and
achievements in war but had the willing ear of Australia’s government? …
But those very capacities Blamey possessed depended for their effectiveness quite
often upon a relentless, destructive side of him …
With the Japanese surrender, Blamey in September 1945 tendered his resignation.
The Government refused to accept it, and asked him to continue in office. However,
Prime Minister Curtin‟s death left Blamey with no other „defender‟ and in November
1945 Blamey was sacked (for no apparent reason) with only two weeks notice. After
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almost 40 years Regular and Reserve service, he was a civilian and, aged 62, he
retired.
A new Government came into office four years later in 1949 and it considered that
Blamey had been poorly treated. In 1950, the Australian Prime Minister was
determined to have Blamey promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. British
Government departments (particularly the War Office and British Generals)
vigorously fought this proposal, and advanced several reasons against it, including
that “he was not a British Army man”. Another reason advanced was that “Blamey
was no longer on the Army‟s Active List”.
So, to solve this issue, in 1950 the Prime Minister recalled Blamey to the Army‟s
Active List and he was promoted Field Marshal on 8 June 1950.
But some two weeks after his promotion, Blamey was struck down by a crippling
stroke. Hospitalised, he fought back, and was well enough to receive his Field
Marshal‟s Baton (inscribed by King George VI) from the Governor-General in
September while he was in hospital.
Blamey never left hospital, and died in May 1951, aged 67.
In the end, some 20,000 people filed past during his lying-in-state, and 300,000
Australians lined the route of his funeral procession in Melbourne.
The Blamey family was deeply honoured to hear that I had been invited here to
recognise him in this way. Field Marshal Blamey‟s grandson – Mr Ted Blamey –
wrote me a letter. I would like to read a quote from that letter to you as it best
summarises Blamey‟s career.
It reads:
“In all careers there are critical and formative moments, and my grandfather’s
attendance at the Staff College Quetta in 1912-13 was such a period. He was exposed
to the broad military education offered by Quetta, and relished competing with the
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finest officers of his day. I know he valued that training and experience. It is also
clear that he put it to good use when in the field and while executing strategy back at
command HQ in many theatres of war.
Quetta prepared him for the immense challenges of warfare as a major at Gallipoli,
later on the Western Front, and as “Brigadier-General General Staff” of the
Australian Corps of five divisions in 1918. Sir Thomas went on to achieve many
things, including being C-in-C of the Australian Army throughout the Second World
War from 1939 to 1945, the only allied commander to do so. Quetta gave him the
bedrock military education that enabled him to persevere and triumph through a 40year military career, including10 years of war.
Sadly, Blamey’s record as Australia’s most senior, most decorated and most
influential and successful military commander of all time, and arguably our most
brilliant, has all but been lost in recent decades. “Pop” historians, with little
research, have succeeded in diminishing his extraordinary service to our nation,
ignoring fact and preferring rumour and innuendo. He is not taught in schools nor
commemorated in public buildings. By this, we as a nation fail to appreciate the value
and valor of the thousands he led to victory and of their service and sacrifice.
But his legacy does live on, as does the nation he strove so valiantly to protect and
preserve from alien domination. So do his notes from his time at Quetta, preserved in
the vaults of the Australian War Memorial – they make fascinating reading!”
So, in many ways Blamey‟s story is a quintessential Australian bush story. He was a
complex, brilliant man – and a forceful military commander. When Prime Minister
Curtin appointed Blamey to „defend Australia‟ in 1942, he explained his decision to
appoint Blamey by stating that he was selected as “a military leader not a Sunday
school teacher”. He was worldly, immensely resilient and able to “bounce-back” from
setbacks and defeats that would have destroyed lesser men. He was an Australian
nationalist, and fought to further Australia‟s national interests. He excelled at the
strategic level of war – he was a great strategic thinker and a military commander and
administrator of unrivalled experience.
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This then was Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey, Command-in-Chief Australian
Military Forces and Allied Land Commander, South-West Pacific Area.
But all this has to start somewhere. In Blamey‟s case, it began here – at the
Command and Staff College, Quetta.
Blamey‟s attendance here 100 years ago is one demonstration of the long term
relationship between Pakistan and Australia.
Significantly, Australia was one of the first nations to begin diplomatic relations with
Pakistan, and has had a resident mission here since 1948.
Today, Pakistan and Australia have a significant bilateral Defence training program,
symbolic of these very early links, and a practical expression of the relationship
between our two countries. We continue to have a student at Quetta today.
We are committed to continuing to build this relationship, adapting it to suit the
challenges of the day.
My last visit to Pakistan in 2010 closely followed the devastating floods you
experienced. Australia was very willing to support Pakistan in your recovering from
the disaster.
And in our floods in 2011, your CAF was one of only two of my international
colleagues to offer support to Australia.
Our support to Pakistan included sending 180 men and women, along with 20 civilian
personnel from our International Development Agency, AUSAID, to support your
own efforts to provide disaster relief in Kot Addu.
Interestingly as a learning point for future leaders of joint or integrated operations of
this nature, such as yourselves, in this operation for the first time the Australian force
had a joint civilian and military leadership. And it worked well.
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Australia was glad we could assist Pakistan in this time of need and we remain
committed to ensuring we can assist our friends in times of crisis in the future.
In recent years, the Pakistan / Australia partnership has stepped up as we both
recognise working together to counter extremists is critical to regional and global
security, as well as success in Afghanistan.
The Australian Defence Cooperation Program is an initiative developed to deepen our
partnership. The training and education opportunities in Australia have recently been
increased – it has grown from 10 positions for Pakistan students in 2008 to over 140
positions this year. Pakistan has one of the largest number of positions compared to
other countries we have programs with.
We are focused on working together to meet our security challenges through the
provision of Australia-based education and training, and engaging in high level
security dialogues and information exchanges. The courses involve training in areas
that provide critical enabling skills for counter-insurgency operations, such as
peacekeeping, civil-military affairs, logistics, emergency management, engineering,
and joint warfare.
We are also aiming to enhance the way we work together through a post-graduate
scholarship program for Pakistan students with 15 places offered in 2013, in areas
such as intelligence and counter-terrorism, logistics, maritime security policy and
aerospace engineering.
A highlight for us is the annual Command and Staff College reciprocal COIN
exchange. An Australian delegation was here in April 2013 and a reciprocal visit to
the Australian Defence College is planned for September this year.
We appreciate the opportunity to develop ties with you each year when a student from
the Australian Army has the opportunity to attend this course. Similarly, we have an
ADF member attending the National Defence University in Islamabad.
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We are privileged to be able to foster mutual trust and cooperation as we work and
learn from the Pakistan students in Australia. This year there is one senior officer
enrolled in our Centre for Defence Studies course; three officers (one from each
service) enrolled in the Australian Command and Staff College course; four officer
cadets enrolled at the Australian Defence Force Academy; and five Army officer
cadets at the Royal Military College.
We also established an annual secondment of a Pakistan military Pashto instructor at
the Defence School of Languages last year. The exchange is for 12 months and the
original officer (Major Qadir) returned to Pakistan in January this year.
Feedback from students is that this year‟s instructor, Major Mohammad Arshad is a
talented instructor who provides a unique perspective of the operational environment
through his teaching ability.
As I see it, it is of enormous benefit to have a native instructor with unique military
knowledge as well as valuable insights into the operating environment of the region.
This unique asset is vital for enabling communication when we work together in the
Middle East Area of Operations. The benefits also extend to an improved
understanding from both of our countries‟ training processes as we prepare personnel
for potential deployment.
Finally, a Pakistani instructor secondment to the Royal Military College – Duntroon
was established this year.
In my view, these education opportunities strengthen our ties and deepen our
understanding of each other and form a significant and growing part of our bilateral
relationship.
We also relish the opportunity to put to practice our learning and partnerships in
combined exercises. Pakistan sent participants and an observer to Australia‟s largest
international maritime exercise, Exercise Kakadu last year in Darwin.
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The Pakistan Air Force also sent two observers to Australian-based Exercise Pitch
Black last year.
It was also an important opportunity for Australia to work with you in Exercise Aman
in Karachi in March this year. We sent an Anzac Class Frigate and an observer to
participate.
Serving with Pakistan is also featured in our proud history on United Nations
peacekeeping missions. This was most notably in East Timor where Pakistan made a
substantial contribution, and also in Somalia.
Other missions have included:

West New Guinea 1962-63,

Namibia 1989-90,

Cambodia 1992-93,

Haiti 1995, and

Rwanda 1993-96.
I must also take this opportunity to formally acknowledge Pakistan‟s importance as
the largest troop contributor to UN operations.
Australia also recognises the imperative role Pakistan plays in South Asia.
Our two countries share many common strategic interests in the region, most notably
the security and stability of the Indian Ocean which is of critical importance to
Australia. Its shipping routes are vital to Asia Pacific economic and strategic
interests, particularly for the energy and resources that meet rising demand of regional
nations.
We also recognise that security and stability in Afghanistan will not be achieved
without your involvement.
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The success of Pakistan‟s efforts to counter militant insurgency is critical to regional
and global security.
We acknowledge the significant challenges posed by the Federally Administered
Tribal Areas, as well as the considerable price Pakistan has paid, and continues to pay,
in the War on Terror.
It is a complex challenge, and we hope working together with the Government of
Pakistan and your military will assist in countering extremism and terrorism.
I should stress now, that Pakistan will remain an important partner to Australia in the
region, regardless of the transition in Afghanistan.
With regard to this, Australia is on track to complete security transition to the Afghan
National Security Forces in Uruzgan by the end of this year. But the mission is not
over – next year, the Australian Defence Force will continue to provide training,
assistance and advisory support.
The actual size and scope of Australia‟s contribution is yet to be determined, but will
be in the order of 400, reducing to mid 200s. Also, from 2015 we will be contributing
US$100 million annually for three years as part of international efforts to sustain and
support the Afghan National Security Forces beyond transition.
Also on the horizon for Australia is a focus on increasing bilateral and multilateral
cooperation with the United States and other regional partners as a means of
strengthening security arrangements.
We support the US‟s continued commitment to the Asia Pacific and see their
engagement as essential to its continued peace, security and prosperity.
As we see it, the US rebalance brings greater collaboration between defence partners
to build regional cooperation and capacity built on shared interests.
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To conclude, I am pleased at the open and frank nature of our bilateral relationship.
We are not afraid to ask the hard questions of each other, noting that at all times our
relationship is built on mutual respect and trust.
The significant progress in our relationship has been excellent, but more importantly,
it has been marked by a genuine desire to learn from each other.
I look forward to the continued exchange of information and goodwill between our
two countries.
So, 100 years on, it is a privilege to be here today to talk to you, and to be able to
honour the Anniversary of Field Marshal Blamey‟s attendance and presence here at
Quetta.
I would like to make a couple of presentations to mark this historic occasion.
The first is a photograph of two Quetta graduates – Field Marshal Blamey and MajorGeneral George Vasey in New Guinea in 1943 during the fighting in Upper Ramu
Valley.
<<presentation>>
The second is another piece of history. This was the personal cane or “swagger stick”
as it was known, used by Blamey during his service. It was carried as a symbol of
authority.
The cane was gifted by Field Marshal Blamey to Major WF Blyth in Melbourne in
1946 and it was then donated to our own Australian Command and Staff College in
Canberra in 1984. It is usually on display there outside the Blamey Theatre (named
after the Quetta graduate we are honouring today), and they have agreed to loan it to
you for twelve months.
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On behalf of the 100th Anniversary of Field Marshal Blamey‟s attendance and
presence here at Quetta, I have great honour in presenting Blamey‟s personal cane to
the Pakistan Command and Staff College.
<<presentation>>
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