Australian and New Zealand light horsemen in Beersheba, 1917

When I did my Gap Year in Israel in 1966, my elderly landlord had WW1 photos of triumphant Australian soldiers across his dining room walls. Since the landlord had been a young child in 1917 and couldn't speak a single word of English, I wondered why was he teary about Australian lads and their horses 50 years later.

The Australian Light Horse and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade were mounted troops with characteristics of both cavalry and mounted infantry. They served in the Boer War and WWI. One of the regiments that took part in the charge at Beer­sheba was the 12th Light Horse Regiment of the Australian Imperial Force, drawn largely from farming lads from outback NSW. On 31st October 1917, the Australian Light Horse and New Zealand Mounted Rif­les were engaged in the ANZACs' greatest charge ever.

ANZACs before the charge 

Beersheba, 1917

The Turks held a 60k line between Gaza on the coast and Beersheba to the east. Over the months, 2 attacks on Gaza had already failed. So Gen Sir Edmund Allenby, an experienced and successful cavalry leader, took over.

The Light Horse Brigade had circled into the desert to the East and arrived at a point north of Beersheba. For this operat­ion to succeed, Beersheba had to be taken in one day, otherwise this huge force would exhaust its water supply - the nearest adequate water supply for the Desert Mounted Corps was 12 hours ride away. At dusk most of the positions had been taken, but Beersheba (and its water) was still controlled by the Turks.

The German Officers in command of the Turks in Beersheba recognised the advancing formation of Mounted Horsemen as Mounted Infantry and ordered the Turkish defenders to wait until they had dismounted, then to open fire. The Turkish infantry set their rifle sights to 1,500 metres.

In my opinion, the ANZAC soldiers must have been insane to battle machine guns with nothing but swords and loud yells.

The Turkish artillery, who opened fire with shrapnel that exploded in front of the galloping horsemen, hit some. Then, after a brief zone of casualties, the lines galloped free. The Turkish soldiers were un­ner­ved by the mass of Light Horsemen thundering closer and they could not adjust their sights fast enough. Their bullets began to whistle harm­lessly over the heads of the charging troops. On reaching the tren­ches many horses were brought down and others were impaled on bayonets. They galloped straight for the enemy guns, capturing them intact, then rode on to Beersheba.

It had taken just one glorious/tragic hour. It saved an army and set it on the way to Jerusalem (see last paragraph).

Australia Post and Israel Post stamps

2013

By night Beersheba was in the hands of Allenby's Army. Great disord­er prevailed in the enemy camp; armed and unarmed Turks waited to be captured. The two ANZAC Regiments took 738 prisoners, captured 9 field guns, 3 machine guns and many transport vehicles. By 10 pm 58,000 light horsemen and 100,000 thirsty animals had swarmed into Beer­sheba.

Under Australian Gen Sir Henry George Chauvel, the soldiers and horses carried out a suc­cessful charge, against impossible odds. But the casualties were bad. Of the 800 soldiers, 31 men were killed and 36 were seriously wounded. Others were less wounded and treated in Jerusalem.

The swift, thundering rush of successive waves of horsemen at dusk had confused the German and Turkish leaders, who afterwards confess­ed that the 800 Light Horsemen seemed to be at least a Division strong. German generals had long known of the fighting qualities of ANZAC sold­iers and stated, "They are not soldiers at all; they are mad­men". Jewish families across the Levant welcomed the lads into their homes, hearts and history.

The Battle of Jerusalem was after, and separate from, the Beersheba Charge. In Jerusalem the fighting started in mid November and continued until the end of Dec 1917, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Before Jerusalem could be secured by the Australian Mounted Divisions and others, two battles occurred: the Battle of Nebi Samwill in Nov 1917 and the Defence of Jerusalem in Dec 1917. To this day, ANZAC Day commemorations are held every year at the Jerusalem War Cemetery and Memorial where Australian and New Zealand families can remember their grandfathers and Israelis can thank the British Commonwealth troops.

**

Peter Corlett (born 1944) is a Melbourne sculptor. In 1987 Corlett won a competition to create a memorial to com­mem­orate the courage of John Simpson Kirkpatrick; he was a humble stretcher bearer during the Gallipoli Campaign in WWI who is known to every, single Australian. The full size bronze sculpture was naturally entitled Simpson and his Donkey 1915, and was placed in the most logical place, outside Canberra’s Australian War Memorial.

Cobbers is a full-size bronze sculpture created in 1998 for the Australian Mem­orial Park in northern France. It depicts a stretcher bearer with the 57th Battalion, rescuing a wounded compatriot from no man's land after the Battle of Fromelles in 1916. A replica of the sculpture is in the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. Corlett's other memorial work for WW1 was The Bullecourt Digger.

Peter Corlett's sculpture of the lighthorseman

in the Park of the Australian Soldier, Beersheba

Corlett's Beersheba design includes a triangular-shaped pool overlaid by a triang­ular slab, to represent Israel’s three main religions. The main sculpture is of a rider and his horse, cast in bronze, that have just leapt a pile of sandbags. The height of the rider on the horse is life-sized (2m). The plinth provides space for the ceremonial placing of wreaths and for national flags to be attached.

The  Beersheba sculpture is in a new landscaped park for abled & disabled children: Park of the Australian Soldier. This project, init­iat­ed by Melbourne's Pratt Foundation and funded by the Beersheba Foundation, opened in April 2008 before Australia's Governor-General and Israel’s President. Together they unveiled the monument to the Light Horse, attended by old soldiers and young army personnel.

As part of The World Stamp Expo 2013, Australia Post and Israel Post marked the Battle of Beersheba through two commemorative stamps. One featured Corlett’s statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier at Beersheba. The other featured contemporary images of Australian Light Horsemen.

Excellent photos of the 96th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba mark the fall of the Ottoman city to Australian, New Zealand and British troops in October 1917. The Park of the Australian Soldier and the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery look very respectful.

Thankyou Australian Department of Defence for the technical information and to Naftalitours for organising the Beersheba and Jerusalem tours. Read Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War by Paul Daley (Melbourne UP, 2011).