Fed: Governor-general to open Beersheba memorial

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2008
Fed: Governor-general to open Beersheba memorial

By Max Blenkin, Defence Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 22 AAP - Ninety-one years ago, 500 Australian horsemen charged across
the desert sands of Palestine to secure one of the most comprehensive yet unlikely victories
of modern military history.

In an hour, they seized the town of Beersheba from a 1,500-strong Turkish force, for
the loss of just 31 dead and 36 wounded.

Coming at an especially bleak time in the worst year of Australia's involvement in
the Great War - 6,000 troops had died in the Western Front battle of Passchendaele that
same month - the Beersheba victory on October 31, 1917 was electrifying for those back
home.

It was even turned into two big screen blockbusters - "40,000 Horsemen", starring Chips
Rafferty in 1940, and The Lighthorsemen in 1987.

Despite that acclaim, Beersheba is little known to current generations more familiar
with the events of Gallipoli and Kokoda.

But that may change this year, with Beersheba a key part of overseas Anzac commemorations.

Governor-General Major General Michael Jeffery will officiate at the dedication of
the Park of the Australian Soldier in Beersheba on April 28.

This will be the first visit to Israel by an Australian head of state.

Major General Jeffery was invited by Israeli President Shimon Peres to represent the
people of Australia for the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel.

The park redevelopment was carried out by the Pratt Foundation with the centrepiece
a horse - the work of renowned Australian sculptor Peter Corlett - leaping the Turkish
trenches .

A key feature of the park is a playground designed especially to be enjoyed by children
with disabilities.

The Commonwealth cemetery in Beersheba contains the graves of 1,241 dead of World War
I, including 175 Australians.

The Beersheba battle preceded the formation of the state of Israel by more than three
decades, but the two events are linked by a remarkable historical coincidence.

The same day as the charge, Britain's War Cabinet in London adopted the Balfour Declaration,
backing creation of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, provided that
did not prejudice the rights of the non-Jewish community.

With the Turkish empire crumbling, Britain was soon to become the colonial master in
Palestine. The Balfour Declaration, the first occasion a world power backed creation of
a Jewish homeland, energised the Zionist movement and culminated with the formation of
the state of Israel in 1948.

Of course the geopolitics of the Middle East were far beyond the comprehension of the
dusty, thirsty, exhausted diggers whose advance on the city of Beersheba, with its all
important wells, had been stalled by unexpectedly stiff Turkish resistance.

Starting at Suez, British, Australian and New Zealand forces had advanced north up the Sinai.

But two attempts to seize the coastal city of Gaza had failed and a fresh plan envisaged
breaking the Turkish defences with an attack on Beersheba, 43 kilometres to the south-east.

The plan was for British infantry to make a frontal assault while the 15,000-strong
Australian and New Zealand Desert Mounted Corps, led by Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel,
approached from the east and north.

By 3pm on October 31, the town was surrounded but remained in Turkish hands and the
allied force, desperately short of water, faced the prospect of having to withdraw.

"Put Grant straight in," Chauvel ordered.

This was the 4th Light Horse Brigade commanded by Brigadier William Grant, who despatched
two relatively untested units, the NSW 12th Light Horse Regiment and the 4th Light Horse
Regiment from Victoria.

The urgency of the situation prompted Grant to opt for a frontal charge.

This was an unusual move as Australian horsemen fought as dismounted infantry, using
their horses only to get to battle in the same manner today's soldier travels by helicopter
or armoured vehicle.

And it was risky, as charging machine guns was by this stage of the war a recognised
recipe for carnage.

Around 4.30pm, as the sun was setting, the 400-500 horsemen set off at a slow trot
from behind a ridge eight kilometres outside Beersheba. With no proper cavalry swords
or lances, most clutched their rifle bayonets.

By the time they were in sight of Turkish lines they were at full gallop, their horses'
hooves kicking up a dense cloud of fine dust.

The speed of their charge carried them through the blizzard of Turkish rifle, machine-gun
and artillery fire, albeit with some losses. Barbed wire could have caused catastrophe
but there wasn't any.

"It was a recklessly daring feat and it came off," said Australian War Memorial head
of military history Ashley Ekins.

"The Turks were beaten by the sheer recklessness of the charge because there wasn't
much fighting power amongst this small group of Australians."

Mr Ekins said most of the troops jumped the Turkish trenches and headed into town.

But some stayed to clear the Turkish defenders from their positions and here the fighting
was vicious and conducted without quarter.

The official historian of the Sinai and the Palestine campaign, Henry Gullett, said
the Turkish defenders were so demoralised they offered only feeble resistance to the bayonet
and their shooting was wild and comparatively harmless.

Within an hour it was all over. A thousand Turks were prisoners with the rest heading
for the nearby hills. Most importantly, the vital wells were in allied hands.

Mr Ekins said the news of the charge captured the imagination of those at home.

"And for a time perhaps it was forgotten that the real war was on the Western Front
and that was all industrial carnage with machine guns and artillery," he said.

"This was glamorous. It had horses and men doing something immensely brave."

Much mythology has emerged about this battle. It was billed as the last ever cavalry
charge. But many others make the same claim about events of World War II and more recently.

It was also billed as the turning point of the Middle East campaign, opening the way
for the allied force to take Jerusalem and Syria. But there was still tough fighting and
another year ahead.

A famous and often-reproduced photo purports to show the charge.

Mr Ekins says he's 99 per cent certain this actually shows a re-enactment conducted
four months later.

Two months before the war ended, the Aussie horsemen were belatedly issued with proper
cavalry sabres and Gullett records that the soldiers enthusiastically took to sword practice.

"And soon there wasn't a wild dog left alive in the Jordan valley," he wrote.

AAP mb/sb/wf/sp

KEYWORD: ANZAC BEERSHEBA BACKGROUNDER (PIX AVAILABLE) RPT

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