Attack on Beersheba: the last great cavalry charge

Forbes’ Margaret Adams continues her series on the centenary anniversary of significant battles of World War I. The first part of the battle at Beersheba appeared in Tuesday’s Advocate.

While most of the Australian Imperial Force went to France in 1916, the bulk of Australia’s mounted forces remained in Egypt  to fight the Turks threatening the Suez Canal. After 1916 the threat to the canal was over, and with victory at Romani in August 1916, the Light Horse advanced into Turkish territory. In 1917 they entered Palestine and in 1918 advanced into Jordan and Syria. The campaign ended on 31 October 1918, a few weeks after the capture of Damascus.

With the main focus on the Western Front, the Middle East campaign was regarded as a sideshow. Despite this, the campaign had an air of romance and created the legend of the Australian Light Horse.

Fighting in the desert brought with it many challenges. Being able to find water was essential for the well-being of both the men and their animals. Troops travelled long distances in extremes of heat and cold, not always getting their full rations. They slept in the open, or in tents or blanket shelters that provided little to no protection from scorching winds or driving rains.

"The flies are in millions, they fly flop onto your food whether you like it or not, & as I am writing this note I have to keep them off with one hand & write with the other. Our horses suffer worse than we do. They have to stand in the sun & hot sand, for there is no shelter. We have to scrape the top sand away before we can sit down during a short stop but nothing troubles us now we take things as they come whether it is bully & biscuits, or a drop of tea and no sugar or a nice stew full of sand & flies...."

Trooper Albany Varney, 12th Light Horse Regiment, 22 May 1916

Gaza, at the heart of the main Turkish defensive position in southern Palestine, was the scene of three battles in 1917. During the first battle on 26–27 March, troops from the ANZAC Mounted Division entered Gaza, but as it neared nightfall, it was learned that the Turks were being reinforced so they were ordered to withdraw. A second attack three weeks later also failed, despite using tanks and gas bombs.

As the two direct attempts to take Gaza had failed, in October, the decision was made to go around and attack the Turkish line near Beersheba.  Beersheba was at the right end of a defensive line that stretched all the way from Gaza on the Mediterranean coast.  

The British commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, General Sir Edmund Allenby used plans prepared by Lieutenant General Sir Phillip Chetwode. The plan was to attack Beersheba using mounted troops from the east whilst the infantry attacked Beersheba from the south west. It was considered essential that the attack was kept secret to prevent the Turkish troops re-enforcing their lines. Chetwode was in command of the 20th Corps and the Desert Mounted Corps was commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel.

The greatest problem for Chauvel was to find sufficient water in the Beersheba area for his mounted troops. Information from reconnaissance revealed that there was none other than at Esani which was too far to the west to be of any use for a surprise attack. Chauvel, from studying the records of the Palestine Exploration Fund and after questioning local Arabs, knew that the larger ancient towns in the area to the south and south-west of Beersheba must have had existing water supplies. At Asluj the old wells were found and a fortnight’s work put them into working order. This made the attack on Beersheba a feasible operation.

Allenby insisted that Beersheba must be captured on the first day of operations. On the night of 30 October about 40,000 allied troops moved towards Beersheba, including most of Chetwode's 20th Corps and Chauvel's Desert Mounted Corps, in a night march of over 40 kilometres.

On the 31 October 1917, the attack began at dawn with the infantry divisions of the British 20th Corps attacking from the south and south-west. The aim was to capture Beersheba and its wells before dark. However, despite artillery and air support, neither the infantry attacks from the south, or the Anzac Mounted Division’s attack from the east succeeded in capturing Beersheba by mid-afternoon.

The aerial photographs showed that the Turkish trenches were not protected by barbed wire. As a result, Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel, the Australian Commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, ordered Brigadier General William Grant, commanding the 4th Light Horse Brigade, to make a mounted attack directly towards the town.

However, the 4th Brigade was scattered to protect the men and horses from aerial bombardment. Consequently, it was not until 4.50 pm that they were in position. The Brigade gathered behind rising ground 6 kilometres south-east of Beersheba with the 4th Light Horse Regiment on the right, the 12th Light Horse Regiment on the left and the 11th Light Horse Regiment in reserve.

This was the first time Australian Light Horse was used purely as cavalry even though they were not equipped with cavalry sabres. They were equipped with rifles and held their bayonets as swords. General Grant gave the order personally to the 12th Light Horse Regiment: “Men you’re fighting for water. There’s no water between this side of Beersheba and Esani. Use your bayonets as swords. I wish you the best of luck.”

The Light Horse moved off at the trot, and almost at once quickened to a gallop.

In the words of Trooper Edward Dengate: “We got mounted, cantered about a quarter of a mile up a bit of a rise, lined up along the brow of a hill, paused a moment, and then went ahead, the ground was none too smooth, which caused our line to get twisted a bit . . . Captain Davies let out a yell at the top of his voice . . . that started them all we spurred our horses . . . the bullets got thicker…three or four horses came down, others with no riders on kept going, the saddles splashed with blood, here and there a man running toward a dead horse for cover, the Turk’s trenches were about fifty yards on my right, I could see the Turk’s heads over the edge of the trenches squinting along their rifles, a lot of the fellows dismounted at that point thinking we were to take the trenches, but most of us kept straight on. Where I was, there was a clear track with trenches on the right and a redoubt on the left, some of the chaps jumped clear over the trenches in places, some fell into them, although about 150 men got through and raced for the town, they went up the street yelling like madmen.” Captain Robey was at their head.

This charge of the 4th Australian Light Horse at Beersheba is remembered as the last great cavalry charge.

The 4th Light Horse Regiment dismounted at the trenches whilst the 12th Light Horse Regiment were able to get straight through and take the town.

Private Keddie wrote, “We were all at the gallop yelling like mad some had bayonets in their hand others their rifle then it was a full stretch gallop at the trenches . . . the last 200 yards or so was good going and those horses put on pace and next were jumping the trenches with the Turks underneath . . . when over the trenches we went straight for the town.”

The success of the charge was in the surprise and sheer speed in which they took the town before it could be destroyed by a retreating Turkish force. Nearly all the wells of Beersheba were intact and the town’s pools had been replenished from recent storms.

 The 4th and 12th Light Horse casualties were 31 killed and 36 wounded; at least 70 horses died. The Turkish defenders suffered many casualties and between 700 and 1,000 troops were captured. The capture of Beersheba meant that the Gaza-Beersheba line was broken. Gaza fell a week later and on 9 December 1917, the British troops entered Jerusalem.

Beersheba (today’s Be’er Sheva}, is the largest town in southern Israel.