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The mounted assault by the 4th and 12th Australian Light Horse is one of the seminal events of Australian history and, by any measure, one of the most dramatic events of the Great War. What it is not, however, is the "last" charge by a body of mounted men (the Light Horse were not cavalry, but mounted infantry), nor even the "last great charge" or "last full scale charge". It wasn't even the last big charge of cavalry during World War One. It was, however, a spectacular and successful use of mounted men in a very skillfully orchestrated Commonwealth battle in the desert.
Beersheba in 1917.
The battle came about as part of British Empire's advance north into Palestine, towards Jerusalem, during World War One. As part of their war against the Ottoman Turks the British had decided to continually advance north, a decision that would ultimately take them all the way to Damascus during the course of the war in the desert.
Edmund Allenby, the commander of British forces in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in 1917.
Their problem in doing this is that the straight road to Jerusalem lead to Gaza and Gaza was heavily defended. Therefore, the British, under the command of Edmund Allenby, determined to make a flanking move and that made Beersheba a goal of their flaking advance.
Map of the area in which the British were operating. Note the importance of wells, which are marked on the map, including those at Beersheba.
The town of Beersheba is an ancient one, and was once quite isolated in the desert. Always associated with well, the name itself may mean the Well of the Oath as it is where the oath of Abraham and Abimelech was taken. Some claim, however, that the name means Seven Wells, which may refer to the multiple wells associated with the town, or it may be a way of signifying the importance of the town given the Bible emphasis on the number seven. Some Arabic translations come across different yet, as Lion's Wells. At any rate, the town has been there for an extremely long time.
Abraham's Well at Beersheba, 1855.
The British plan called for a large right flaking move by mounted elements of the British expeditionary force. Mounted troops were, contrary to widespread myth, used on every front during World War One, but as the war in the desert remained fairly mobile, they were particularly important there. Allenby was, moreover, a cavalryman and well acquainted with mounted warfare. In this instance the British committed The Desert Mounted Corps under the command of Australian Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel which consisted of Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division (1st Light Horse, 2nd Light Horse and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigades), The Australian Mounted Division (3rd Light Horse, 4th Light Horse and the 5th Mounted Brigade and the Yeomanry Mounted Division (6th Mounted, 8th Mounted and the 22nd Mounted Brigades) with the 7th Mounted and the Imperial Camel Corps held in reserve. This was augmented by the addition of mounted units transferred from other British units prior to the battle. Rather obviously, the mounted elements were quite substantial, although they were not not the only troops committed to the effort by any means and the infantry commitment was quite substantial.
Chauvel with his officers.
The battle itself was part of the overall Battle of Gaza and it would not be correct that the British simply showed up at Beersheba and the battle ensued. To even contemplate an effective attack at Beersheba preliminary positions on the line of advance had to be secured which did in fact happen. Almost all of this was accomplished through substantial mounted action in advance of the main body of advancing troops.
The British forces were in position by the night of October 29-30 and a preparatory bombardment of the grossly outnumbered Turkish forces (British forces outnumbered the Turks over ten to one in the battle), which did have the advantage however of being dug in, commenced in the early morning of October 31. The bombardment was effective on severing elements of the Turkish forces in place. A British infantry and yeomanry assault was launched at 8:20 that succeeded in securing important areas of the high ground.
The Desert Mounted Corps went into action at 0800 with attacks on strategic positions around Beersheba. Due to the movie treatment of the battle its often imagined that only Australian mounted troops were at the battle and that they were kept in reserve all day in desperate conditions until called into battle at the lat moment. In fact, Australian, New Zealand and British mounted troops were all in action all day long in the battle but were used in a way that their mobility would contemplate, taking positions around the main town while infantry, supported by cavalry, took positions immediately next to the town in order to prepare for a final assault of it. The mounted actions throughout the day isolated the town in an effort to keep anything from reaching it, or escaping it. This resulted in a situation where by 15:00 the town was effectively isolated and ready for a final assault.
Opening of the Turkish railway station in Beersheba in 1915. The railway station still stands in the town near a monument to the Turkish combatants who fought there. A monument to the Australian Light Horse also exists in the city of 200,000 residents today.
That's when what is so widely remembered about the battle, the mounted charge of the Australian Light Horse, occurred.
Upon taking final positions outside of the town, the Australian Light Horse were ordered to make a dismounted attack upon the Mosque in Beersheba.
It's important to keep in mind that the Light Horse were mounted infantry, not cavalry. They were not equipped like cavalry, and the distinction between cavalry and mounted infantry, while it had declined in the British forces since the Boer War, was a real one yet. Mounted infantrymen were equipped identically to infantrymen, being issued a Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifle, a rifle that was in the short rifle category deemed suitable for infantry and cavalry, and a bayonet. Cavalry, in contrast, also carried the SMLE but they were equipped with the traditional saber that cavalrymen had carried for generations (lance had been dispensed with for British cavalry quite some time prior, but they did remain in the cavalry of some other nations, including the Ottoman's. Unlike American cavalry, which was more of a mixed force filing the role of mounted infantry and cavalry, British cavalrymen did not carry sidearms, although the cavalry forces of some other nations did. Turkish cavalry in this period still carried the lance.
Mounted infantry had come in strong to British Empire forces during the Boer War where it had been found to be highly useful. Indeed, there had been an Empire military debate on whether it was so effective that it had supplanted cavalry entirely, although that had not occurred. The British Empire fielded both cavalry and mounted infantry during the Great War and both were present at Beersheba in the Desert Mounted Corps.
Shortly after the Australians determined to advance an order from Gen. Allenby to take Beersheba by nightfall also arrived. The Australians soon began to contemplate a mounted assault on the town, something that they had contemplated as early as October 26, if the opportunity arose. On that date, accordingly the order had gone out to have bayonets sharpened.
This may seem odd, but it was well known that sabers were a more effective weapon that rifles in a mounted charge. A person can debate if sidearms were more effective yet, and the American Army felt they were, but the British retained the traditional belief that an edged weapon was superior for a cavalry charge. The Light Horse lacked sabers but they were equipped with the British sword bayonet, an exceedingly long bayonet that in fact approached the short sword length.
British infantryman training in 1940 but still equipped with a SMLE rifle and sword bayonet. Sword bayonets were common in World War One but the British pattern was very long even at that.
The decision was soon made to order a mounted charge by the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments. The units had to cover four miles in order to achieve their objectives and under the circumstances, and given the terrain, a mounted charge was by far the most likely to succeed at the smallest cost to the advancing men. To the post World War One mind, this seems to be an almost impossible conclusion, but it was the tactical reality of the day. The men covering that four miles would be under fire from artillery, machine guns and massed rifle fire for much of it, and with no cover. The best way to approach a problem like that was to cover the ground as quickly as possible.
Additionally it had been known for quite some time that the prospect of facing a charging mass of horses, and two regiments was a large number of horses was terrifying for the men enduring it and generally most infantry reacted poorly in that circumstance. The real difficult for mounted forces in the Great War, therefore, was not the new weaponry, such as automatic weapons. Indeed, with the exception of aircraft and poisonous gas there wasn't anything new to the World War One battlefield that mounted troops hadn't faced before. Rather, the real difficulty was the exceedingly decimated terrain and terrain obstacles that mooted horse mobility. That factor wasn't present to the same extent in the desert.
The Australian Light Horse charge commenced after 16:00 with the first half mile of the charge covered at a walk. At that point the men were ordered into a trot and then, when Ottoman artillery opened up, they deployed at a gallop. The artillery proved ineffective as the Light Horse rapidly rode under the guns to where it could no longer be used. At that point Ottoman machine gun and rifle fire opened up but some of it was neutralized by British counter battery fire. Machine gun fire and small arms fire proved less effective than might be supposed in part due to this but in part because, as has been well demonstrated, facing a mounted assault is terrifying and ground troops have rarely reacted well to it.
4th Light Horse at Beersheba. This photograph is often attributed to have been taken during the battle but in fact its suspected that this was taken soon after the battle when the events were reenacted for camera. It was already appreciated how dramatic the battle had been.
Contrary to what is sometimes supposed the 4th Light Horse, upon reaching the trenches, dismounted and fought as ground skirmishers, true to their nature of being mounted infantry. The trenches were taken by Light Horsemen fighting dismounted and their mounts were galloped off, as per the norm for such a deployment. The 12th Light Horse, meanwhile fought at first mounted and dismounted into the town, but upon getting into it, fought dismounted. While all of this was going on, additional mounted reserves were ordered into the battle to follow upon the 4th and 12ths success. The town was soon taken.
Most of the casualties in the overall battle were British infantry, not mounted men. Casualties sustained in the Light Horse assault itself were light under the circumstances with more men being killed in close quarter combat on the ground rather than in the charge. Most of the casualties in the charge were men wounded in action, rather than killed.
The battle is deservedly well remembered today and the Australian Light Horse is correctly attributed with valiant action on that day. The emphasis on the Light Horse charge, and the somewhat inaccurate portrayal of the resulting combat, has tended however to skew the history of the battle being accurately recalled, however. In reality, the Light Horse combined with other mounted elements of the British forces were active throughout the entire offensive and their role was vital throughout. The final Light Horse mounted assault took the town, but the overall effort had involved mounted troops from the onset in a highly competent and coordinated effort.
