Battle of Beersheba (1917): The Australian Light Horse Charge

The Battle of Beersheba was fought on 31 October 1917 in southern Palestine, when British Empire forces under General Edmund Allenby captured the Ottoman-held town of Beersheba. It is best remembered for the dusk charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, in which around 800 Australian horsemen galloped across open ground, overran the Ottoman trenches and seized the town’s wells, opening the way to Gaza and Jerusalem.

Background

From 1915 the Ottoman Empire threatened the Suez Canal, Britain’s link to India and Australia. British and Commonwealth forces drove Ottoman troops out of Sinai in 1916, but two attacks on Gaza, in March and April 1917, failed with heavy losses.

In June 1917 Allenby took command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The Ottoman line ran about 40–50 km (25–30 miles) from Gaza on the coast to Beersheba inland. Allenby planned to strike at its weakly held eastern end, Beersheba, and then roll up the line towards Gaza. The Ottoman and German commanders, including the German general Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein, expected the main blow to fall at Gaza again.

Water was the key problem. Allenby’s mounted troops would have to ride through the night across dry country, and their thousands of horses would need to drink by the end of the next day. Beersheba’s wells had to be taken quickly and intact.

The battle

Early on 31 October British infantry of XX Corps under Lieutenant-General Philip Chetwode attacked Beersheba’s defences from the south-west and took them by early afternoon. Meanwhile the Desert Mounted Corps under the Australian Lieutenant-General Harry Chauvel swung round to the east. The Anzac Mounted Division fought for most of the day to capture the hill of Tel el Saba, which it finally took in mid-afternoon.

With the light fading and the town still in Ottoman hands, Chauvel ordered Brigadier-General William Grant’s 4th Light Horse Brigade to attack directly. At about 4:30 p.m. the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments set off from a distance of several kilometres, spreading out in lines and accelerating to a gallop.

Light horsemen were mounted infantry who normally fought on foot, and they carried no swords; some held their bayonets in their hands as they rode. Ottoman artillery and machine guns fired, but the speed of the charge meant that many defenders failed to lower their rifle sights in time. Some horsemen jumped the trenches and fought on foot, while others rode straight into the town.

By nightfall Beersheba was in British hands. Ottoman engineers had destroyed some wells, but most of the water supply was captured intact.

The horses

The light horse rode mainly Walers, tough horses bred in New South Wales and other Australian colonies, valued for their endurance in heat and on little water. Before the battle many of the horses had gone without water for more than a day after the long night ride. The capture of the wells allowed them to drink that evening. Of the many thousands of horses sent overseas from Australia during the war, very few were brought home, mainly because of quarantine rules and cost.

By the numbers

Consequences

Beersheba turned the eastern flank of the Ottoman line. After further fighting, Gaza fell on 7 November 1917, and the Ottoman armies retreated north. Allenby’s forces entered Jerusalem in December (see Fall of Jerusalem), and the campaign ended with the decisive Battle of Megiddo in September 1918.

Myths and facts

Myth: it was the last great cavalry charge in history. Mounted charges continued during the Palestine campaign, including the British yeomanry charge at Huj on 8 November 1917, and in later conflicts.

Myth: a planted haversack decided the battle. The British intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen claimed credit for a deception involving a haversack of false papers. Some deception did take place, but historians doubt his account and see the overall plan as more important.

Legacy

In Australia and New Zealand, Beersheba became one of the most celebrated episodes of the First World War, alongside the Gallipoli campaign. The charge was dramatised in the Australian film The Lighthorsemen (1987). In Be’er Sheva, now in Israel, a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery and the Park of the Australian Soldier commemorate the battle, and anniversary ceremonies are held each year.

Timeline

• 1917, 26 March: The First Battle of Gaza ends in British failure.
• 1917, 19 April: The Second Battle of Gaza also fails.
• 1917, 28 June: Allenby takes command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
• 1917, 31 October: British infantry and Australian light horse capture Beersheba.
• 1917, 7 November: Gaza falls to Allenby’s forces.
• 1917, 9 December: Jerusalem surrenders.

Why it matters

The capture of Beersheba broke the Ottoman defensive line in southern Palestine and set in motion the advance that ended Ottoman rule in the region. For Australians, the light horse charge remains a powerful symbol of daring and skill.