Beersheba Centenary Edition by Paul Daley

Author:Paul Daley [Daley, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781525271342
Google: nT5hswEACAAJ
Publisher: READHOWYOUWANT COM Limited
Published: 2018-01-15T22:18:25+00:00

15

HOARDING THE LEGEND

In Israel the artefacts of the light-horsemen—their leggings and hats, their weapons and bandoliers, their saddles and their feed bags—are guarded as jealously as knowledge about their movements. There are small collections of their belongings in kibbutzim, private libraries and lounge rooms from Jerusalem to Jaffa. But suggestions that the items be pooled so that a purpose-built museum might be established are often dismissed by some of the owners. This attitude largely typifies the rivalry in Israel among amateur, semi-professional and government organisations for knowledge about the Anzacs.

Despite the launch of an Anzac Trail around Be’er Sheva that aims to connect the sites of light horse significance, many of these places are not easy to locate or reach without expert guidance. Few Israelis and even fewer Australians have the expertise to find them or explain exactly what happened there.

The Society for the Heritage of World War I in Israel is, as its name suggests, dedicated to furthering knowledge about a front of the Great War that was regarded by the British authorities as something of a sideshow at the time. Its members include academics, teachers and former senior military figures. Some of the society’s members are generous with their time and knowledge. Others, however, seem deeply protective; even within the society, internecine rivalries threaten a collective approach that might better serve the promotion—and the legacy—of the light-horsemen.

‘Tell me what you know about Chauvel,’ demanded one Israeli historian when I told him I was writing a book about Beersheba. ‘Was he a good commander of his men? Was he a good man? Do members of his family have any more personal papers they have not yet made public? And tell me—was the charge a tactical and strategic success?’

‘I’m not a military historian,’ I replied. ‘I’m not writing a military history—that’s been done. I’m asking whether this military action is important to Australians and Israelis.’

The guy looked at me, perplexed. I sense that no answer would be adequate for him.

On another occasion a member of the society harangued my friend, the Australian visual artist Susan McMinn—who was in Israel studying the light horse for a series of works she was undertaking on the warhorse—when she began talking about the work of Idriess. ‘He told me that Idriess had made it up, that his work was fiction. Well, I told him that I’d read the Idriess diaries in the Australian War Memorial and they’re not fictitious,’ she says. She also had a disagreement with another historian who insisted the 4th Light Horse Brigade, which executed the famous charge, had its origins in Queensland.

McMinn grew up on a dairy farm near Rochester in Victoria. She still lives in the country, and horses have always been part of her way of life; as a girl she would saddle up and ride the 7 kilometres to town, or hook up the gig, ‘wrap myself in a granny blanket and listen to the tranny’ while riding to her friend’s place.

‘I’ve really been interested in the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.