Australian Light Horse by Phillip Bradley

Author:Phillip Bradley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2016-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

Lines of light horsemen manoeuvre for the attack on Beersheba. The attack was ‘clearly seen by other brigades at the start,’ Henry Gullett was later told, ‘but soon obscured in dusk and dust.’ George Francis collection.

The regiments formed up in three lines, each of one squadron with 5 metres between each horseman. Without sword or lance, the men held their bayonets in hand so the defenders would see the glint of them as the horsemen approached. Grant and his brigade major, Ken McKenzie, led the attack, with Bourchier and Cameron at the head of their regiments. Major James Lawson led the first squadron of the 4th, Major Eric Hyman the lead squadron of the 12th. Machine-gun fire came from the left but, despite the encroaching darkness, it was swiftly nullified by gunfire from the supporting Notts gun battery. The horsemen galloped on. ‘Our pace became terrific,’ David Harris wrote. ‘We were galloping towards a strongly held crescent-shaped redoubt.’33 As Henry Gullett later wrote, ‘These Australian countrymen had never in all their riding at home ridden a race like this . . . all rode for victory and for Australia.’34

Lawson’s troopers took the first trench in their stride and then crossed the main trench before dismounting amid an enemy encampment. The lead squadron of the 12th also got across the trenches, dismounted and joined with Lawson’s men attacking the main trench from the rear. Lieutenants Frank Burton and Ben Meredith, both from the 4th, were killed. The recently promoted Burton was a Gallipoli veteran, as were the four troopers who died beside him. The ruthless light horsemen got to work with the bayonet and after about 30 Turks fell, the rest put their hands up in surrender. Hyman’s men also got amongst it, killing some 60 enemy defenders. Behind Hyman, Major Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh at the head of the second squadron had his horse hit and was then hit himself as he charged on into the trenches. Observing an enemy machine-gun setting up behind a wadi on the flank, Staff Sergeant Arthur ‘Jack’ Cox turned his horse 90 degrees and charged the group with only his revolver as a weapon, taking all 40 Turks as prisoners. The stretcher-bearers were close behind the assault troops, the test cricketer Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter among them. He died as he tried to save others.35

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.