[Editor: This short article, regarding the Battle of Beersheba (1917), which took place during the First World War (1914-1918), was published in the Evening News (Sydney, NSW), 31 October 1921.]
Battle Diary
Light Horse at Beersheba
Long desert rides and months of bivouacking on the heels of the Turks made the Light Horsemen welcome the chance which came to them on October 30 and 31, at Beersheba, in 1917.
The attack commenced on the morning of the 30th, and was carried out under the command of General Allenby, British forces working in conjunction with the Australians. A day long stand was made by the Turks in a wadi in front of the town, but at night they were charged by horsemen with fixed bayonets, and the town was captured. It was a spectacular stunt, and destroyed the Turkish spear-head aiming at Egypt and the Canal.
Our Light Horse and the British followed up the capture of Beersheba by an advance into Palestine, resulting in the fall of Jerusalem on December 10 — an event of high moral significance throughout the whole world — neutral, allied, and enemy.
Source:
Evening News (Sydney, NSW), 31 October 1921, p. 1
Editor’s notes:
bivouacking = to bivouac: to set up a temporary casual encampment for the night, with little or no shelter (usually without setting up tents)
the Canal = (in the context of Egypt) the Suez Canal
Light Horse = the Australian Light Horse, which usually operated as mounted infantry, but was also used in cavalry roles; Light Horse units were later repurposed into other roles, such as armoured vehicle units (e.g. the Australian 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment)
See: “Australian Light Horse”, Wikipedia
wadi = a river, stream, or watercourse in North Africa or the Middle East which is dry except during the rainy season; a ravine, defile, gorge, gully, passage, or valley containing a stream bed or river bed which is dry except during the rainy season (also spelt: wady; plural: wadies)
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