PRAISE FORBEERSHEBA
This is an important book, telling a complex story. Daley constantly reminds us that conflict is endemic to the region he is writing about and he tells us of the times he was in danger himself Journalism can, on occasions, do a better job than history.
Michael McKernan, The Age
Daleys impeccable research, coupled with his journalists nose and an ability to walk the battlefields and bring to life the sights and sounds of an inhospitable quarter of the Negev Desert, around the modern-day Israeli town of Beer Sheva, make for a wonderfully compelling read.
Ian McPhedran, Courier Mail
Daley writes with immediacy and current relevance and he spins a very engaging but soundly researched yarn.
Bill James, News Weekly
Its like a portrait of a loved family member who has some dark secrets Daley has done a good job in reminding us of the reality beneath the legend.
Grant Hansen, Good Reading
BEERSHEBA
Travels through a forgotten Australian victory
PAUL DALEY
Imperial to metric conversions
| 1 inch | 2.54 centimetres | 1 mile | 1.6 kilometres |
| 1 foot | 30.5 centimetres | 1 gallon | 4.5 litres |
| 1 yard | 0.9 metre | 32F (Farenheit) | 0C (Celsius) |
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited
Level 1, 715 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia
www.mup.com.au
First published 2009
Reprinted in 2009 (twice), 2010
Published in 2011 as B format
This edition published 2017
Text Paul Daley, 2017
Design and typography Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2017
This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.
Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.
Designed by Philip Campbell Design
Typeset by TypeSkill
Printed in Australia by McPhersons Printing Group
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Daley, Paul.
Beersheba: travels through a forgotten Australian victory/
Paul Daley.
2nd Edition
9780522871807 (pbk)
9780522871814 (ebook)
Includes index.
Australia. Army. Light Horse Regiment, 4th.
World War, 19141918CampaignsMiddle East.
World War, 19141918CampaignsPalestine.
World War, 19141918Cavalry operations, Australian.
Beersheba (Israel)History, Military.
Cover photographs
Front: Trooper Jim Gallagher of the 1st Light Horse Regiment at Khalasa two days before the movement on Beersheba. (State Library Victoria)
Back: Australian troops feeding and tending to their horses in Palestine, 191718. (Ernest Pauls)
For Eugenia, Joseph and ClaudiaFOREWORD
Beersheba shimmers at the far reaches of the Australian consciousness; a mirage in the desert.
The worlds last great charge of the light horse was witnessed by no war correspondent and thus did not wedge itself into the national mythology like Gallipoli or the Somme. It is curious, for the events that led to Beersheba and beyond constitute a truly thrilling story of almost unimaginable resilience and derring-do: a long, travelling series of victories quite unlike the nine-month hopelessness of the Gallipoli campaign or the bogged-down horror of the Western Front. How many Australians know now that their home-grown Sir Harry Chauvel led through the Holy Lands the worlds greatest mounted column since Alexander the Great?
Paul Daley has granted this old story new life and contemporary significance. Taking the trouble to walk in the steps of the Australian light horse, the desert sand sucking at his boots just as it swallowed the hooves of the Walers and the Middle Eastern sun teaching him the lessons of thirst that tormented the men of the saddle and dominated every strategy of the mounted military, Daley has blended the past with the present to build a powerful narrative.
He has pored through letters penned by exhausted hands, revived the gripping words of the warrior-bard of the light horse Ion Idriess, rediscovered forgotten interviews by those who were there and woven the history into conversations with the living who remain obsessed with what happened at Beersheba and the desert campaign that led to that climactic event. He finds Christians who see the hand of God in the struggle of the horsemen and listens in on those who believe modern Israel can trace its beginnings to the advance of laconic antipodean bushmen and those who deny any such thing. And he stands at the graves of young men who never made it out of the desert, reconstructs their parts in the legend and reminds us of the anguish of their mothers.
Daley also finds, quite against his wishes, a terrible secret. A forgotten Bedouin village; men from another world turned savage by years of blood and hardship; a mad and bad explosion of retribution. Here Daley is the journalist intent on peeling away the layers of almost a century of official cover-up. His awkward discovery grants new, gritty dimension to a myth, and explains why many men of the light horse were denied the formal honours they so deserved.
Here is a full-bodied, human telling of the deeds of the Australian light-horsemen who traversed the wastes of Egypt, Palestine and Syria during World War I and who created a legend that merits much more of our attention than shimmering as a mirage, just beyond the Australian consciousness. It is as much part of the Australian story as Gallipoli, Kokoda or Glenrowan. Paul Daley has granted us the ability to restore Beersheba to its rightful place in our national history.
Tony Wright
CONTENTS
COMPOSITION OF THE IMPERIAL MOUNTED TROOPS
Desert Column
(Formed in Sinai, February 1917)
Anzac Mounted Division
1st ALH Brigade
2nd ALH Brigade
NZ Mounted Rifles Brigade
Imperial Mounted Division
3rd ALH Brigade
4th ALH Brigade
5th (British) Yeomanry Brigade
6th (British) Yeomanry Brigade
Desert Mounted Corps
(The Desert Column prior to Allenbys reorganisation, August 1917)
Anzac Mounted Division
1st ALH Brigade
2nd ALH Brigade
NZ Mounted Rifles Brigade
Australian Mounted Division
(Formerly the Imperial Mounted Division)
3rd ALH Brigade
4th ALH Brigade
(In Palestine in 1918, this Division expanded to include the 5th ALH brigade.)
Imperial Camel Corps Brigade
1st (Australian) Battalion
2nd (British) Battalion
3rd (Australian) Battalion
4th (Anzac) Battalion
Yeomanry Mounted Division (British)
MAP OF THE CHARGE OF BEERSHEBA
