Phillip Bradley - Australian Light Horse: The Campaign in the Middle East, 1916-1918

Throughout history, mounted troops have been known as elite men of arms and the Australian Light Horse is a part of that legendary tradition. Part cavalry and part infantry and often recognised by the emu feathers in their slouch hats, the light horsemen were described by the official historian, H.S. Gullett, as in body and spirit the true product of the Australian countryside. They remain, today, the embodiment of the digger ethos.

After the Gallipoli campaign most of the Australian Light Horse, commanded by Major General Harry Chauvel, remained in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal. After thwarting the Turkish advance at Romani in August 1916 the Light Horse led the advance into Palestine with sparkling victories at Magdhaba and Rafa. Twice checked at Gaza despite their bold courage, the light horsemen then broke that stalemate following the legendary charge at Beersheba on 31 October 1917. The fall of Jerusalem, the perilous raids on Amman, the trials of the Jordan Valley and the final breakthrough to Damascus followed before Turkey surrendered on 30 October 1918.

In Australian Light Horse their story is brought to vivid life through the diaries, letters and photographs of the light horsemen who took part in the bloody battles of the desert campaigns of the Sinai and Palestine from April 1916 to October 1918.

PHILLIP BRADLEY , author of the groundbreaking Hells Battlefield and Charles Beans Gallipoli: Illustrated , is a leading researcher of Australian military history. Australian Light Horse is his seventh book.

Cover design: Philip Campbell Design

Front cover photograph: Six Australian light horsemen at Giza in Egypt in early 1915. Only one of them, Corporal George Murrell (either third or fourth from left), would survive the war. AWM P00133.001

Back cover photograph: Harry Mattocks collection

Light horsemen tend their mounts by the Sea of Galilee as the 3rd Light Horse Brigade move past. Ralph Kellett collection. Courtesy of Alan Kellett.

Men of the 12th Light Horse Regiment with their mounts. George Francis collection. Courtesy of John Francis and Joan Scott.

Other books by Phillip Bradley

On Shaggy Ridge

The Battle for Wau

To Salamaua

Wau 194243

Hells Battlefield

Charles Beans Gallipoli Illustrated

Dedicated to Cecilia Bradleyactress, poet, writer, secretary, cook, walker, knitter, bridge player, puzzle expert, ballet aficionado, faithful Catholic, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend to so many over her extraordinary 95 years

First published in 2016

Copyright Phillip Bradley 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Email:
Web: www.allenandunwin.com

Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.trove.nla.gov.au

ISBN 978 1 76011 189 2 (pbk)
ISBN 978 1 95253 537 6 (ebook)

Internal design by Philip Campbell Design
Maps by Keith Mitchell
Set in Calluna by Bookhouse, Sydney

CONTENTS

April to July 1916

14 August 1916

512 August 1916

September 1916 to January 1917

February to March 1917

April 1917

May to October 1917

October to November 1917

November 1917

November 1917 to January 1918

February to May 1918

May to September 1918

September 1918

September to December 1918

LIST OF MAPS

Map 1	Egypt and Palestine
Map 2	Sinai desert
Map 3	First battle of Gaza
Map 4	The capture of Beersheba
Map 5	The drive north
Map 6	Jaffa to Jerusalem
Map 7	Es Salt and Amman
Map 8	The battle of Megiddo
Map 9	Syria

The spelling of place names throughout this book reflects the usage at the time of the Sinai and Palestine campaigns and may not match modern spellings.

ABBREVIATIONS

METRIC EQUIVALENTS

Man and horse: Tom Bradley and Quart Pot. Godfrey Burgess collection. Courtesy of Robert Burgess.

INTRODUCTION

In early October 1918, with the war in the Middle East almost over, Lieutenant General Sir Philip Chetwode wrote to Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel, the Australian who had replaced Chetwode as the commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, congratulating him on the capture of Damascus. You have made history with a vengeance, Chetwode wrote, and your performance will be talked about and quoted long after many more bloody battles in France will have been almost forgotten. Chetwode noted that the infantry divisions had played their part but that it was Chauvels cavalry and light horse units who put the lid on the Turks aspirations for ever. Three weeks later, the Turks had surrendered and some 400 years of Ottoman rule in the Middle East were over. As Chetwode had observed, it was the mounted troops, the Australian Light Horse prominent among them, that had made victory possible on this, the most challenging of battlefields.