Well Mark, you didn't expect me NOT to respond did you?
The capture of Beersheba on 31 October 1917 was a significant strategic victory in a series of battles that were fought through Palestine over a period of 2 years. The fall of Beersheba was critical to the capture of Gaza and the eventual fall of Damascus, which saw the Ottoman and German forces in the region reduced to a fraction of their former size. The main objective was of course to keep the Suez Canal and Egypt in the hands of Britain so it could maintain trade with its Imperial colonies in the Far East.
The roll of the Light Horse in capturing Beersheba has been immortalised in the movie "The Lighthorseman", but Beersheba was just one small battle in a string of such battles, and it wasn't necessarily the best victory in military terms. It was an overwhelming victory made all the more remarkable by the light casualties experienced by the 800 Light Horse in their famous charge, but in its size, scale and outcome it pales in comparison to the battles on the Western Front that were happening at the same time and were dominating headlines in newspapers around the world.
Yes, its wrong that this battle has not received the recognition it deserves, but to be fair, the entire Middle East theatre of operations in WW1 (including the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign) was a sideshow of limited strategic significance when compared to the events on the Western Front, and has never received the recognition it deserves.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson did a wonderful thing when he wrote the "The Charge of the Light Brigade" in 1854. He immortalised the courage and the sacrifice of the men of the Light Brigade in a poem that became a classic of its era and has echoed down the generations as a reminder of the futility of war. In doing so he created a legend that romanticised the notion of heroic sacrifice, and this notion has been used to lure eager young men into uniform and off to battle ever since. It also fitted neatly into the Victorian image of England as a nation of brave and fearless young men who would gladly lay down their lives for Queen and Country and the glory of the Empire.
Their was no such mood for romanticised heroic sacrifice in Australia after WW1. The sacrifice of our men in France and Belgium had been enormous, the country was in deep mourning for our losses, and the returned men themselves were deeply traumatised from their experiences and unwilling to share their recollections of the battles they had fought. The actions of the Light Horse in the Middle East had been over shadowed by the deeds of the ANZAC Corps, which had played a vital role in many of the most important battles of 1917-18 and which had been proven to be some of the most effective fighting forces (along with the Canadians) on the entire Western Front.
A number of former Light Horsemen did eventually write their memoirs (Ian Idriss is probably the best of the lot) and the stories of their remarkable exploits started to emerge during the 1920's and 30's, but there was never an influential official historian attached to the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East to promote their story. In France and Belgium, the redoubtable Australian Official War Historian CEW Bean was an ever-present sight in the trenches, chronicling and eulogising the exploits of the ANZAC's. There was no equivalent to Bean in Palestine in 1917-18, so the actions of the Light Horse were never as closely scrutinised or reported as those of their comrades in France and Belgium.
For many years my wife and I have been members of the Australian Heritage Horse Association (WA), which forms part of the Australian Light Horse Re-enactment Group. My wife is mad about horses and has a passion for seeing the restoration of the uniquely Australian breed, the Australian Waler Horse, which was the mount of the Australian Light Horse, the Indian Cavalry and even King George V. Few if any of these magnificent beasts were allowed to return to Australia after the war, many were given away and others were shot by their riders rather than be put to work by the local Arabs. The Waler as a breed was preserved among the wild horses that had been released and allow to run free over the vast grass plains and deserts of central Australia. Every year the AHHAWA conducts a round up to take some of the healthier pure breed Walers out of the wild and use them as breeding stock. The bloodlines are now sustainable and the breed is now flourishing a stock horse on farms around the country.
This is a long-winded way of agreeing with you Mark. The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba may never be as well known as the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, but it is remembered by a few of us. Importantly, the bloodline of the horses that led that charge has been restored and preserved.
