This week marks the 100th anniversary of the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba — one of Australia’s greatest military victories. On October 31, 1917, in a somewhat desperate gamble for the British-led army, 800 Australians of the Light Horse Brigade charged through the desert towards Beersheba, under the guns of the Ottoman force, holding their bayonets in their hands like swords.
Thirty-one Australians and many more Turks lost their lives, as the charge breached the Turkish defensive trench line.
By taking Beersheba and its vital water supply, the Allied forces were able to go on to take Jerusalem and later Syria.
The Anzac victory in Beersheba is symbolic of how Australia’s history has been entwined with Israeli history even before the Israeli state was established in 1948.
Read the full article by Sharyn Mittelman at The Daily Telegraph (subscriber only).