Retracing the footsteps of our heroes at the Battle of Beersheba

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A century after Australian troops stormed out of the desert in what is now Israel to overwhelm the Turkish post, we follow their descendants as they visit the battlefield.

In a grassy paddock in the Capertee Valley, Lyn Richardson's thoughts are fixed on a machine gun post in the desert sands of Israel.

She is dressed in an Australian Light Horse uniform, much like her "Pop" wore when he stormed the Turkish position on horseback and wrote an immortal chapter in family lore.

A hundred years on, Lyn is leaving her property in New South Wales for Israel in the hope she will soon stand on that patch of hallowed ground.

"I believe it's the left-hand-side machine gun turret. I want to find that," says Lyn.

For decades Lyn has been piecing together her grandfather's military service, studying photos of the World War One cavalry charge at Beersheba.

The emotions well up at the thought of making a tangible connection with her Pop and his act of bravery, which is fixed in family memory to this day.

"I believe a lot of the trenches are still there. I believe that I'll be able to find it," she says.

"I just feel him with me, I always do."

Lyn and her husband are among dozens of Australians travelling to Israel this week to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors who rode in the famous Beersheba cavalry charge.

The commemorations will culminate in a re-enactment of the charge on October 31, 100 years to the day after this extraordinary event in Australian military history.

An unlikely attack from the desert

In the year 1917, units of the Australian Light Horse had an audacious mission.

The Turks controlled Palestine and held a line from Beersheba to Gaza on the coast about 50 kilometres away.

Thousands of Turkish troops supported by the Germans held well-fortified trenches defended with machine guns, artillery and even aircraft.

Twice the British had been repelled attempting to take Gaza.

Beersheba was also protected by dry, barren deserts — surely no army would be foolish enough to attempt an attack on horseback from an inhospitable desert.

But that is exactly what happened.

On the morning of October 31, 1917, the battle for Beersheba began.

Thousands of British troops attacked defensive lines from the south and the west of the town after an artillery barrage.

The Turks fell back but still held the all-important wells.

If the allies couldn't take the town with its vital water supplies, then many of the already-thirsty horses could die, and with them all hope of success.

A high honour for a boy

Like many boys from the bush, Lyn's grandfather Henry "Harry" Peard was a teenager who lied about his age so he could join the Light Horse.

"My grandfather, he was in the 12th Light Horse which was the regiment which charged in Beersheba," she says.

"He was 15 years of age, went to Gallipoli, put his age up 10 years like so many crazy ones did for the excitement of war."

What Lyn did not know was her beloved Pop received a high honour, the distinguished conduct medal.

He and another Australian charged at a Turkish machine gun post, silencing the weapon and the Turks who had already killed men and horses.

But like so many of his generation, Lyn's grandfather spoke little of his wartime experiences on his return to Australia.

She mostly remembers him as a humble man who loved horses.

"We had a fortunate time, Pop and I. He taught me to ride and I didn't even know how much of a hero he was," she says.

"You know he got a distinguished conduct medal in the charge of Beersheba. I had no idea.

"He was just so passionate with his horses. I just thank him for that. And then I went on and started breeding horses and I've been with horses all my life.

"I want to go to Beersheba for Pop."

But it's not just about the men.

Lyn now breeds the same types of horses the Australian soldiers rode on that very charge — a breed renowned for their strength, resilience and sheer courage.

"The Turks totally honoured them; they were scared of the Australian light horsemen," she says.

"[The riders] were incredibly brave but they wouldn't have done it without Australian stock horses, as we call them now.

"But you know the Walers, this breed, it's a really big part of our equine history."

Machine guns cut down men and horses

At dusk the order came. The Australian light horse units formed up and charged the Turkish lines.

Withering machine gun and small arms fire cut men and horses down but the survivors galloped on.

Some jumped the trenches and dismounted, attacking the Turkish soldiers in their own trenches in terrible hand-to-hand fighting.

Another 150 men continued into the town, eventually securing the wells and grain.

The battle was won.

Thirty-one Australians died during that epic charge, and another 36 were wounded. Seventy horses were slaughtered on that barren battlefield.

Several hundred Turkish soldiers were killed and many more taken prisoner.

The courage and determination of both the men and their extraordinary horses helped change the course of history.

With lines broken, the Turks' domination of Palestine was doomed. Jerusalem was taken, and the prestige and power of the mighty Ottoman empire would never be the same.

Quiet pain suffered in silence

David Lester's father Bruce also rode into Beersheba and history that day.

In the NSW town of Mudgee, David, 89, is also preparing for the Beersheba trip with his daughter, Robbie Holdaway.

Unlike his two daughters, David won't be on horseback for the re-enactment, much to his regret.

But he is under no illusions about the quiet pain suffered by his father and all those who experienced that terrible conflict.

"You know when they thought about it — what they went through, what they saw, some of their mates killed right alongside them, things like that — it's an experience you'd have to go through yourself to know what it really was," David says.

And like so many others who survived the war, Bruce Lester never told his family of the horrors he experienced.

But he did reminisce about his beloved horse Goo Goo, which was one of just a few to survive four years of war.

"As far as I know, Goo Goo was put down," David says.

Asked what his father must have thought, David says he doesn't know.

"The 6th Light Horse had some very good marksmen to put the horses down. I doubt if Dad could have shot him," he says.

"I'd say it was a heartbreaking moment. I mean to say at times you've often heard that the light horsemen would rather lose their best mate than their horse."

The family has cherished many of Bruce's wartime belongings, including his spurs and Goo Goo's bit.

There are more personal items too, including the bracelet Bruce's mother wore every day her son was away.

And there is another precious item, a chain with hearts and a boomerang.

"We believe there were 13 boys who went from Kings school," Robbie says.

"And the mother of one of the Kings schoolboys gave each mother of the boys a boomerang, hence for them to come back.

"And the woman who gave the boomerangs to all the mothers of all the troopers was the only one whose son didn't come back. Tragic, absolutely tragic."

The final trek to Beersheba

In the desert of southern Israel, the Australians are once again on the move.

The autumn light is strained by the dust kicked up by dozens of horses and riders, preparing for the final trek to Beersheba and the re-enactment of the charge on Tuesday.

David would dearly love to be back in the saddle with everyone else — at 89, his riding days may be over but not his sense of history.

"It's absolutely unbelievable and to think I'm here," he says.

"One hundred years ago, dad was here. It's quite emotional, yes, it's a thing I thought would never happen, but it has."

David watches as his daughter gets to know the horse she has been given to follow the path her grandfather took a century before.

"It's amazing," Robbie says.

"Its very overwhelming actually. I feel my grandfather here, and seeing in real life what he went through is just amazing."

It's a shared sense of connection to loved ones some relatives of the light horsemen barely, or never, knew.

All here are trying to understand what it might have felt like riding through the desert towards a battle some would not survive.

Lyn says she always feels her beloved Pop is looking after her. The tears begin to flow as she tries to make sense of what her grandfather went through.

"Right this very minute, right this very second, he's probably standing here telling me not to cry," she says.

"The biggest message I get is that there is no I in team. And that's why this whole thing, our Aussies, just did us so proud. So I'm very proud about that."

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, history, world-war-1, israel, australia

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