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Ride of the
Light Brigade
“Victory
by 800 mounted Australians over 4,000 well-trained Turks seems a bit
far-fetched. But that's exactly what happened on October 31, 1917, at the
Battle of Beersheba, which 90 years ago arguably changed the direction of the
Sinai and Palestine campaign during World War I.
...
MORE THAN 60
riders, many of them descendants of the heroes of the Australian Light Horse
Regiment, tomorrow will reenact the epic charge of their forebears in the
Battle of Beersheba exactly 90 years ago.
...Cheering
them on will be Australian, New Zealand, British, Turkish and Israeli
diplomats, Australian and New Zealand expatriates living here, representatives
of the Defense Ministry, members of the Israel-based Society for the Heritage
of World War I, members of the Beersheba Municipality and the Beersheba
Foundation and members of the Australian Light Horse Association who, like the
riders, have made the long journey from down under to participate. The riders
will be bearing the flags and standards and wearing the uniforms worn by
Australian soldiers in World War I.
Their
three-day ride from Eshkol Park near Gaza to Beersheba will culminate in an
all-day festival and commemoration in Beersheba.
The
ride into Beersheba is part of a year long Beersheba Light Horse project that
was launched in May. It includes the construction of a recreational "Park
of the Australian Soldier" in Beersheba. The park, which is being
developed in partnership with the municipality and the Beersheba Foundation, is
an initiative of the Melbourne-based Pratt Foundation, which supports numerous
projects here
...
Bill Billson,
Australia's minister for veterans' affairs, said at the official launch of the
Light Horse project in Melbourne in May: "The Australian victory at
Beersheba in 1917 set in train some remarkable events - the liberation of
Jerusalem, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate in Palestine and
ultimately the establishment of the State of Israel."
A
little known fact, supplied by Australian Ambassador James Larsen, is that the
discussion on the Balfour Declaration was held by the British War Cabinet on
October 31, 1917, just as the British, Australian and New Zealand troops were
capturing Beersheba, but Lord Balfour, although he informed his friend Chaim
Weizmann, later to become Israel's first president, of the decision, did not
formally write to Lord Rothschild until November 2, when the British media
reported the victory over the Turks.
This
is corroborated in ANZACs Empires and Israel's Restoration 1798-1948 by Kelvin
Crombie, an Australian historian and tour guide who lived in Israel for 15
years, and of course both James and Chalker knew all about it. Some
two-and-a-half years ago, James was a guest speaker at Victoria's Parliament
House. He invited his childhood friend Richard Pratt and his wife Jeanne to
come along and afterward the Pratts joined James and his wife Barbara for
lunch. Someone at the lunch asked Pratt if he traveled much, and he replied
that he was going to Beersheba to get an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion
University.
That
immediately set James off, and he began raving on about the 12th Light Horse.
He talked so much that Pratt eventually turned around and said: "Do you
and Barbara want to come with us?" The reply was unhesitatingly affirmative,
and thus the seed for the Park of the Australian Soldier was planted..."
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