In October 1917 members of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade took part
in what is now know as the 'last great cavalry charge'. Waving bayonets
overhead, they charged across six kilometers of open ground, cheating bombs,
shells and bullets before capturing, in a desperate hand-to-hand battle, the
Turkish trenches that held the key to the strategic stronghold of Beersheba.
The charge was the last daring act of a day-long fight by combined British
forces to capture Beersheba, and also a turning point in Britain's war against
the Ottoman Empire, sending Turks fleeing north to ultimate defeat.
Yet the story has slipped through the cracks of history.
Journalist Paul Davey's journey in search of Beersheba takes him from
Australia to Israel, from past to present, and from the battlefields to the
archives, where he discovers a dark episode in Australian history that sits
starkly at odds with the Anzac myth and legend.
For Daley, the Beersheba of then and now comes to take on a new meaning.
Contents:
Conversions
Foreword
Composition of the Imperial Mounted Troops
Map of the Charge of Beersheba
Map of the Light Horse Battlefields
Prologue
Part 1: Towards Beersheba
1. Hebron Road
2. Bushmen of the Empire
3. Sideshow in Sinai
4. Mystery Joe
5. Legends of Romani
6. Ghosts of the Desert
7. Badlands
8. The Bull Arrives
9. Beersheba
10. Neck or Nothing
Part 2: At Rest in Israel
11. Oasis for the Dead
12. Fathers and Sons
13. Serendipity
14. Cobbers
15. Hoarding the Legend
16. Inside Jaffa Gate
17. Desert Dogs
18. The Hand of God
19. Last Drinks
20. Waiting for Rockets
21. Cop This, Dear Jacko
Part 3: A Terrible Thing
22. The Massacre
23. Allenby and the Anzacs
24. A Real Bad Thing
25. Inconvenient Truth
26. Burying the Past
27. Blood Money
28. A Bastard of a Place
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
