The town of Beersheba, photographed in 1917 during its capture by Austrailian mounted troops. *
Image: Courtesy Australian War Memorial * 1917: Australian mounted troops take Beersheba, Palestine, by launching what is often billed as the last successful cavalry charge in military history.
This claim is disputed, however, depending on what is meant by "successful cavalry charge." Both the Russians and Germans had limited, small-scale successes using mounted troops during World War II, although nothing approaching the scale of Beersheba.
Using two regiments, the 4th and 12th Light Horse, the Aussies attacked the Turkish lines in front of Beersheba, then a southern outpost of the tottering Ottoman Empire. The main objective was not the town itself but the wells nearby, needed to supply British and Australian troops desperately short of water.
The attack began late in the afternoon, with the horsemen -- armed with rifles and 18-inch-long bayonets -- setting off at a trot. Surprise and speed were the keys, so the pace was brought to a gallop a full four miles in front of the Turkish trenches. As the attackers closed in, Turkish rifles took a heavy toll of men and horses. But the Aussies pressed the attack home, and their casualty rate began to fall as the completely surprised Turks failed to adjust their rifle sights and fired high.
The attackers bypassed most of the front-line pickets and struck at the Turkish rear, with the 4th attacking the trenches while the 12th slipped through a gap and rode into Beersheba. Dismounting, the horsemen engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, stabbing with their bayonets and using their rifles as clubs. The Turks soon broke, and the wells were captured before they could be destroyed. The town fell in the same assault.
The technology of modern warfare had long since rendered cavalry charges obsolete when the attack at Beersheba took place. But it was that very fact that led to the complete surprise of the Turkish defenders and helped the Australians achieve a brilliant tactical victory.
(Source: Diggerhistory.info)
