Michael Shanahan and Bill the Bastard

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1 WW1 Light Horse History Jill Curry Australians are generally familiar with the costly WW1 battles in Gallipoli and on the Western Front but are rarely told about the amazing successes and miraculous victories on the Eastern Front in the Sinai desert, Palestine and Syria from Australia had 32,000 men and 40,000 horses that served in the Palestinian campaign, which claimed 1,394 ANZAC lives in 3½ years of battle against the same Turkish armies that had decimated them in Gallipoli. 1 This comparatively small number is a credit to the outstanding leadership of Australian General Sir Harry Chauvel, the training of the Light Horsemen and the success of the combination of horse and rider in the conditions in the Middle East. Chauvel was the first Australian to rise to the rank of Lieutenant General (before Monash) and later appointed a General. He was the first one to command an entire Corps, with three divisions comprising 34,000 horsemen. This is thought to be the largest number of mounted troops ever under one command. The Middle East - Romani Following the withdrawal of the Allied forces from Gallipoli, the Anzac Light horse troops were re-united with the horses, though not necessarily their own. The Turkish armies, which no longer had a battle on their home soil, were sent marching south to try to wrest the other vital waterway, the Suez Canal, from the British. For months in the 50 degree summer heat of the Sinai desert, the Allied troops patrolled the desert and watched the army advance. The first major battle of this campaign began at 1.00 am on August 4, 1916 at Romani, the last oasis on the ancient trade route, the Via Maris, 37 km from the Suez Canal. 12,000 Turkish/German troops attempted to surround the British and ANZAC forces. Fighting at night in the sand dunes, their boots filling up with mountains of soft sand, with no rocks or trees for cover, two Australian regiments from the 1 st Light Horse Brigade guarded the southern flank and took the brunt of the attack. Outnumbered ten to one, they were forced to slowly retreat but their heavy resistance wore out the opposition and thwarted the Turkish plan. At dawn, General Chauvel called his fresh Australian and New Zealand ANZAC reserves to reinforce the thin five kilometer long line, which had remained unbroken a credit to his gallant soldiers. With British artillery backing up the foot soldiers, as the scorching sun rose, the burning sand and thirst won the day and they were able to push back the exhausted Turks eventually forcing their retreat the following day. From the Allied troops 202 were killed, 882 wounded and 46 missing, with most being ANZACs. Chauvel considered this, rather than Beersheba to be his most significant victory. The Turkish toll was 1,250 killed, almost 4,000 injured and another 4,000 captured. Amazed at the ANZAC resilience, the British commander, Sir Archibald Murray said, The ANZAC troops are the keystone of the defence of Egypt. 2 The ANZAC success meant they were often called to serve on the frontline, especially through the Sinai, where the sturdy waler horses and their tough bush riders managed the hot, dry conditions better than the British cavalry or infantry. Their success at Romani, changed the British thinking from defence (of the Suez) to attack ( get Jerusalem ). This was the first defeat of the Turks, and the beginning of their retreat from the Sinai. By the end of 1916, the whole peninsula was in Allied hands and the battle for the Holy Land began. Michael Shanahan and Bill the Bastard

2 Major Michael Shanahan of the 2 nd Light Horse Brigade was reputedly riding the large, cantankerous horse named Bill the Bastard. Riding up and down the lines encouraging his men, he found four men outflanked without their horses and no way to escape. Under Turkish fire, oblivious to the danger to himself, he rode through the Turkish line, hauled two men on to Bill s back with him and the other two hanging on to a stirrup. Bill cantered through the soft sand carrying his heavy cargo away from certain death, while Shanahan used his rifle to ward off the Turkish attackers. With his men safely delivered, Shanahan went back to the battle front and was injured shortly afterwards. He continued in the saddle for another hour until he passed out. Sensing trouble, Bill once more brought his injured master to safety reputedly to the veterinary hospital! He eventually had to have part of his leg amputated. Shanahan won a Distinguished Service Order for his bravery that day, but of course, Bill got no such medal, but obtained a much better reputation amongst the troopers. Once the Sinai had been captured, two battles of Gaza occurred and both failed. Beersheba A stalemate set in for the entire summer and the plan was made to trek three nights through the desert and take the town of Beersheba at the eastern end of the Turkish line, 70 km inland. It had to be taken in one day due to lack of water and rations. The British took the brunt of the action in the morning suffering over 1,000 casualties and the New Zealand troops battled tenaciously in the afternoon to remove the Turks from the heavily-defended hill-top stronghold and vantage point of Tel el Saba, neutralizing the machine guns thus making the charge viable. They lost eight men with another 26 wounded. Now there was an urgent need to capture the wells of Abraham s ancient city before sundown to water the thirsty men and horses. With only an hour of daylight left, General Harry Chauvel made the decision for a surprise charge, with two brigades of Australian Light Horse. The speed and courage of 800 Light Horsemen galloping 6 km over open, stony ground, overcame 4,400 entrenched Turks with artillery, machine guns and German bomber aircraft overhead as they jumped the trenches and galloped into town to capture the wells. The wells had been mined and without capturing the water, the whole breakthrough would be in vain. Against impossible odds, but no doubt a good deal of divine help, they took the city and most of its wells intact losing only 31 men, with another 36 wounded and 70 horses dead. One of those to die the next day from his wounds was 16 year-old Harry Bell, from northern Victoria who is possibly the youngest soldier from WW1 buried in the Middle East. The stunning success of the 4 th and 12 th Light Horse regiments (with the 11 th following behind) not only broke the Turkish defence line and captured a city, but their audacity weakening their resistance. From that time on they feared the ANZAC horsemen and were more inclined to flee rather than fight when they saw their feathered hats coming. Sloan Scotty Bolton Sloan Bolton, from Geelong, was in the 4 th Light Horse. During the charge his horse was grazed by a bullet and stumbled, almost throwing him off. They leapt over the trenches, and galloped into town. Seeing a Turkish soldier heading for a house, Bolton galloped up to him and grabbed his revolver. When he re-mounted, he saw through the windows a German officer at a switchboard wired to detonate the town s important buildings. Bolton jumped from his horse and burst into the room pointing the revolver at the officer. His mate, Trooper Ray Hudson, joined him and took the officer prisoner. Thus they saved most of the wells intact. As he came out of the building he saw a German officer leading seven men and Turkish field gun, escaping town. He took off in pursuit and ordered the officer to stop,

3 which was ignored. He took aim but the revolver misfired. He then struck the officer on the head with the revolver and he surrendered. He grabbed the reins of the lead horse and stopped the escapees, keeping them bluffed with his empty gun until help could arrive. He headed back to town and collected another 20 or more escaping Turks on the way. All the Turks were armed and Sloan was virtually unarmed. As he humbly says in his diaries, They might easily have reversed the situation had it occurred to them. 3 For his bravery he was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal. Sloan survived Beersheba but was wounded in Jordan the following year. He lost both legs and almost his life. He spent two years in hospital and recuperation, but finally managed to walk again with heavy wooden artificial legs. He later ran a farm, married and raised a family. His determination and courage is typical of the ANZAC spirit that made them a legend. The 1987 Light Horsemen movie is partly based on his story. The liberation of Beersheba led to the subsequent successful liberation of the southern part of the Holy Land with Jerusalem being officially handed over on December 11, However, the war did not finish with the liberation of Beersheba and Jerusalem. Winter set in and rain and mud prevented further action. The Turks formed another 100 km defence line across the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan with a third army across the Jordan in eastern Palestine. The situation on the Western Front was dire by 1918 and some infantry were redeployed there causing the re-organisation, replenishment and re-training of troops in the Middle East. Two attempts to capture Amman and cut the railway line failed. Some Anzac Troops were left in the Jordan Valley to share the summer with unrelenting heat, malarial mosquitoes, deadly snakes, spiders and scorpions. General Allenby, inspired by the success of the horses at Beersheba, was hatching a grandiose plan which involved blasting a hole in the defence line on the Sharon plain and sending the cavalry brigades through the gap to gallop north and cut off the retreat of the Turks. On September 19, the attack began before dawn with artillery fire near the Mediterranean coast a little north of Jaffa. This broke the line and the horses charged through the 5 th Cavalry moving north along the coast, crossing the Carmel mountain range and heading for Nazareth (about 80 km away, where Liman von Sanders, the German commander had his headquarters), while some veered off to capture Haifa. The 4 th Cavalry crossed at the Megiddo Pass and then headed west down the Jezreel Valley towards the Jordan River. Other troops came down the central highway to Jenin. About 15,000 prisoners were taken on the first day! In two days, they had surrounded and demolished the 7 th and 8 th Turkish armies. The Chaytor Force, led by New Zealand General Edward Chaytor was released to capture Amman and deal with the 4 th Turkish army east of the Jordan. Lawrence and Faisal s Arab armies were also involved in the attack on Amman. Together they captured Amman and forced the retreat of the Turks northwards. Aboriginal Troopers

4 In the early part of the war, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were not allowed to enlist in the army simply because they were black. Some of lighter skin faked their identity and did serve, but with so many soldiers being killed or wounded, especially in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, recruits became harder to find, and the entrance requirements were relaxed. One group of reinforcements sent from Australia was known as the Queensland Black Watch, as it was almost entirely indigenous. They joined the 11 th Light Horse Regiment. One of these was Trooper Frank Fisher, a well-known Rugby player and the greatgrandfather of Olympic runner, Cathy Freeman. The Australian War Memorial records over 1,000 indigenous men who served in World War 1 and received equal rights while in the army. However, after the war ended, despite their service, they were mostly not given the benefits that were granted to other white ex-servicemen, such as land grants and veterans support services. For example, they were not permitted to join the RSL. Semakh On September 25, 1918, the 11 th LH regiment (including the 26 aboriginal soldiers from the Queensland Black watch ) and part of the 12 th LH were given the task of capturing the railway intersection at Semakh, on the southern shores of the Sea of Galilee. Trooper Frank Fisher was one of two scouts sent ahead of the main group to spy out the land and report back to Brigadier Grant. On their advice, Grant decided to attack at night rather than wait for further reinforcements in daylight, which would have meant higher casualties. The troops arrived under the cover of darkness, and found the station heavily defended by German guns and German and Turkish troops. They charged the station by moonlight and engaged in the heaviest fighting of this part of the campaign. The Australian machine gunners eventually silenced the German guns and the troops broke down the door of the building and engaged in hand-to-hand combat through every room of the station building. Fourteen Australians died and 27 were wounded with nearly half their horses being lost. They killed 98 mostly Germans and captured 365. It was the last major battle in Galilee. Damascus From there they took the rest of northern Israel and headed for Damascus. They arrived at the outskirts on 30 th September and were ordered to cut off the exits from the city. A carnage developed in the Barada valley as the last Turks attempted to escape retribution for Gallipoli. T.E. Lawrence had promised the Arabs that they could rule Damascus as a reward for their support for the British in the war. They had to be seen to be the first to enter. The Sykes-Picot agreement between the British and the French had promised the French the mandate of Syria. Each had their own idea of which leader should be instated to rule the city. The Turks had fled and the city was in uproar. Early in the morning of October 1, the 3 rd Light Horse Brigade, tried to make its way to cut off the northern exit as instructed but could

5 not get through due to blockages from the battle in the valley the night before. Second-incharge Major Olden from Western Australia, tried to negotiate the narrow streets and ended up in front of the governor s house where he was duly escorted in and given signed papers of the surrender of the city! Later that morning the procedure had to be repeated when Lawrence, Faisal and the Arab troops arrived. After that, there was such chaos that the Australians had to come back and restore order. The film Lawrence of Arabia got it wrong - the Australians were the first there, not Lawrence and the Arab troops. The fatigued Allied troops marched on to Aleppo, 300 km north, and by the end of October 1918, despite plagues of sickness severely diminishing their ranks, they took this last stronghold. Thus, exactly a year after Beersheba, on October 31, 1918, Palestine and Syria were liberated and the Ottoman Empire had signed an armistice and been pushed back to Turkey. In just six weeks the ANZACs travelled 560 km on horseback (some up to 800 km), defeated three armies, captured 75,000 prisoners, and ended the Ottoman Empire. In this latter part of the campaign, the Desert Mounted Corps had suffered only about 650 casualties. Chauvel, like Monash, had managed to win a war with minimal loss. Political Significance On the same day as the Beersheba charge was taking place on the ground, the British War cabinet was meeting in London to decide who would live in the former Ottoman land and how it should be administered once the Empire had collapsed. The Zionists, led by their spokesman, renowned chemist, Chaim Weizmann and some Christian ministers had been lobbying the British government for a solution that would give a Jewish homeland in their biblical territory under a British protectorate. At the meeting on October 31, 1917, the British War Cabinet agreed to allow the Jews to return from the nations to a part of Palestine and reestablish a homeland in their ancient territory. A letter from the foreign secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild dated November , reported this decision: His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. 4 The San Remo Conference in April 1920 was called to allocate the League of Nations mandates, which were based on the Balfour Declaration of It was ratified by the League of Nations in July, Lebanon and Syria were to be overseen by France, and Palestine and Mesopotamia came under British administration. Under this mandate Palestine was divided to give a homeland for the Arabs, consisting of 77% of the land, which became Trans-Jordan, today known as Jordan, and a homeland for the Jews, consisting of 23% of Palestine, which became the state of Israel. These mandates were to last until the lands became self-sufficient enough to govern themselves. The Republic of Turkey emerged in The Kingdom of Iraq was formed in 1932, the Lebanese Republic became independent in 1943, and the Syrian Arab Republic and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan followed both in Last of all was the State of Israel in Ramifications for Israel Not only did the Allied success re-write the map of the Middle East, but it opened the way for the return of the Jewish people from the ends of the earth to the land of their ancient forefathers as prophesied by the biblical prophets (e.g. Isa 43:5-6, 49:22-23, Jer 30-31, Ezek

6 38:8). At the 100 th anniversary commemorations in Beersheba, Israel s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said: Exactly 100 years ago brave Anzac Soldiers liberated Beersheba for the sons and daughters of Abraham and opened the gateway for the Jewish people to re-enter this stage of history brave soldiers who are buried here played a crucial role in defeating the Ottoman Empire, liberating the Holy Land and ending 400 years of Ottoman rule in one great dash. 5 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: Had the Ottoman rule in Palestine and Syria not been overthrown by the Australians and New Zealanders, the Balfour Declaration would have been empty words...it did not create the state of Israel but enabled its creation. 6 The consequences of this momentous victory are evident in the land today. Israel is again a nation (Is 66:8-9), the land is producing crops where once was desert (Is 35:1-2), the villages and cities have been rebuilt (Ezek 36:10,33), the people are returning (Is 35:10) and the language has been restored. A modern miracle is happening right in front of our eyes (Is 11:11-12, Jer 23:7-8). Words written thousands of years ago are coming to fulfilment in our day. Homeland for the Arabs God does not love one people group more than another. He makes provision for all people. In His Word, He also gave a homeland for the Arab people the sons of Ishmael (Gen 36:1-8, Deut 2:1-9). It was to the east of the land He gave to the Hebrew people (Dt 16:11-12). This is also the land allocated to them under the Balfour agreement the greater part of Palestine that was situated east of the Jordan River which is today called Jordan. The Middle East today is a hotbed of conflicting ideologies with Jerusalem being a thorn in the side of the United Nations (Zech 12:2-3) and the Temple Mount being the most contested piece of real estate on earth. This is far bigger than just territorial rights. The fundamental question is about who will rule the world in the future - and there are many contenders who would like to stake their claim. God Himself will have the final say (Ps 2). Jill Curry is the author of The Anzac Call Beersheba 100 th Anniversary ( Endnotes: Australians in World War 1: Australian Light Horse, Dept of Vets Affairs 2007, Dreams of the Past. Diary of Trooper Sloan Bolton D.C.M, Crombie, K., Anzacs, Empires and Israel s Restoration, Vocational Educational and Training Pub, 2000, & 6. Beersheba Commemorations Service Speeches by Netanyahu and Turnbull and Pictures: 1. Scotty and Elsie wedding photo 2. Semakh Station in 1918, Australian War Memorial Photo B00283; 3. Beersheba station restored today J Curry