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They didn’t know it was impossible… they just obeyed orders. That is what it says on the jacket of the 1987 movie The Lighthorsemen.

The Lighthorse charge at Beersheba on 31 October 1917 is known in military circles as ‘The Last Great Cavalry Charge in History’. The stunning victory of the 800 Australian horsemen, together with their New Zealand and British comrades, changed history. Yet in Australia, it is totally overshadowed by the discouraging stories of the losses in Gallipoli and the Western Front.

The Beersheba Charge

After two unsuccessful and costly attempts to break into the Holy Land at Gaza in March and April 1917, it was decided to march inland to Beersheba, thought impossible because of the lack of water for men and horses en route.

After enduring a three-night trek through the desert, with little water and minimal rations, the Allied troops arrived at the outskirts of Beersheba before dawn on 31 October.

The British battled hard in the morning, suffering 1,000 casualties, but achieved their aims by midday. The Kiwis took over and, with some Australian assistance, fought tenaciously to take the only high point of Tel Sheva – the site of the ancient city of Beersheba, which was heavily defended with machine guns. Without this being cleared, the charge could not have succeeded.

At 4.30 p.m., with only a few hours of daylight remaining, the city and its lifesaving wells of Abraham were still not captured. Returning through the desert was not an option. It was do or die. General Chauvel decided to send in 800 lighthorsemen from the 4^th and 12^th regiments in a risky charge.

They galloped across 6 km of stony, open desert in the full face of 4,400 entrenched Turks with 28 field guns and a mass of machine guns and rifle fire, supported by German bombers overhead. The Turkish gunners had their guns set for 1,500 metres but were ordered not to fire until the troops dismounted, as they always did – at least up till now. Lighthorsemen normally rode their sturdy Waler horses near the battle, then one took the horses while the others went into face-to-face combat on foot with bayonets.

They gathered pace as they neared the Turkish trenches. By the time the Turks realised that the horses were not going to stop, they could not wind down their heavy machinery fast enough. The shrapnel flew over the horsemen’s heads and exploded behind them. But the German aircraft were swooping overhead.

With bombs exploding and rifle fire pinging around them, they charged furiously on. Many riders jumped the trenches and continued into town. Some dismounted and began fighting hand-to-hand with the stunned Turks in the trenches.  After the initial breakthrough, other Allied troops began swarming the city.  Beersheba was in their hands, but the danger was not yet past – it was all about the water.

The wells had been mined, and without capturing the water, the whole breakthrough would be in vain. One gallant soldier noticed a German officer in a building at a switchboard pressing buttons to detonate the wells. He and his comrade stormed into the building, took the officer prisoner and saved most of the wells intact. Against ‘impossible’ odds, they won the victory. Miraculously, only 31 were killed, another 36 were injured, and 70 horses died that day.

Speed and surprise, enormous courage and a good deal of divine help won the battle of Beersheba. One captured German officer commented that he never believed the Australians would be mad enough to make such an audacious charge, rushing infantry redoubts protected by machine guns and artillery. The charge not only broke the Turkish cordon but also broke their morale and fighting spirits. From that time on, they feared the ANZAC horsemen and were more inclined to flee rather than fight when they saw them coming.

An Exceptional Day

On the same day as the battle for Beersheba was taking place on the ground, the British War Cabinet was meeting in London to decide who would live in the land after the war and how it should be administered.

The Zionists, led by their spokesman, Chaim Weizmann and some Christian ministers, especially William Hechler, had been heavily 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 31 October, the War Cabinet decided that part of Palestine would be set aside to provide a homeland for the Jews. This became known as the Balfour Declaration and became the basis for the subsequent partition of the former Ottoman Empire which saw the formation of the nations of Syria and Lebanon under a French Mandate, and Iraq, Jordan and Israel under a British Mandate. Palestine was to be divided at the Jordan River, to give a homeland for both the Jews (Israel – 23% of Palestine) and the Arabs (Jordan – 77% of Palestine).

Thus, the breakthrough came the same day in the political arena and on the ground. It was indeed an appointed time.

The Torah portion for that week was Genesis chapters 12-17.

I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” ~ Genesis 17:7-8

In World War I, the two Australian Generals, one a Jew (John Monash) and the other a Christian (Harry Chauvel), both knew it had to be God’s hand. Sir John Monash wrote in his diary on 14 April 1915, before arriving in Gallipoli:

One probable result of the war will be the freeing of Jerusalem and Palestine from the Turkish yoke.
(War Letters of General Monash)

Four Hundred Years of Ottoman Rule

The Beersheba breakthrough occurred in the 400^th year of Ottoman rule over the Holy Land. The Hebrew people were 400 years in Egypt before being liberated during Passover. There were 400 ‘silent’ years between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.

Now a third significant 400-year period was playing out. The Muslim grip over the Holy Land was being rolled back, which paved the way for the return of the Jewish people and the re-formation of the nation of Israel. The breakthrough began that day in Beersheba – the city of the Patriarchs and the southern gateway to the Holy Land. It came largely due to the courage of farm boys from the ends of the earth who rode their way into history.

Four Hundred Years of the Protestant Reformation

Furthermore, 31 October 1517 was the day that Martin Luther hammered his 95 theses into the door of the church in Wittenberg, challenging the corrupt Catholic hierarchy, who were extorting payment for the remission of sin. So, it was also the 400^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. This is indeed a significant day in history.

Is there any wonder that the Devil has tried to capture this day with the Satanic Halloween festival? Let us use this opportunity to tell people what God did on 31 October. Give the children a bottle of water and an Anzac biscuit instead of lollies, and tell them some Australian history they have probably never heard.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.