Archive - Bits and Pieces

Below are items relating to the history and current activities of the 11th Light Horse Darling Downs Troop.
If you have anything you would like to contribute, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Contents

Click a heading below to go directly to that section.

The controversial photograph of the charge at Beersheba

The last Mounted Charge of the Great War

 The story of the German Whizz Bang now on display at the Enoggera Museum

Newtown Park, Toowoomba

The Story of The Walers

Women and today’s Light Horse

The controversial photograph of the charge at Beersheba

For nearly 60 years the authenticity of this  photograph has been hotly debated. It was claimed to show the Light Horse charge at Beersheba of 31st October 1917, but the photograph was unidentified, the original negatives could not be located, and the viewpoint of the charge seemed unlikely. How does a photographer come to be in no man's land on the path in the path of the actual cavalry charge?

This photo first appeared as a copied snapshot passed around amongst Light Horsemen on the Palestine front in 1918. By December 1920, when an exhibition of war photos toured Australia the Beersheba picture was a notable exhibit. However, controversy on its origin began when it was thought that the photo might be part of the Belah re staging or even taken by a Turk!

It took nearly 60 years for the mystery of this photograph to be solved. For Eric George Elliott, a range finder with the 4th Light Horse Brigade which was resting in reserve and in a depression between two ridges about four miles East of Beersheba, to give his account of how and why he took the photo.

For more information you may like to look at http://www.lighthorse.org.au/the-controversial-photo-of-beersheba/

The last Mounted Charge of the Great War

Somewhat overshadowed by Chauvel’s now famous Light Horse charge at Beersheba, the charge at Semakh  occurred on September 24th - 25th, 1918 (Armistice with Germany the 11th November)

Semakh was a vitally important railway station on the railway line to Damascus and had to be captured. In the dark just before dawn on the 24th, three squadrons of Darling Downs men spurred their Walers and charged with drawn swords for four kilometers into a hail of machine gun and rifle fire at the heavily fortified, two-story stone railway station in the ancient town.

The Light Horsemen dismounted 130 meters from the building and went in on foot. They then cleared the enemy from the building, room by room, in a terrible hand-to-hand battle when no quarter was asked for or given. At the end of that dawn attack the Light Horse was successful, the action was so fierce and heroic that 14 medals were earned in that bloody battle.

The 11th Light Horse regiment was largely made up of young men from the Western Downs, the small farms around Toowoomba and the Lockyer were exactly what the recruiters wanted -they could shoot a gun and ride a horse.

They were also tough and fit and would form the core of new battalions being raised in Queensland as part of Australia's mounted cavalry commitment to serve in the Great War.

After the awful experience of Gallipoli where the mounted units had to fight as infantry, the Light Horse was reformed in Egypt to confront the Germans and the Turks in the deserts and harsh conditions of the Middle East. They faced the enemy in a land with towns and ways of life mostly unchanged since the Bible documented the life and times of Jesus and the apostles.

One of these mounted troopers was Edward Costello who at the battle of Semakh was the Major commanding his squadron to form line and charge the Turkish guns,

After World War One, the 2nd, 11th and 14th Regiments were combined to constitute the 2nd/14th QMI (Queensland Mounted Infantry). The Regiment still carries this name. It is based at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane and now operates ASLAV armoured cars, and MKIV Abrams battle tanks. Its members still wear the emu plumes and the bandoliers and still consider themselves as Light Horse. As of September 2020, this modern Light Horse will be progressing onto Boxer Armoured Vehicles which carry a crew of 4 plus 8 troopers to deploy as infantry.

 The story of the German Whizz Bang now on display at the Enoggera Museum

On the 27th September 2009, a commemoration parade sponsored by the 2nd /14th Light Horse at Enoggera was held to honor the 11th Light Horse and the men who fell at the Charge of Semakh. The centerpiece of the ceremony was a newly restored field gun known as a German Whizz Bang that had been “lost” for years.

The gun was captured by the 11th Light Horse Regiment at Semakh and as a war trophy had stood for more than 30 years overlooking the Sandgate pier and Bramble Bay. Around 1953 it was then removed and placed on a base at New Farm Park. it was minus wheels and was painted in bright colors as a plaything for children.

In 1983 guardianship was granted to the 2nd/ 14th Light Horse Queensland Mounted Infantry and in 2009 the gun was beautifully restored by staff of the 2nd/14th workshops. it is now part of the Light Horse Museum display at the Enoggera Barracks.

 Newtown Park, Toowoomba

The Story of The Walers

By the time World War One broke out, Australian cavalry horses were rated second to none. Between 1914 and 1918, over 196,000 horses left Australia for active service. About 90,000 of them were measured up as Walers or cavalry horses while the balance was used by the various field artillery Brigades.

Walers were compact well-built saddle and harness horses rather on the light side compared with the heavier weight carrying hunter preferred by the British, but they were as hard as nails and with beautiful clean legs and feet. The Australians always contended that good blood would carry more weight than big bone,  and this desert war proved this point to everyone.

The Australians formed just half of the Desert Mounted Corps and it was probable that they averaged not far off 12 stone (76 kg)  each stripped. To this weight must be added another 9 ½ stone (60 kg) for saddle, ammunition, sword, rifle, clothes, and accoutrements. So, each horse carried a weight of approximately 21 stone (133 kg). all day for every day of a campaign. The Beersheba campaign was 17 days.  This was all done on less than half the normal ration of forage and often with little to drink. Beersheba  averaged a drink every 36 hours for the infantry horses, whereas the battery horses were only able to water three times in nine days. The actual intervals between waterings being 68, 72 and 76 hours.

The weight-carrying English Hunter had to be nursed back to fitness after these operations and for a long period, while the little Australian horses without any special care other than good food and plenty of water were soon fit to go through another campaign as arduous as the last one.

It is a sad fact that out of all of the thousands of horses sent to World War One only one returned.

Women and today’s Light Horse

Women are an integral part of today’s Light Horse - parading and competing on an equal footing with the men.