Australian Light Horse

File:Light horse walers.jpg

Australian light horsemen on Walers in 1914, prior to their departure from Australia to serve in World War I.

Australian Light Horse were mounted troops similar to both cavalry and mounted infantry. They fought in the Second Boer War and World War I.

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South Australian Mounted Rifles training in Adelaide, prior to deployment to South Africa, circa 1900.

By the outbreak of World War I, there were 23 light horse regiments within Australia's part-time military force, consisting of 9,000 personnel. These were organised as follows:

Formation and organisation

File:PikiWiki Israel 10412 australian light horse monument in beer sheva.jpg

Australian light horse monument in Beersheeba

Light horse were like mounted infantry. They usually fought on foot. They used their horses as transport to the battlefield. A famous exception to this rule though was the charge of the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments at Beersheba on 31 October 1917. In 1918, some light horse regiments were equipped with sabres, so they could fight in a conventional cavalry role in the attack on Damascus.

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Troopers of the 4th Light Horse Brigade at Beersheeba, 1917

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An Australian light horse encampment on Mount Olivet and Mount Scopus near Jerusalem, 1918.

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The winner of the 10th Light Horse Regiment's "Best turned out light horseman" competition at the unit's annual sports day in 1943

95th anniversary parade, 2012

Literature

• The Wells of Beersheba (1933) by Frank Dalby Davison
• The Desert Column (1932) by Ion L. Idriess: the only known published account by a participant who was not an officer.
• As if He Knows (2001) – song by Eric Bogle

Movies

Several movies include the charge at Beersheba in 1917:

• 40,000 Horsemen (1940)
• The Lighthorsemen (1987)
• The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Daredevils of the Desert (direct to video, 1992)
• Gallipoli Directed by Peter Weir

Australian Light Horse Media

• Israel in World War I - Australian cavalry unit in Jerusalem H OP 044.JPG

  Australian light horse in Jerusalem during WWI

• Cobbo, Daniel. Member of the Australian Light Horse, 1917.jpg

  Cobbo, Daniel. Indigenous Soldier of the Australian Light Horse, 1917. Cobbo came from the Barambah Aboriginal Mission, now known as Cherbourg, Queensland.

• George Lambert - A sergeant of the Light Horse, 1920.jpg

  A Sergeant of Light Horse in Palestine (George Washington Lambert, 1920)

• Soldiers of the 2/14th Light Horse (Queensland Mounted Infantry) on exercise in 2007.

References

Citations