Today marks the 100th anniversary of the famous Charge of the Light Horse, in which 400 mounted infantry of the 4th and 12th Australian Light Horse Regiments audaciously charged against over a thousand entrenched Ottoman defenders of Beersheba, Gaza. Their success secured the area’s only potable water source before the Turks could destroy the wells and opened the way for the Allied capture of Jerusalem.
Painting by Ian Coate.
Half a league, half a league
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Half a league, half a league
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the Guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Very different charge you’re thinking of there.
CJ, this poem is an apt allusion to what the Aussies did in WW1 but was written to honour the charge of the British Light Brigade against Russian guns in the Crimean war in the 1850s.
Mea culpa. It was the first thing that came to mind; please excuse my faulty historical reference. It’s still a powerful poem.
Forward!
Just remember, there were NZer’s and Brits there as well that enabled the Aussies to make that final charge!