Animals at war

I have a vision of your grandfather riding a great stallion charging the Hun with a sword raised high...
 
I remember my father-in-law talking about the horses in WW1, at the end of the war, many of those faithfull, brave animals were put down, due to the expense of bringing them back home. So sad.
 
Loved the article. History is a favorite of mine. Especially when it is personal. Just read a book called "A Little Revenge" about Benjamin Franklin and his Son.
 
Ralphy1 said:
I have a vision of your grandfather riding a great stallion charging the Hun with a sword raised high...
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You'd be wrong. The Light Horse was not a cavalry unit and had no swords. Also, Granddad served in the desert in what was then Palestine. They rode in columns of four to the place of battle, then dismounted. Three went forward to engage the enemy while the fourth took all four horses back to a place of safety. Their range was limited by the availability of water. They relied on wells scattered about the desert and watered the horses using portable canvas troughs.

They did however mount an unexpected charge on the town of Beersheba that won the battle and allowed the British to go on to take Gaza. It was late in the day, the battle was not going well and men and horses were running out of water so it was a do or die effort. Beersheba was defended by the Turks with German Officers in command and they were confident that the Light Horse would not charge. As they lined up to charge they still didn't believe that they would, expecting them to approach then dismount.

With no swords at hand they drew their bayonets and proceeded to charge the defences, coming on so fast that the defending machine gun sights were unable to be adjusted quickly enough and eventually they were under the guns and leapt over the front defences and captured the town. It was the last cavalry charge in history but technically, since they were not actually a cavalry unit, it doesn't count in any war histories other than the Australian ones.

My Granddad missed this piece of history because he was sent home unfit for duty. His lungs were shot from the effects of sand storms and he later died of silicosis of the lungs. It was his unit that won the day at Beersheba and there should have been high honours awarded to many men but they had blotted their copybook in some reprisal killings and Lord Kitchener was not inclined to reward them.

There is an Australian movie that depicts this event as its climax. It is a thrilling depiction of a desperate ride. I recommend it. Made in 1987 it is titled The Lighthorsemen and is basically a war romance story based on two real characters of the time.

This is how the movie depicts the men

GetVODTitleImage


This is what they actually looked like. The feathers on their slouch hats are emu feathers.

 
Thanks for that bit of history, Dame. It sounds like war was more of a romantic adventure then, before it became all motorized...
 
I think World War I was anything but romantic. It came as a massive shock to our men who enlisted in a haze of romantic ideas about adventure and derring do, only to find themselves stuck in trenches and being asked to give up their lives at the whim of Colonel Blimps who sent them over the top for the sake of a few yards of muddy ground.

My grandfather had previously enlisted to fight in the Boer War, which was terrible in other ways. He was just 20 at the time and still single. I imagine this war, riding across the Sth African veldt, wasn't too bad for him but fifteen years later, conditions in the desert, Gallipoli, France and Belgium were horrific. No-one in Australia could have imagined what they were heading for.
 
Quite right, and when WW1 began American boys were encouraged to do their part with tunes such as "Over There" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to name a couple. It was all going to be a grand patriotic adventure...
 
My father enlisted in 1914 aged 18 and served with The Royal Scots Greys................. a few weeks ago we had a mini series on tv called......The Great War..the peoples story.............it was told through letters that had been exchanged between serving soldiers in the trenches and their families back home and also diaries that had been kept at the time. Old film archive was also shown including film of the Scots Greys which was very poignant for me, because I kept wondering if my father could be amongst those troopers in the film.

http://humahistory.hubpages.com/hub...1915-World-War-1-First-Great-European-War-WWI
 
My father was a doughboy but arrived in France just as the war ended. He had hardly served six months when he was sent home for discharge...
 
The number of horses lost is not clear. The Turks were jabbing at their bellies with their bayonets as the horses leapt over the forward defences. Others would have been hit by gunfire.

This is what I've been about to find out from the Australian War Museum site

31 light horsemen were killed in the charge and 36 were wounded. Some originals from the Brigade who had enlisted in 1914 such as Edward Cleaver and Albert “Tibbie” Cotter, the famous Australian cricketer, were killed. The next morning Private Keddie rode over the ground to see if any of the horses could be found roaming but he recorded only seeing dead carcases. Keddie: “We were sent looking for the horses whose riders were killed so we made for the other side of the town where several other light horse regiments were . . . met some friends in the first light horse and yarned for a while they asked me what it was like in the charge gave them a full account”. At least 70 horses died. The Turkish defenders suffered many casualties and between 700 and 1,000 troops were captured.

http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2007/10/30/the-charge-of-the-4th-light-horse-brigade-at-beersheba/
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From what I can find out a Light Horse regiment consisted of around 600 men and there were two brigades (4th and 12th) involved in the charge.
 
Correction, I have just edited my previous post because I realised I put the wrong year down that my father enlisted.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
The number of horses lost is not clear. The Turks were jabbing at their bellies with their bayonets as the horses leapt over the forward defences. Others would have been hit by gunfire.

This is what I've been about to find out from the Australian War Museum site



From what I can find out a Light Horse regiment consisted of around 600 men and there were two brigades (4th and 12th) involved in the charge.
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Thanks! When they "yarned for a while" did he mean they exchanged stories?
 
Dame Warrigal said:
Fascinating Bee.
Even more fascinating the idea that the Colonel in Chief was Tsar Nicholas.
Did I read that wrongly?
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You did read it correctly Warrigal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo8n0ajOwXo


In 1854 the regiment won two Victoria Crosses charging uphill against 3,000 Russian cavalry at the battle of Balaklava - yet 40 years later Tsar Nicholas II of Russia became its colonel-in-chief! It did not see active service as a whole unit from 1857 until the Boer War in 1899, during which it camouflaged its white horses with khaki dye. It fought as both cavalry and infantry during the First World War then in India and Palestine during the inter-war years.

http://www.nam.ac.uk/research/famous-units/royal-scots-greys-2nd-dragoons
 
Thanks Dame Warrigal (and the others) for an interesting history lesson. I never knew about all this.

Due to an old eye injury, my father was exempt from active duty, so he did his part building Jennies (pilot training planes) @ the Curtis factory in Buffalo, NY.
 
Meanderer said:
Thanks! When they "yarned for a while" did he mean they exchanged stories?
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"Yarned for a while' would mean that they talked to each other as in "had a bit of a yarn".

yarn 1) To tell a story, which more or less at any given moment contains a dubious amount of exaggeration. (To spin a yarn)

2) To have conversation with someone, most likely pertaining to trivial matters.
1) To spin a yarn - "One time I saw this dog driving a car, and it was wearing a cape!"

2)"I'll see you later on, we'll catch up and have a bit of a yarn"
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It is interesting and sad that when young men are wounded on the battlefield they call out for their mothers...
 

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