191731 October 1917 · Beersheba

Charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba

Memorial to the Australian Light Horse in the Park of the Australian Soldier, Beersheba — Photo: Bella Kapish. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

At dusk on 31 October 1917 Australian Light Horse regiments charged the Ottoman trenches at Beersheba and captured the town and its wells. The success broke the Gaza–Beersheba line and opened the way for the British advance on Jerusalem, which fell in December. The charge is a celebrated episode in Australian and New Zealand military memory.

Military & Battlefields
Jerusalem, Israel

Sites

Site 1: Beersheba War CemeteryCommonwealth graves from the Palestine campaign.Map ↗
Site 2: Park of the Australian SoldierSculpture of a mounted Light Horseman leaping a trench.Map ↗