The Charge At Beersheba

The Australian Light Horse had rode all night And the troopers were all spoiling for a fight For they remembered mates lose on the fatal shore When the Turks defeated the Gallipoli Invasion flaw But Chauvel wanted to wait 'til the sun was down And so they rested all day in front of Beersheba town At 4.30 pm on the 31st October 1917 he called Grant in And gave him the order to attack in full charge to begin So the troopers lined up with the strongest at the front row And Grant told them all the charge would be a great show Without a sabre they were told to draw their bayonet And they would face the entrenched Turks in their bent So they started off at a slow trot in breast a-line The shells fell amongst them in a shrapnel whine The troopers rode as they yelled the bush calls of Coo-eee And in the battle excitement they all would in glory see So the valiant horsemen rode on with shells and bullets flying about Some fell dead or wounded but still the others rode their courage to flout By now the charging troopers where riding hard in full battle cry They kept on charging towards their foe and didn't dismount on by They galloped as nearer the trenches they came The horses smelt the wells as they came into the frame And their thirst drove their mounts faster on As their parched mouth and thirst became their urgent song The German and Turkish officers stood behind the trench site And waited for the Light Horse to dismount to fight In other battles they had come to expect this to occur As the Light Horse was mounted infantry and not calvary to defer They didn't dismount and the surprise meant Turks were unprepared And their gun sights meant they were firing high as fared The Light Horse was able to ride under the Turkish guns And attack the trenches as the Turk soldiers away runs But the Turkish bullets sometimes found their mark And Light Horsemen fell from their mounts into the trenches dark Here the fight became desperate and was hand to hand This was the fight that made this charge so grand The German officers ran to destroy the wells One and then two were blown in desperate spells But the horsemen were too good and saved the day With seventeen wells saved and precious water to stay When the fight had finished and the Turks rounded up The horses were led in to have their fill of the water sup And the Light Horse opened up the Palestine and Syria land To be liberated from the Ottoman Empire in a grand plan. © Paul Warren Poetry