The War Diary.pdf - philiphunt.com

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, T997
le machine-gun squadron, is accepted by many as the authentic depiction of the Gharge of Beersheba.
xed, historians charge at Beersheba
before 1920 to explain a then
anonymous photo of the charge.
ln 1967, Mr Elliott provided
the War Memorial with ^
statement of how he took the
photo. He had been preparing
range charts between the Australian
and Turkish lines when
the charge crossed a ridge. He
had snapped a photo and gone.
Mr Jones, who met Elliott in
1971, said: "He impressed me
as a reliable witness, as he had
impressed Lieutenant-Colonel
Donovan Joynt, VC, who had
persuaded Rex to write his
account. I subsequently spoke
with 13 men who had ridden in
the charge. All accepted Rexos
photo as genuine.o'
Mr Jones visited Beersheba
in 1979, taking photos which,
he said, matched Elliott's. He
wrote an article for the War
Memorial's Journal in 1983,
arguing for the acceptance of
Elliott's photo as an authentic
record and quoting Brigadier
General William Grant, who
had directed the charge.
"Everything appears to be
right - the formation and the
country over which the charge
was mader" Mr Jones said.
otThere was a 'rehearsalo
charge made at a later time in
the campaign but the country
was entirely different to that
opposite Beersheba."
Mr Jones said the War
Memorial had accepted his case
and Elliott had been given
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posthumous credit. He said the
ll/artime article contained several
errors, ignored key evidence
and labelled Elliott as
having made false claims,
whereas Jones said he was "a
modest and honourable man".
Mr Bill Fogarty, head of
photographs, sound and film at
the War Memorial, said: o'We
are not saying the photo is a
fake. We have an image and
there are tantalising questions
unanswered.tt