TW32C03 - Trooper, Australian Light Horse, Beersheba 1917 instruction booklet

1914-1918 in miniature
A brief introduction to the
Trooper, Australian Light Horse
The Australian Light Horse are a Mounted Infantry regiment formed
in the 19th Century. Troops from the regiment first saw action in the
Boer War where the vast terrain suited the role of mounted
infantrymen.
By the outbreak of World War One there were 23 Light Horse
regiments within Australia’s part-time military with 9,000 personnel.
Organised along cavalry lines consisted of 25 officers and 400 men
divided into three squadrons (A, B and C) plus two maxim guns.
During the Gallipoli campaign the ALH served as infantry, famously
at the Battle of the Nek.
Following the allied withdrawal from the Gallipoli peninsular, the 1st,
2nd and 3rd Brigades were reunited with their horses in Egypt and
placed with the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade to form the
Anzac Mounted Division. In 1917 the Brigade was part of a larger
formation under the leadership of Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel
which included British Yeomanry Divisions and the Imperial Camel
Corps under the title Desert Mounted Corps.
On 31st October 1917 as part of the Third Battle of Gaza the British
forces took the town of Beersheba, a strategic consideration due to
its water supply so important to the Desert Mounted Corps, after a
day of fighting the 4th Light Horse Brigade charged the final Turkish
defenders, as Mounted Infantry they were not issued swords, but had
prepared their bayonets. 31 men were killed, 36 wounded and over
70 horses killed, but the town was taken. The battle led to the retreat
of the Ottoman army and on the 7th November Gaza was taken.
This figure depicts a Trooper of the ALH in full charge, with his
bayonet at the ready.
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