Qualla: Battle of Beersheba (1917)

Battle of Beersheba (1917): Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 au. Their rifles were useless on horseback. Australian light horsemen were mounted infantry, not cavalry -- they rode to the fight, then dismounted to shoot. They carried no swords. So when the order came on the afternoon of October 31, 1917, to charge directly at the Ottoman trenches outside Beersheba, the men of the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments drew their bayonets, gripped them like swords, and galloped across the open plain toward a fortified town that had already absorbed a full day of bombardment and infantry assault. It was the kind of desperate improvisation that either ends in annihilation or becomes legend. At Beersheba, it became both.

Image: Bidgee | CC BY-SA 3.0 au

Battle of Beersheba (1917): The Fortress at the Edge of the Negev

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Igor Svobodin, CC0. Beersheba sat at the eastern anchor of the Ottoman defensive line that stretched 30 miles from Gaza to the Judean Hills. Since ancient times it had been a trading center, with roads radiating in every direction -- northeast to Jerusalem via Hebron and Bethlehem along a metalled m...

Image: Igor Svobodin | CC0

Battle of Beersheba (1917): Allenby's Gamble

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Baránek, CC BY-SA 3.0. After two humiliating defeats at Gaza earlier in 1917 -- costing some 10,000 British Empire casualties -- General Edmund Allenby replaced the sacked commanders and devised a new strategy. Rather than batter the fortified Gaza head-on, he would feint there while striking Beersheba...

Image: Daniel Baránek | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Beersheba (1917): A Day of Grinding Assault

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The coordinated attack began at dawn on October 31, with infantry from the 60th London and 74th Yeomanry Divisions advancing from the southwest under artillery bombardment. By mid-morning, the 60th Division had captured Hill 1070 on the outer defenses. A joint assault then pushed...

Image: Public domain

Battle of Beersheba (1917): Bayonets at the Gallop

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit George W. LAMBERT (1873 - 1930) (Australia) Born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Died in Cobbity, New South Wales. Details on Google Art Project, Public domain. At approximately 4:30 in the afternoon, Brigadier General William Grant ordered the 4th Light Horse Brigade forward. The 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments -- roughly 800 men -- formed up on the open plain southeast of Beersheba. What followed covered about six kilometers at a ga...

Image: George W. LAMBERT (1873 - 1930) (Australia) Born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Died in Cobbity, New South Wales. Details on Google Art Project | Public domain

Battle of Beersheba (1917): The Road to Jerusalem

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A. F. Beck, Public domain. Beersheba was the first step in Allenby's offensive that would capture Jerusalem six weeks later, on December 9, 1917. The battle broke the eastern anchor of the Ottoman Gaza-Beersheba line and forced a general retreat that unraveled the entire defensive position in southern Pale...

Image: A. F. Beck | Public domain