Beersheba

Paul Daley

A journey through Australia's forgotten war. In October 1917 members of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade took part in what is now known as the 'last great cavalry charge'. Waving bayonets overhead, they charged across six kilometres of open ground, cheating bombs, shells and bullets before capturing the Turkish trenches that held the key to the strategic stronghold of Beersheba. The charge was the last daring act of a day-long fight by combined British forces to capture the town, and also a turning point in Britain's war against the Ottoman Empire. Journalist Paul Daley's journey in search of Beersheba takes him from Australia to Israel, from past to present, and from the battlefields to the archives, where he discovers a dark episode in Australian history that sits starkly at odds with the Anzac myth and legend. Soft cover, photographs, 339 pages.