The Lighthorsemen - Battle of Beersheba Part 3 - Securing the Wells

[teencomment]

I can see why false surrenders were made a war crime in the Geneva Conventions after this war.

[Gaffer213]

turkish army would woop the shit out of australia today

[bookeater]

@Gaffer213 Not really,seeing as the Turkish army hasn't seen major combat for many years and they still have tremendous respect for australia,they even renamed part of their own country in recognition of it, Anzac Cove.

[Lilyjaye73]

breaks my heart when I see Jon Blake :-(

[whowantsabighug]

Is the guy with the broomhandle Irish?

[HenryvKeiper]

@whowantsabighug The soldier who stops the explosions? Actually yes. There's a funny bit of dialogue from the movie about that.

"Are you from Scotland?"

"No."

"Oh - so why do they call you Scotty?"

"It's because I'm Irish."

[Madando2011]

@HenryvKeiper He was the Irish Soldier in The ANZACs too, Flanagan.

[dm3830]

heroic but what a pity to have Australians fighting Turks, could have been as good friends then as we are now, one of Churchill's less glorious moments to drive the Turks into the arms of the other side in WW1. Lest we forget, Australian and Turkish dead alike.

[Agrifix]

@dm3830

Churchill had nothing to do with it. The British thought the Turks were going to be their allies and were building two modern dreadnoughts for the Turkish fleet. One was delivered but when the Turks declared on the side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire & the Germans, the British kept the second ship. In retrospect, the Turkish decision to ally with Germany was one of the stupidest choices in history. The consequence was the destruction & dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire.

[kokogdak]

@Agrifix Not exacly like this. As far as I know the British refused to deliver a warship that was ready, and was alredy payed in full. This was a slap in the face for the once-powerfull empire and had a great impact on Tuskish decision to ally with Germans.

[Khrystene]

RIP John Blake.

[randomlook]

3min 47sec - His name was Trooper Sloan ‘Scotty’ Bolton, DCM

[irishgodfatherchris]

@randomlook a lot of people in my city don't seem to realise that he lived here after the war as a matter of fact.

[Guster1973]

Brings a tear to my eye and a lump in my throat every time! So proud of my fellow Australians and just in awe of their courage!

[TheLiberalTurkey]

this is bullshit , 1 australian stop 8 turks and german officer lool stupid

[HenryvKeiper]

@TheLiberalTurkey That really happened. IIRC, the Australian soldier even won the Victorian Cross for it.

[Madando2011]

@HenryvKeiper not quite Henry, he earned a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for his efforts. Go to anzacday.org.au and search for "Trooper Sloan ‘Scotty’ Bolton, DCM", It's a great story.

[HenryvKeiper]

@Madando2011 Ah OK. Still, good on him.

[ssqad5]

@TheLiberalTurkey you just think it's stupid this is real and guess what im a aussie aussie pride and im not suprised beacause we are some of the strongest people alive and don't you ever and i mean EVER forget that r.i.p lest we forget

[Briselance]

02:04 : Did that berserk Aussie killed the German officer, or did he "just" make him fall off his horse ?

[HenryvKeiper]

@Briselance He just fell off.

[bartieboy93]

say whatever you like but in both ww1 and ww2 the germans fought very well no matter if they were on the bad or the good side

[whowantsabighug]

@bartieboy93 And people often overlook that Britain and it's empire almost got royally f**ked in both wars.

[fp470]

@whowantsabighug Actually in WW1 Britain gains colonial territory and emerges fairly strong. The Second World War has different reasons and factors behind a declined empire- the biggest factor is US imposed Imperial/hegemonic aims to force britain to agree to de-colonisation.

[whowantsabighug]

@fp470 I'm talking about during the fighting, like on the Western front, Britain, Canada and France were all screwed.

[fp470]

@whowantsabighug In what way? The British Empire after an average start by late 1916 start to outfight the enemy? But it was a horrible war in many ways!

[grunt182820]

@whowantsabighug you have to be a yank !

[whowantsabighug]

@grunt182820 Brit.

[Hendrikdevuile]

Painful to see the thirsty men and horses having to gallop so far under the murderous fire of the Turks before being able to engage the enemy. As brave and as suicidal as the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava.. It was the Poles that made the last cavalry charge, in WW ll against Nazi artillery and machine guns, also with heavy casualties. Good that horses, such pacific creatures, no longer have a place in modern machine warfare.

[fp470]

@Hendrikdevuile You will find that in a number of third world conflicts horses continue on as a military animal. In afghanistan cavalry still feature. But also the last 'true' cavalry charge of European cavalry was actually of Portguese Dragoons in the 1971 Angolan war, the nationalist guerillas were routed

[DavBlc7]

@fp470 But Portugal gave up all her colonies expect Macau in 1974 when leftist party takes over government and seeing the colonies as imperialist thus handing over control to nationalists in each colonies. Angola was one of them.

Only Macau was left cos of fear of people there of communist Chinese takeover so wait until meetings between Chinese and Portuguese lead to peaceful takeover in 1999.

[rhinosdabom]

the movie is inaccurate only 2 wells were destroyed

[HenryvKeiper]

@rhinosdabom That's kind of straining gnats, isn't it? The movie is incredibly accurate in several other regards (the use of bayonets as swords, the Turks forgetting to check their sights, the first wave jumping over the first trench to leave it to the second wave, etc)

[rhinosdabom]

@HenryvKeiper sozo and ur right it was pretty accurate anyway gotta send this to my friend coz were doing the same project

[fp470]

@rhinosdabom Only two wells were destroyed you are right. I checked the Official History. Turns out some more were damaged but the charges were insufficient to destroy them. The movie does not make it clear that the explosions were only partially damaging to some of the wells.

[MrJapaneseboy1111]

@rhinosdabom When an israeli (mostly old folk from jerusalem) wants to pay a compliment to other man

for being generous jolly and all to all a stand up man they call him an "australian"

when they want to point out that a man is a snob a stuck up idiot who thinks he is royalty they call him "a brit".

cruel and cold blooded : "nazi" or "german".

[bartieboy93]

@rhinosdabom its more accurate then 99.9% of the hollywood movies

[CEMOLTU]

lol great boyonet attack . haa hahah ahaha . I never seen before that. rifles stil waiting.14-15 inch bayonets works well . It is only works in the movie.you must use it with rifles.liar like Balaklava war British charges agains russian artillerry(1854).on the other han If you want to know how to used bayonet .Search Gallopi war 1915 or SouthKorea defences in 1950-53

[fp470]

The bayonet attack did take place as it occurs in this clip. It was thought that fixing bayonets on horse would be too cumbersome. Also it was thought the men would need something to hold onto to peform a mounted charge for reasons of morale. Later the ALH regimetns were issued with real swords

[westphillybob]

My son brought this video home one day after working his shift in a video store, He said it was a very good movie. I must admit Ive never been a huge fan of Australian movies or English for that matter but I must admit this movie blew me away and I watched it several times. John Ford would have been impressed. Thanks for the uploads it brought back great memories,

[colindominy]

One more thing .. for the record. Rommel is on-record as having stated that "If ever I was given the order to attack & to secure Hell .. then I would choose the Australians to breach the defences (as 'shock-troops') .. and then I'd choose the New Zealanders to hold it !! "

[colindominy]

It's one thing for Poms to conduct a supporting up-front artillery barrage .. it's quite another thing for a competent, well-led Oz cavalry force to autonomously conduct & execute a well-planned cavalry charge. One should also be v.careful about who calls who an idiot .. especially if one happens to be 22yo & still wet behind the ears. It sure helps, too, if one can learn to SPELL & use English GRAMMAR properly & correctly - especially if one aspires to eventually become an experienced scholar.

[colindominy]

This attack & this victory was planned & executed by Australians, tactically & autonomously. Shows you what Aussies can do in battle .. when left to do a tough job for & by themselves. This one kind of made up for the debacle at Gallipoli back in 1915 .. where the magnificent ANZACS there, were subservient to bumbling "Colonel Blimp" type British commanders .. who were ancient-thinking & still behaved as if the 1st world-war was still being fought according to 18th Century-era tactics.

[fp470]

You are an idiot.Beersheba was a lucky break and the last desperate assault after the earlier Australian led assaults had failed. This attack was only made possible because the New Zealanders and British had secured the hill overlooking the position. Also General Allenby of the UK planned this operation. Furthermore British commanders were quiet competant as Australians, both had to learn how to fight ww1 as they were fighting it. Also had these light horseman not advanced after the barrage...

[fp470]

....provided by UK artillery then it would have failed. Notice how the Turks have to come out of their bunkers and enter the trenches...why do you think they werent in the trenches to begin with? Becaus they had just recieved a bombardment which had actually destroyed a machine gun position.

Whilst an admirable cavarly charge it was a near run thing. These men stood on the precipise between failure and victory.

Your anti British sentiment is unfounded. General Allenby was a genious

[kehylan]

I think the last successful cavalry charge in history since anecdotally the Poles tried to mount a charge against Nazi "cavalry" in the second world war...... Can anyone confirm this or not?

[HenryvKeiper]

Actually cavalry was successfully used against the Taliban at the start of the American invasion of Afghanistan.

[fp470]

Last cavarly charge was in recent afghan war by Northern Alliance forces against Taliban. However the last truly great and successful cav charge (as in actually turns a battle against forces opposing the charge) was in 1971 when portugese dragoons charged Angola freedom fighters (the routed the Angolans off the field).

But with the continuation of 3rd world conflicts cavarly wont dissapear for a while.

[eldar600]

in great numbers and last biggest one was in World War II , done by soviets against Nazi

[delivererx]

where is part 4?

[HenryvKeiper]

There is no part four :P

There's the conclusion, but that takes place after the battle. I have that video uploaded.

[delivererx]

ah.. sorry i didn't realize these were highlights

thx for the upload :)

[HenryvKeiper]

No problem :)

[bofts]

Thanks for uploading