The Charge At Beersheba 1917
Revised 20171207
NB: I am
dyslexic so please bear with me. Bible references are from MKJV unless noted
otherwise.
INTRODUCTION
Before our
church viewed the film, “The Light Horseman”. I did a 30 minutes talk covering
the Lighthorse regiments organization, equipment and tactics. I also discussed
relevant prophecies.
AIM
My aim is to
give you a bit of the history leading up to the charge at Beersheba, so that
you can better understand the film we are about to see, and the prophetic
significance of the year 1917
Myself….. I am a
retired officer of the Army Reserve. I joined the then CMF in 1969; I was never
in the regular army. I served in numerous units but most of my time I was in
the 4/19 Prince of Wales’s Light Horse. To the left are the hat badges used by
my regiment. The Traditional Silver badge for dress uniform, and the Modern day
Cloth badge is for tactical use in the field to stop reflection.
The regiment is
the amalgamation of Three Old Light Horse Regiments, shown below.
.
.
4th Light Horse - 17th Prince of
Wales Light Horse - 19th Australian
Light Horse
THE CHARGE AT
BEERSHEBA
Two Australian
Regiments, The 4th Light horse, a Victorian Regiment, and 12th Australian Light
horse, a New South Wales Regiment, conducted the charge. The unit hat badge of
the 12th is shown above to the far right.
It was the last
successful mounted charge in history. There were 800 men on horse and my Regiment
celibates Beersheba Day every year.
Light horse
regiments normally comprised 25 officers and 497 other ranks serving
in three squadrons, each of six troops. Each troop was divided into
eight sections, of four men each. In action one man of each section was
nominated as a horse holder reducing the regiment's rifle strength by a
quarter. The 4th Light Horse eventually raised five squadrons and later in the
war, two of these squadrons were detached to accompany the Australian infantry
divisions to France, while the other three remained to the Middle East, serving
with the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division. All Australian
Light Horse regiments used cavalry unit designations, but
were mounted infantry, and mounted exclusively on the
Australian Waler horse. So named because they come from the out back NSW
and a VERY tough beast.
TACTICS
Tactically they
were not the ideal type of unit to engage the enemy in a charge. The ideal unit
would have been the cavalry, which the British Army had in the Middle East.
They had a slightly heaver set horse and were equipped with a sword or sabre.
They could arrive fast and fight from horse back. But the British horses lacked
the stamina in the dry conditions.
The Australian
Light Horse trooper was equipped with the 303 rifle and the bayonet. They were effectively
only infantry in horseback. They could arrive fast and then fight on foot. At
Beersheba they did a charge, which is called a “SHOCK ACTION”. Because they
could arrive on the trenches SO FAST, you can see in the film that the Turkish
soldier with the Range Finder, could not get the information to his men in the
front lines fast enough. 800 horses thundering towards you would have shaken
the very ground you stand on.
MAN and BEAST
The men loved
their horses. Most had ridden their own horse to the recruiting centre,
effectively horse and man singed up together. I know a WW I veteran LH man,
Fenton Denying, he often attended our regimental monthly diner. He was
interviewed in a pub on ANZAC day and spoke candidly of the “kinship” with the
horse. So it was very hard for a man to part with his fallen horse. At the end
of the war the horses could not coming home. So each man chose to shoot his
horse. 130,000 horses left Australia….. None came home.
But What Was
God’s Opinion Of The Horse?
Job 39:19 “Have
you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with a mane? : 20 Can
you make him leap like a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrifying. :21
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; he goes on to meet the
weapons. :22 He mocks at fear, and is not terrified; and he does not turn back
from the sword. :23 The quiver rattles against him, the glittering spear and
the shield. :24 He swallows the ground with quivering and rage; and he does not
stand still at the sound of the trumpet. :25 When the trumpet sounds, he says,
Aha! And he smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the
shouting.”
OUR ALLIES
Don’t forget
Laurence of Arabia was on the Eastern side of this whole region. They were the
Bedouin escort for the British officer.
Lawrence and the
Arab forces took Aqaba 6 Jul 1917
To the right the map shows the New Zealand Mounted Brigade, they took Tel el Saba at the top right of the map. Then the 4th and 12th Australian Light Horse formed up to the east for a four kilometre charge.
PROPHECIES
The SEVEN Times
Punishment … hands up if you have ever heard of that!
You can find it
in Lev. chapter 26 verses 14 to 46. When God is saying to the Israelites I put
before you life and death choose ye life etc. God is basically saying, “the
bottom line is” if you walk contrary to me; refuse my correction; continue to
brake my commandments; etc. etc. Then He will walk contrary to them, He will
scatter them among the nations and He will punish them SEVEN times.
Lev 26:18 “And if you will not yet listen to Me for all this, then I will punish you seven
times more for your sins.”
Lev 26:21 “And if you walk contrary to Me, and will not listen to Me, I will bring seven times more
plagues on you according to your sins.”
Lev 26:24 “then I will walk contrary to you and will punish you seven times more for your sins.”
Lev 26:28 “then I will walk contrary to you also in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times
for your sins.”
WHAT IS SEVEN
TIMES?
You have all
heard of the “Time Times and Half a Time” = 3 ½ years = 42 months = 1260
prophetic days. That is NOT a literal 3 ½ years, it couldn’t possibly be! If it
were then it would come to 1277 days.
So for the 1260
prophetic days, you must apply “a day for a year” as the Lord says in Numbers
14:34, Ezekiel 4:6 So it is then interpreted as 1260 literal years.
Therefore:
- Time Times and Half a Time = 1260 years.
So double that is SEVEN TIMES = 2520
years.
LETS APPLY THE
“SEVEN TIMES” TO JERUSALEM
Jesus said in
Luk 21:24 b (KJV) “….and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
Well Jerusalem
fell in 604 BC. Just add 2520 years and
what do we get, the year 1917. So according to prophecy that was the year
Jerusalem was to be no longer under the control of the Gentile nations it was
to come back into the hands of Israel. And so it did! 40 days after
the charge of Beersheba General Allenby walked into Jerusalem 11.Dec.1917.
Without a shot fire
THE 1335 DAYS
PROPHESY?
Dan 12:12 “Blessed
is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.” In
1917 the Mohammedan calendar was terminated. It stopped in the year of Mohammed
1335. A coin was minted with 1917 on left side and in Arabic, 1335 on the right
side!
Remember This Scripture
Lev 26:8 “And
five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand
to flight.”
THE LION AND THE
YOUNG LIONS
Hands up if you
have ever heard of the phrase in the bible… “The young lions”? …… Do you know
who they are?
From the PUNCH
magazine in the 1880’s about the Boar War’
And a couple
more Britain and the Colonies.
Are the Lion and
young lions mentioned in the bible….?
Yes they are,
see Numbers 23:24… Isaiah 5:29… Isaiah 31:4... Ezekiel 19:1-6... Ezekiel 38 …
Micah 5:8
Got to Ezekiel
38. Here is a prophecy where God is talking about the battle of Armageddon.
Here we see Gog and Magog etc. decide to attack the “land of unwalled villages”
KJV. I believe; Gog is obviously Russia and if they go “UP” that is north they
continue over the North Pole to the Alaskan oil fields, Canada and the USA “the
land of unwalled villages”. … “to take a great spoil”. When that happens other nations would
obviously protest, and who are the protesting nations?
Eze 38:3 “And
say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief ruler
of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.”
Eze 38:11 “And
you shall say, I will go up to the land of open spaces (KJV the landH776 of
unwalled villages;H6519). I will go to those at ease, who dwell securely, all of them
dwelling without walls, and there are no bars nor gates to them, :12 in
order to take a spoil, and to steal a prize; to turn your hand on the inhabited
waste places, and on the people gathered out of the nations, who have gotten
cattle and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. :13 Sheba and
Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all their young lions, shall say to
you, Have you come to take a spoil? Have you gathered your company to steal a prize,
to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great
spoil?”
Tarshish has
always been interpreted as the British Isles. And hear the Young Lions are
associated as partners of the British Isles. That could only be the
commonwealth nations.
THE TAKING OF
JERUSALEM
Now look at this
in Isaiah chapter 31. God is telling you how He will deliver Jerusalem in the
later days.
Isa 31:4 “For so
has Jehovah spoken to me: As the lion roars, even the young lion on his prey
when a multitude of shepherds are gathered against him, he will not be afraid
of their voice, nor fret himself because of their noise. So Jehovah of Hosts
shall come down to fight for Mount Zion, and on its hill. :5 As birds flying,
so Jehovah of Hosts will defend Jerusalem; also defending, He will deliver it;
and passing over He will preserve it.”
You can see here
the Lion and the Young lion, (Briton and Australia)
As birds
flying…. General Allenby sent an air leaflet drop over Jerusalem to tell
the Turks he was coming. The Turks fled.
So the Lord,
“Jehovah of Hosts” delivered Jerusalem with out a shot needing to be fired.
Isn’t God good!
Yours Adrian
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