There were however, little or no wire defences for the attackers to deal with. Without resistance, the Ottoman commander surrendered the entire column. The delay at Tel es Saba threatened to prevent the capture of Beersheba before dark. The Turks trusted that the lack of reliable water in this region, other than at the wells in Beersheba, would limit British operations to mounted raids. As Australian Light Horse Divisions captured the town and secured crucial water wells, their success also marked the beginning of the end of the war in the Middle East. Alfred Healey and Thomas O'Leary, both scouts of the 4th, were first to jump the Ottoman trenches. As it happened during the course of the battle, some of those objections proved well taken. They were six and a half kilometres outside Beersheba. The British Army re-organised before trying again. It was part of Operation Yoav and was conducted at the end of the operation. 647 and 38 officers was the number as well as I remember the odd figures ... 4th Light Horse got 350 odd more and we collected about 30 strays during the night." The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade, under Brigadier General William Grant, charged more than four miles at the Turkish trenches, overran them and captured the wells at Beersheba. With dust and smoke filling the air and obscuring targets, units of the 60th London Division attacked Hill 1070, directly ahead of the main Ottoman front line. Categories: Battles of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign | Israeli history | 1917, 5 The charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, https://academickids.com:443/encyclopedia/index.php/Battle_of_Beersheba, Battles of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Allenby's forces had undergone a major expansion so that he now had two corps of infantry; the XX Corps, commanded by General Philip Chetwode, and the XXI Corps. Once the outlying defences were overcome, it was intended to make a dismounted attack against Beersheba itself. Allenby's financing of this irregular, but often wildly successful force, extended his preference for the agility of manoeuvre warfare, and contributed decisively to his overall successes. The quickly reached all their initial objectives and so were in position for the main assault on the township to coincide with the light horse and New Zealanders. The final phase of this all day battle was the famous mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade. Thirty-eight Turkish and German officers and about 700 other ranks were taken prisoner, and a supply of water was secured. A counterattack north of Beersheba did not distract Allenby, and on 6-7 November the Turks were forced out of the entire Gaza position. “Unfortunately Australia has become obsessed with the British-led failure at Gallipoli... which is a real tragedy,” he said. But despite the animals' heroism, the Australian government had quarantine concerns and did not want to foot the bill for the surviving horses’ return after the war. In the Palestine campaign, the horses carried supply packs weighing up to 150 kilograms as well as their rider, in temperatures that sometimes reached 50 degrees. Progress north into Palestine, toward Jerusalem and beyond, had completely stalled. After the battle, the Ottoman defensive line in southern Palestine began to collapse, as the Allied forces pushed it back to the coast and on into the north. The mounted attack was running behind schedule and the daylight available to capture Beersheba itself was running out. No serious attack was expected from the area of rocky hills east of the town. As he rose from the ground, dazed by the fall, he was surrounded by Ottoman soldiers with their hands in the air. The light horsemen took less than an hour to overrun the Turkish trenches and enter Beersheba.