 Australian Light Horse Walers | |
| Country of origin | Australia |
|---|---|
The Waler is an Australian breed of horse that was developed from horses that were brought to the Australian colonies in the 19th century. The name comes from their breeding origins in New South Wales; they were originally known as "New South Walers".
The Waler combined a variety of breeds; particularly the Thoroughbred, Arab, the Cape horse (from the Cape of Good Hope), Timor Pony and perhaps a little Clydesdale or Percheron. It was originally considered only a "type" of horse and not a distinct breed. However, as a landrace bred under the extreme climate and challenging working conditions of Australia, the Waler developed into a hardy horse with great endurance even when under extreme stress from lack of food and water. It was used as a stockman's horse and prized as a military remount. [1] Walers were also used by bushrangers, troopers and exploration expeditions that traversed inland Australia. [2]
The preferred Walers for cavalry duties were 15 to 16 hands high (60 to 64 inches (152 to 163 cm)). Those over 16 hands were rejected for use in the South Australian Bushmen Corps. Unbroken horses, as well as those with grey and broken (spotted) coat colours were also rejected. The selected horses had to be of a good type that could carry sixteen or seventeen stone (102 to 108 kg (224 to 238 lbs)) day after day.
The Walers carried the rider, saddle, saddle cloth, bridle, head collar, lead rope, a horseshoe case with one front and one hind shoe, nails, rations for the horse and rider, a bedroll, change of clothing, a rifle and about 90 rounds of .303 rifle ammunition. [2]
The gaits of the Waler were considered ideal for a cavalry mount; it could maintain a fast walk and could progress directly to a steady, level canter without resorting to a trot which was noisy, liable to dislodge gear and resulted in soreness in the horse's back. [3] The cavalry horse required docility, courage, speed, and athletic ability, as it carried the rider into battle. The infantryman's horse was used as a means of transport from one point to another, for example, from camp to a battle ground, where the horses were kept back from the fighting. [2] Heavier animals were selected and used for draught and packhorse duties. [3]
Most of the early Walers carried a fair percentage of Thoroughbred blood, with some recorded as race winners and a few being registered in the Australian Stud Book. While in warfare service in North Africa, some Walers proved successful in races against local Egyptian horses and assorted Thoroughbreds. In 1919 horses from the ANZAC Mounted Division won five of the six events at Heliopolis, near Cairo. [3]
A memorial statue to the Waler Light Horse was erected at Tamworth, New South Wales as a tribute to the men of the ANZAC Corps who served in the Boer, Sudan and First World Wars. This memorial was constructed at a cost of $150,000, funded by grants from Federal and State Governments, the Tamworth Regional Council, Joblink Plus and donations from business houses, property owners, RSL Members and the community. It was designed and created by sculptor Tanya Bartlett from Newcastle, New South Wales. The military equipment is identical to that used in the First World War. Forty-seven light horse re-enactment riders and the 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers took part in the unveiling by Major General William B. "Digger" James AC MBE MC (Retd) on 29 October 2005. [4]
Australian horses were sent overseas from the 1830s; between the 1840s and 1940s, there was a steady trade in Walers to the British Indian Army. [5]
In Australia's two wars of the early 20th century—the Second Boer War and World War I—the Waler was the backbone of the Australian Light Horse mounted forces. It was especially suited to working in the harsh climate of the Sinai Peninsula and Palestine, where it proved superior to the camel as a means of transporting large bodies of troops.
During the Boer War, Australia dispatched 16,314 horses overseas for use by the Australian Infantry Forces.
In the First World War, 121,324 Walers were sent overseas to the allied armies in Africa, Europe, India and Palestine. [6] Of these, 39,348 served with the First Australian Imperial Force, mainly in the Middle East, while 81,976 were sent to India. [3] Due to the costs said to be incurred for "returning horses home" with their mounts and perhaps to a lesser extent, quarantine restrictions, only one Waler is known to have been returned to Australia; "Sandy", the mount of Major-General W. T. Bridges, an officer who died at Gallipoli in May 1915. [3]
The English cavalry officer, Lt. Col. R. M. P. Preston DSO, summed up the Australian Light Horses' performance in his book, The Desert Mounted Corps: [7]
"… (November 16th, 1917) The operations had now continued for 17 days practically without cessation, and a rest was absolutely necessary especially for the horses. Cavalry Division had covered nearly 170 miles…and their horses had been watered on an average of once in every 36 hours…. The heat, too, had been intense and the short rations, 9½ lb of grain per day without bulk food, had weakened them greatly. Indeed, the hardship endured by some horses was almost incredible. One of the batteries of the Australian Mounted Division had only been able to water its horses three times in the last nine days - the actual intervals being 68, 72 and 76 hours respectively. Yet this battery on its arrival had lost only eight horses from exhaustion, not counting those killed in action or evacuated wounded.
… The majority of horses in the Corps were Walers and there is no doubt that these hardy Australian horses make the finest cavalry mounts in the world…. They (the Australians) have got types of compact, well-built, saddle and harness horses that no other part of the world can show. Rather on the light side according to our ideas, but hard as nails and with beautiful clean legs and feet. Their records in this war place them far above the Cavalry horse of any other nation. The Australians themselves can never understand our partiality for the half-bred weight-carrying hunter, which looks to them like a cart horse. Their contention has always been that good blood will carry more weight than big bone, and the experience of this war has converted the writer, for one, entirely to their point of view. It must be remembered that the Australian countrymen are bigger, heavier men than their English brothers. They formed just half the Corps and it probable that they averaged not far off 12 stone each stripped. To this weight must be added another 9-1/2 stone for saddle, ammunition, sword, rifle, clothes and accoutrements, so that each horse carried a weight of 21 stone, all day for every day for 17 days, - on less than half the normal ration of forage and with only one drink in every 36 hours!
The weight-carrying English Hunter had to be nursed back to fitness after these operations and for a long period, while the little Australian horses without any special care, other than good food and plenty of water were soon fit to go through another campaign as arduous as the last one!…."
One well-known Waler was Major Michael Shanahan's mount, "Bill the Bastard", who bucked when asked to gallop. Yet, during World War I, when the major (or captain) found four Australians outflanked by the Turks, "Bill the Bastard" took all five men – three on his back and one on each stirrup – .75 miles (1.21 km) through soft sand at a lumbering gallop, without first bucking. [3]
At the end of the war, 11,000 surplus horses in the Middle East were sold to the British Army as remounts for Egypt and India. Others, categorised as being unfit, were destroyed. [9] Also, some light horsemen chose to destroy their horses rather than part with them, but this was an exception, despite the popular myth that portrays it as the fate of all the war horses. Parting with their Walers was one of the hardest events the light horsemen had to endure. [10] [11]
A poem by Major Oliver Hogue, 14th Australian Light Horse Regiment ("Trooper Bluegum") sums up the men's sentiment:
During World War II, 360 Australian Walers were assigned to the Texas National Guard 112th Cavalry in New Caledonia. The horses were eventually deemed unfit for jungle warfare. [12] They were sent to India where they served with the Chinese Army before being assigned to the unit known as Merrill's Marauders. [13]
As demand for remounts declined in the 1940s, the Waler trade declined. [14]
From 1959 until it was sold to Birds Australia to be converted into a wildlife sanctuary in 2000, Alex Coppock and his wife bred Walers on Newhaven Station in the Northern Territory. [15] [16] [17] The horses were mostly rehomed elsewhere, [15] although the original plan had been to deprive them of water and let them die. [16]
When the Australian Stock Horse Society was formed in 1971, [14] the majority of horses accepted into its studbook were Waler horses. The ASHS also accepted horses of other breeds, notably Quarter horses, which has always been controversial. While many stock horses do have Quarter horse genetics in their breeding, not all do, as there are still many breeders who only breed horses of the old heritage bloodlines. These heritage stock horses have extensive pedigrees, often back to the 19th century, and are direct descendants of Walers with no Quarter Horse or other modern breeds. [18]
In the 1980s efforts began to reestablish the breed using feral Walers descended from horses that had been set loose in rural regions after the commercial trade ceased. The Waler horse now has two breed associations interested in preserving it, the Waler Horse Owners and Breeders Association Australia Inc. (WHOBAA) and the Waler Horse Society of Australia Inc (WHSA). Only horses and their progeny derived from the old bloodlines, with no imported genetics since 1945, can be registered as Walers with the WHOBAA. [19] [20]
Today's Waler is a functional Australian horse, bred from bloodlines that came to Australia before 1945, that is free of imported genetics since that time. [21]
In May 2013, up to 10,000 Walers were culled at Tempe Downs Station near Kings Canyon, about 300 km (190 mi) south-west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, owing to concerns about water sustainability. Ian Conway, owner of neighbouring Kings Creek Station, said that it would be more cost-effective to train Aboriginal men to manage the horses than to cull them. [22]
The Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division was a mounted infantry division of the British Empire during the First World War. The division was raised in March 1916 and was assigned to the I ANZAC Corps. On establishment, it consisted of four brigades comprising three Australian Light Horse and one New Zealand mounted rifles, supported by British horse artillery. In 1917, one of the Australian brigades was replaced by a British yeomanry brigade. After April 1917, the standard order of battle was reduced to two Australian brigades and one New Zealand brigade, although the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade and other British mounted brigades were temporarily attached several times during operations.
The Battle of Beersheba was fought on 31 October 1917, when the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) attacked and captured the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group garrison at Beersheba, beginning the Southern Palestine Offensive of the Sinai and Palestine campaign of World War I.
The Australian Stock Horse, has been especially bred for Australian conditions. It is a hardy breed of horse noted for endurance, agility, and good temperament. Its ancestry dates to the arrival of the first horses in Australia, brought from Europe, Africa, and Asia. It is used today in a wide variety of disciplines, and is still valued as a working horse by stockmen and stockwomen throughout Australia.
The American Warmblood is a horse of warmblood type, intended primarily for the traditional sport horse disciplines of dressage, show jumping, eventing and combined driving.
The Indian Half-bred is a horse type from the subcontinent of India. It is a cross-breed between Thoroughbred stallions and local and imported mares of various types. It is raised mainly by the Indian Army as a cavalry mount; it is also used by the Indian Police Service, as a polo pony, and for recreational and competitive riding.
The 1st Light Horse Brigade was a mounted infantry brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which served in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. The brigade was initially formed as a part-time militia formation in the early 1900s in New South Wales and then later in Queensland. In 1914, the brigade was re-constituted as part of the AIF and was sent to Egypt. Forming part of the New Zealand and Australian Division, during the Gallipoli Campaign it served in a dismounted role between May and December 1915. After being withdrawn to Egypt it served in the Anzac Mounted Division from March 1916 as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, taking part in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign until the end of the war. It was disbanded in 1919. After the war, the AIF light horse regiments were demobilised and disbanded; however, the brigade briefly existed as a part-time militia formation in Queensland until 1921 when its regiments were reorganised into cavalry brigades.
The 2nd Light Horse Brigade was a mounted infantry brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) which served in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. The brigade was initially formed as a part-time militia formation in the early 1900s in New South Wales. In 1914, the brigade was re-constituted as part of the AIF. The brigade first saw action while serving in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during the Gallipoli campaign. After being withdrawn to Egypt in February 1916 they served in the ANZAC Mounted Division from March 1916 as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign until the end of the war. After the war, the AIF light horse regiments were demobilised and disbanded; however, the brigade briefly existed as a part-time militia formation in New South Wales until 1921 when its regiments were reorganised into cavalry brigades.
The 3rd Light Horse Brigade was a mounted infantry brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which served in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. The brigade was initially formed as a part-time militia formation in the early 1900s in Victoria. In 1914, the brigade was re-constituted as part of the AIF. The brigade first saw action while serving with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli campaign where they were noted for their attack during the Battle of the Nek. After being withdrawn to Egypt in February 1916 they were involved in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign until the end of the war. They were attached to a number of different formations being part of the Anzac Mounted Division in March 1916 and the Australian Mounted Division in June 1917, who they remained with until the end of the war. After the war, the AIF light horse regiments were demobilised and disbanded; however, the brigade briefly existed as a part-time militia formation in New South Wales until 1921 when its regiments were reorganised into cavalry brigades.
The use of horses in World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. Cavalry units were initially considered essential offensive elements of a military force, but over the course of the war, the vulnerability of horses to modern machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire reduced their utility on the battlefield. This paralleled the development of tanks, which ultimately replaced cavalry in shock tactics. While the perceived value of the horse in war changed dramatically, horses still played a significant role throughout the war.
The 12th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted unit of the Australian Army. It was raised in New South Wales in 1915 as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) for service during the First World War. After fighting at Gallipoli as reinforcements, the regiment served in the Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire, seeing action in several notable battles including Beersheba, the capture of Jerusalem, Megiddo and the capture of Damascus. In the aftermath of the war, the regiment was used to suppress the 1919 Egyptian Uprising, before being disbanded in late 1919.
The 2nd Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in September 1914, and by December as part of the 1st Light Horse Brigade had moved overseas. During the war the regiment only fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded nineteen battle honours.
The 3rd Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in September 1914, and by December as part of the 1st Light Horse Brigade had moved overseas. The regiment only fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded nineteen battle honours.
The 4th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in August 1914, as the divisional cavalry regiment for the 1st Division. The regiment fought against the forces of the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Western front, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded twenty-one battle honours.
The 5th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in August 1914, and assigned to the 2nd Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded sixteen battle honours.
The 6th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in September 1914, and assigned to the 2nd Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded sixteen battle honours. During the inter-war years, the regiment was re-raised as a part-time unit based in New South Wales, adopting the designation of the "New South Wales Mounted Rifles". It was later converted to a motor regiment during the early years of the Second World War before being redesignated as an armoured car regiment. Nevertheless, it was disbanded in early 1943 without having been deployed overseas. During the post war years, the regiment was re-raised as part of the Citizens Military Force, and in 1956 was converted into an infantry unit, and in 1960 was subsumed into the Royal New South Wales Regiment.
The 7th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in October 1914, and assigned to the 2nd Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded sixteen battle honours. During the inter-war years, the regiment was re-raised as a part-time unit based in New South Wales. It was later converted to a motor regiment during the Second World War but was disbanded in late 1943 without having been deployed overseas.
The 8th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted rifles regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in September 1914, and assigned to the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded fifteen battle honours. During the inter-war years, the 8th Light Horse was re-raised as a part-time unit based in the Indi region of northern Victoria. It was later converted to a divisional cavalry regiment during the Second World War but was disbanded in 1944 without having been deployed overseas.
The 9th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted rifles regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in October 1914, and assigned to the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded fifteen battle honours.
The 11th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in August 1914, and assigned to the 4th Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded fourteen battle honours. During the inter-war years, the regiment was re-raised as a part-time unit based in the Darling Downs region of Queensland. It was later converted to a motor regiment during the Second World War but was disbanded in 1943 without having been deployed overseas.
The Battle of Samakh was fought on 25 September 1918, during the Battle of Sharon which together with the Battle of Nablus formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought from 19 to 25 September 1918, in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the cavalry phase of the Battle of Sharon the Desert Mounted Corps commanded by the Australian Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel, captured the Esdraelon Plain 40–50 miles (64–80 km) behind the front line in the Judean Hills on 20 September, when the 3rd Light Horse Brigade captured Jenin. The 4th Light Horse Brigade, Australian Mounted Division was deployed guarding supply columns, and prisoners, before being ordered to attack and capture Samakh on the shore of the Sea of Gallilee. Here the Ottoman and German garrison had been ordered by the commander of the Yildirim Army Group to fight to the last man.
