Book Review - A Thousand Miles of Battles: The Saga of the Australian Light Horse in WW1
A Thousand Miles of Battles: The Saga of the Australian Light Horse in WW1
Written by: Ian Jones,
Anzac Day Commemorations Committee (Queensland), Aspley, 2007,
ISBN: 9870975712382, xvi + 208 pp.
Reviewed by: Jean Bou
The light horseman is perhaps the most romanticised figure in Australian military history. Embodying the bushman-soldier ideal, they are used to depict the quintessential Australian soldier in all sorts of ways; from the unlikely circumstance of accompanying the mostly infantry general Sir John Monash on the $100 note, to the more obvious one of army recruiting advertisements. But at the same time the Sinai–Palestine Campaign of 1916–18 is usually ignored in the seemingly irreducible effort to understand Gallipoli or the Western Front; such is the lot of ‘sideshows’.
One of the few relatively recent books on the campaign and the light horse from an Australian perspective has been Ian Jones’ The Australian Light Horse, which was produced as part of a series, aimed mostly at school aged readers, in 1987. Jones’ book left its mark, which is testimony both to the work that he did and the fact that there was little in the way of alternatives. Jones has now revised his book and republished it as A Thousand Miles of Battles.
Produced to the highest publishing standards with an excellent range of photos, drawings (usually from the troop newspaper The Kia-Ora Cooee), maps and artwork, A Thousand Miles of Battles shares with its predecessor an admirable unpinning of solid research, but is frustrating in the way that it continues to mythologise the light horse and the Palestine Campaign.
The book is a galloping read and Jones’ ability as a storyteller is manifest, getting through the salient aspects of the Australian campaign and the major battles in under 200 pages. In considering the fighting, Jones is generally even handed and judicious, deftly outlining the actions and giving credit to either side when it is due. His obvious admiration for the light horsemen is tempered by a realisation they were not all angels. Still, there is much romance in these pages and descriptions, such as one about light horsemen being ‘men and horses bonded as a living and fighting entity’, will have students of the campaign rolling their eyes.
Annoying as these sorts of things are, they are bearable, but less tolerable are the slides into myth or cliche which distorts history. Jones’ conception of the ‘British cavalry tradition’ as being stuck at Balaclava is remarkably out of date and certainly does not reflect the realities of force which had undergone a vigorous process of reform since the 1880s. By trying to place the light horse outside that tradition he also fails to recognise its imperial origins. The presentation of Beersheba as the last ‘great charge’ is highly debateable. Similarly, Jones is entitled to think the ‘Beersheba charge photo’ is genuine, but his evidence is flimsy, few agree with him, and he would have been better off making his assertion within a more balanced assessment of the evidence. The revelations about Richard Meinhertzhagen’s fraudulence perhaps became apparent when this book was in press, but the story of his role in the Beersheba ‘knapsack ruse’ now needs to be treated with extreme caution.
This book, like its predecessor, is a decent primer for those new to the light horse or the Palestine Campaign. The succinct and often useful sketches of battles and the participants are to be admired, as are the excellent selection of photos and artwork. Subalterns facing a looming deadline for a commanding officer’s essay will find it a very useful source for some swotting, but will need to be wary of its flaws. For those looking for something meatier, the slowly growing international literature on British Empire mounted troops, the Ottoman Empire and Army, and the Palestine Campaign will offer more interest.
