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Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving to All.
Ray takes us back 100 years for a story about a beloved horse. Enjoy..
At long last we are finally working on the website for us Jerrems followers. More later.
Don in Georgia USA
Ray in Sydney Australia.
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Introduction
Above is an illustration of Big Bill (a horse) rescuing four soldiers (see later for more information about the rescue).
But is Ray finally going mad, writing about a horse, I hear you ask?
In case you think I am referring to my neighbour Bill, bearing in mind that neighbours can be difficult at times, I hasten to reassure you that “Bill The Bastard” was not a detested neighbour, he was a famous horse who served in the Australian Light Horse (its abbreviated name) in the First World War.
This article draws heavily on eminent war historian Professor Roland Perry’s book “Bill the Bastard”.
The Australian Light Horse
When Australian men applied for enlistment in the First World War they were tested for their ability to ride a horse. This involved riding a horse they had never seen before around a paddock and over a series of hurdles. In modern days almost nobody would have been able to complete this test, but in those days three quarters of Australia’s population lived in rural areas and many of the men would have been competent horsemen. They would also have been experienced in handling rifles.
The men in the Light Horse wore distinctive emu plumes in their slouch hats. Pictured below.
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Here is a photo of the famous Australian poet Banjo Paterson.
Bill's military life began at Sydney's Liverpool Army Camp, used by recruiting officers to test the skill and strength of would-be Light Horsemen.
Bill’s contribution to the Australian war effort was to buck off each eager recruit with ease, following which he was labelled as being unrideable and delegated to work as a pack horse carting supplies and munitions.
Along with 130,000 other Australian war horses, Bill began his voyage to the Middle East in late 1914, cared for by bush poet and war correspondent Major Banjo Paterson, who later commanded the Australian Remount Squadron.
During the journey, Paterson noted in his diary: "You can't lead Bill The Bastard to anything and you certainly can't make him drink".
Bill obviously had an attitudinal problem, which modern day psychologists might attribute to a misspent youth.
Training in Egypt
Initially all Australian troops, whether they had been streamed into the Light Horse or the infantry, were sent to camps near Cairo for training. A large number of Australian horses were also sent there. Known as “walers” (probably derived from the name “New South Wales”) these were hardy country-bred horses of mixed breed who were hardy and sure-footed.
Bill The Bastard
Bill was originally nicknamed “The Bastard” because he was cantankerous, rather than a term of endearment commonly used by Australians, the interpretation of which depends on the tone of voice used. However, by September 1918 the soubriquet “the Bastard” was not an insult, but a term of endearment from the entire Light Horse force. He had become a legend, a symbol of the courage and unbreakable will of the Anzac mounted force. As you will see, there was no other horse like Bill The Bastard.
Bill was a big horse
Bill was tall for a standard horse (obviously draught horses were taller). He was a large seventeen hand chestnut horse, a “hand” being four inches (ten centimetres) measured at the shoulder. This means that he was five feet eight inches (1.7 metres) at the shoulder, a little taller than the average Light Horseman of that generation when the average height of men was about five foot six. The average soldier would have had to stand on tiptoes to look across Bill’s back, but they would have risked Bill stomping on their feet.
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Here are two troopers mounted on walers.
Bill was classified as a “waler”, the term “waler” (probably derived from the name “New South Wales”) being originally considered to be only a "type" of horse and not a distinct breed. However, having been 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. In Australia it was used as a stockman's horse and prized as a military remount. Walers were also used by bushrangers, troopers and exploration expeditions that traversed inland Australia.
The selected horses had to be of a good type that could carry a total of sixteen or seventeen stone (102 to 108 kg (224 to 238 lbs)) day after day.
To explain this load, 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 water container, a bedroll, change of clothing, a revolver, a Lee Enfield rifle and about 90 rounds of .303 rifle ammunition.
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 on the whole it proved superior to the camel as a means of transporting large bodies of troops.
Selection of walers
The horses were selected by a vast band of experts who themselves had been selected by men like Banjo Paterson, who had a strong background in horse riding, horse breeding and horse racing. Paterson’s role was breaking-in, training and preparing tens of thousands of horses for one of the most vital roles of the war in the Middle East. He soon had 800 riders and trainers under his command along with 45 vets and assistants.
Statistics on walers
In the First World War, 121,324 Walers were sent overseas to the allied armies in Africa, Europe, India and Palestine. 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, a Commanding Officer who died at Gallipoli in May 1915.
Sadly, the term waler has largely been consigned to history, overshadowed by specific breeds.
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Now that we have sorted out Bill’s heritage we will turn to Michael Shanahan. It was Bill’s relationship with his rider, Michael Shanahan (shown in this portrait), that gave the packhorse the chance to become a hero.
Shanahan, born in Roma, Queensland in 1871, had trained as a carpenter.
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Big Bill shines at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli
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This is a photo of the battlefield above Anzac Cove.
Bill’s first taste of combat duty came at Anzac Cove, where he worked tirelessly carrying loads up and wounded soldiers down the steep and twisting tracks. The Anzac field ambulance men and animals showed as much courage as any of the combatants.
The Light Horse Brigades served at Gallipoli without their mounts due to the rugged terrain.
Bill runs the gauntlet
Each day a rider carrying urgent despatches would make the seven-kilometre run from Suvla Bay, north of Anzac Cove, to British campaign headquarters at that Cove. The mail delivery had to be done at a gallop as the rider was fired at by Turkish snipers from the moment he left the shelter of Suvla Bay. Light Horsemen competed to get the job and (being inveterate gamblers) hundreds would place bets on whether the rider, his horse and the treasured mail would make it safely to the other end.
To give the Turkish snipers due credit, hitting a galloping horse and rider following a weaving track at a range of over 1000 metres was extremely difficult and was not in any case high on the list of military priorities.
During October 1915, Captain Anthony Bickworth, an exceptional English cavalryman who had represented England in the Olympics, was ordered to mount Bill in an attempt to get the despatches through.
The bet was usually that either the mail would get through or it would not. Once word got out that Bill was involved, the bet quickly changed to whether the mail would arrive with or without the rider. The result was Captain Bickworth lying unconscious on the ground after two kilometres and Bill completing the gallop safely and delivering the mail riderless but with a bullet lodged in his flank.
Shanahan saw the event and thought he would try to get the horse.
During Bill’s stay in the veterinary sick bay Shanahan established a bond with Bill through sweet talk, daily walks, swimming and liquorice treats. This friendship continued well after the Gallipoli campaign when Shanahan and Bill returned to Egypt to take part, in due course, in the Palestine campaign.
The campaign in Palestine-historical context
In very general terms the Turks were trying to stop Britain and its allies from using the strategically important Suez Canal by attacking the area. On the other hand Britain and its allies were determined to stop this, but they had in mind the “bigger picture” of driving the Turks back to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) to secure the oil reserves in that area. On top of this, the Turkish Ottoman Empire had occupied this area for over 400 years and very understandably were committed to defending it.
The campaign in Palestine in detail
Initially, through poor leadership of their British commanding officers the Australian Light Horse initially suffered a series of defeats, but later Australian Commanding Officers like Harry Chauvel reversed this trend. It was here, at the Battle of Romani in July 1916 that Bill the Bastard came into his own.
Bill the Buckjumper
But first I want to tell you about Bill’s short career as a buckjumper.
In the first six months of 1916 the Turks kept a low profile while they assembled their desert forces, secure in the knowledge that they had beaten the Allies convincingly at Gallipoli and later in Iraq. To help break the monotony Banjo Paterson organised an international buckjumping competition, the star attraction being Bill. Paterson offered five pounds for the winner. Five very experienced riders signed up to ride Bill, however none of them could ride him for the allotted time. They were all thrown off, two of them sustaining broken legs and one a broken shoulder.
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This an early photo of Shanahan riding Bill.
When the Light Horse were deployed against the Turks Bill soon gained a reputation for being fearless, on one occasion standing his ground in an ambush.
In another instance mounted troops were following Shanahan across sandhills in heavy mist. At one stage Bill stopped and refused to go any further. Shanahan dismounted and walked several paces ahead, to find a huge ravine.
Shanahan persuaded his captain, Banjo Paterson, to let him take Bill into battle for the pivotal Battle of Romani. Both sides desperately needed a win to take control of the scarce water wells.
“August 5, 1916, should be a date writ large in Australian history,” said Professor Roland Perry in his book “Bill the Bastard, “It was a magnificent effort.”
The Australians were heavily outnumbered by the Turks, so they decided on a hit and run tactic at night to slow the Turks down. They would take a stand for a while and then mount their horses to gallop back and take another stand.
Bill comes to the rescue
In the latter part of this action, observing that over 20 men in a Light Horse troop had been overrun and killed, Major Shanahan was able to hoist two surviving Tasmanian troopers onto Bill’s back with him. Then Shanahan saw two more troopers in desperate danger and went back to pick them up also. Bill’s direct contribution was to headbutt two Turks. To make room for the second pair of Tasmanians Shanahan took his feet out of the stirrups and the Tasmanians stood up in the stirrups, making a most ungainly and swaying load of about 380 kg, depicted in the illustration at the start of this article. Although Bill had previously been known to carry over 400 kg on tracks he had never heaved his way across through three kilometres of trackless sandhills like he did that night.
After dropping the troopers off behind the lines to collect further horses, and after having a long drink of water Bill was keen to rejoin the fray, so Shanahan (who could have chosen a fresh mount) rode him back into battle, where Shanahan was shot in the leg but kept fighting until he passed out. Bill, apparently sensing that his rider was unconscious on his back, uncharacteristically carried Shanahan quietly for three kilometres back to the vet, who then passed him on to a field ambulance station where his leg was eventually amputated.
Shanahan was awarded the prestigious DSO (Distinguished Service Order).
“Bill went for six hours, his stamina was monumental,” said Professor Perry, “One general went through 17 horses in the night.”
Rescue was the only option
It was not as though the four Tasmanians could have merely waited for the next bus back to their lines. The Australians in that sector were being pushed back by the Turks, and being seriously wounded was almost akin to a death sentence. In daytime the seriously wounded men who could not be rescued may have died from the heat, and those who survived until night time could have fallen victim to the murderous Turkish allies, the Bedouins. The Bedouins would kill the wounded and strip them naked to take their uniforms and boots.
It could therefore be said that Bill did not merely save the men a long walk home, he definitely saved their lives.
And so the legend of Bill The Bastard was born!
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B
ill becomes a packhorse
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Here is a photo of Shanahan taken some time after the Battle.
With Shanahan now out of the war and Bill continued to serve as a packhorse, including an impressive effort at the Battle of Beersheba in October 1917 where he carried machine guns.
Perhaps there was also the element that nobody else wanted to ride him. Who could blame them?
Bill wins the Jericho Cup
In September 1918 the Light Horse Brigades held a race carnival near Jericho. Over 10,000 people attended the carnival. The major race was over a distance of three miles, some of it through sand. Although the favourites took the lead early in the race Bill’s stamina held him in good stead, enabling him to win the race in a dramatic finish. Perhaps three miles (the distance he had galloped a number of times at the Battle of Romani) was his lucky distance.
Bill’s last hurrah in the army
Bill continued to serve as a packhorse, including an impressive effort at the Battle of Beersheba in October 1917 where he carried machine guns. However his final military service was to lead the victorious Australian Light Horse into Damascus in early October 1918, a true recognition of his outstanding service.
What happened to Big Bill after the War?
Bill survived the war but, like all Australian horses, was not allowed to return to Australia. He was gifted to some village people near Gallipoli, with his girlfriend Penny, and presumably they lived out their days there in equine bliss. There is one report that he died in 1924 and is buried at Walker's Ridge at Gallipoli, however Professor Perry does not subscribe to this.
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Walers are celebrated in effigy
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Here is a bronze statue of a waler at a monument in country Tamworth in New South Wales.
Conclusion
Next time you watch a horse race on television spare a thought for Bill The Bastard, and try to picture a large horse thundering across the finishing line with, instead of a skinny 50 kilogram jockey, a swaying load of five heavily armed Light Horsemen.
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