COLOSSAL BLUFF.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3371, 27 December 1919, Page 6

COLOSSAL BLUFF.

. - ----0---' 450" AUSTRALIAN S TAKE A TOWN.

Little has been wriffen of the taking of Bersheba. by the Australians in 1917, ‘through the charge of 450 men of the Light Horse, who captured the town, according to Geueral- Hodgson, outrivalled the famous charge of the of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. The following account was written in November, 1917, “by Sclgeant R. .G. Stevenson, in a ‘letter to his mother, Lit North Sydney:———

’i‘The infantry Jattacked. Jflrom the other side, where the Turks had :3, wonderful network of trenches, redoubts, ete., and word came ht 4.30 that they were held up. General Allon‘o_v asked General Hodgson if he could take the town. General Hodgsen Sent , for ‘General Grant, of the 4th Light Horse Brigade, and asked him he could take the town. Grant said: ‘Yes, in‘ half an holll'.’ Then he ordered his brigade to charge. ~ “We had five miles of Open flat country, absolutely devoid of‘ any cover to charge over. Instead of three. regiments only two squadrons of the» 4th and 12th Light Horse were immediately 'a.vailab'le.for the charge_ Imag'in=eithe —st;upend=cusg. ‘irnpudenee of 450 men charging atown fortified with trenches, redoubts, and «:1 position which has never before ‘been taken in his'tory—’--armed only with .a. bare bayonet in their hands, “The bluff was colossal, yet they charged, yelling, cooeeing, and "hollering like‘ ten thousand devils, raked with artillery. machine gun and rifle fire. We. c~antefed’two miles, 'and.gal-r ljop'ed three straight at‘them, and right up through the 'town—a magnificent ape wonderful sight.” » ,}‘7The Australians _.."’Were soon 'a*f‘terjivards. i;l'.‘e_ol'nplcte' possession of the i-tom.’ ‘,,'_. 1 , ’