Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Courtesy: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-19

Dvr. Solomon Palmer, 1st Australian Light Horse Regiment, wrote to his sister on 12th December 1917 describing the capture of Beersheba on 31st October 1917.

“We have had a lot of severe fighting and come a long way since I wrote last. I have been in a lot of battles and seen some terrible sights. We left the place where I wrote from on 30th October, and have been fighting ever since. We have had a great victory all along. Some of my mates were shot down beside me. One poor fellow that came over with me from Cootamundra was hit and lived only about two minutes. I helped to dig his grave next day. We buried them all next day in Beersheba in a big square planted with Australian gum tree. Each one had a little bush at his head and feet. I got hit that day also, in the shoulder, but it was not serious. I did not report it for two days. It swelled all up. I thought it was a piece of shell. When I went to the dressing station they took a piece of lead out of it. It did not put me out of action. I have seen some terrible sights, and if ever I get back I will have a lot to tell you. Beersheba was our first big battle. That was on the last day of October. I did not give myself the least chance of coming out of that. We advanced across an open flat with not even a blade of grass for cover; The Turks were in trenches and in the houses in places that if we were in they would never get us out, but as we got close they cleared and left everything behind them. They blew up several places just as we were coming up. We took a lot of prisoners and there were dead Turks laying about everywhere — some awful sights. There was a train standing at the station, containing a big lot of explosives in every carriage, and wires fastened to it, so that if we run against the wires it would blow the place to pieces; they had mines laid everywhere. We got a lot of horse feed, hundreds of tons; there was also a lot of raisins there and we did them justice as we were hungry. As we travelled so fast our transports could not keep up so we had no food only what we could find. We had a rough time, saddles on for a week at a time and a wash is out of the question. There are plenty of orchards up this way, hundreds of acres of oranges. We get plenty of them, but food is very scarce; the people are starving. A small loaf of bread costs 1/. It is marvellous how you escape bullets flying around you in thousands; shells bursting beside you and high explosives bursting over your head and the tanks dropping bombs. Often I thought it would be impossible to get out of it alive, but I have been one of the lucky ones so far. I hope to get back some day. I feel as if I will. I may not be able to write very often but no news is good news. Percy Hulme from Young and also Charlie McIntosh (his father used to be station master at Young) and Sid Rhall are in the Light Horse.” [1]

[1] 'Young Witness' (New South Wales), 8th February 1918.