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On 7 August 1915, the 3rd Light Horse
Brigade were to make a dismounted charge across the narrow no-man’s-land
at The Nek. This was part of the large scale plan. Only 150 men could
charge the narrow neck of land at a time.
The artillery and the navy concentrated
their fire to the front of the light horse. They were to charge when
the shelling stopped. For some reason however, the shelling stopped 7
minutes before the allocated go time. The light horse waited in their
trenches. Then finally the order to go was passed along the line of
men.
The light horse rushed forward to be met
by a gale of flying metal from the Turkish machine guns and rifles
directly in front of them. Within minutes there were only a scattered
handful of men left.
Then a second row of light horsemen
formed up and charged. In a moment they too were dying.
A regiment had been lost in just 5
minutes. No one expected that the attack would continue, however, at
4:45am and 5:15am, members of the 10th Light Horse from Western
Australia lined up and charged, facing the same deadly fire.
234 med were killed, 140 were wounded,
no advance was made.
Spirits of Gallipoli |
