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Despite their frequent description as mounted infantry, more than half of the Australian Light Horse finished the First World War as full sword-carrying cavalry, making use of both fire and modern shock tactics. This change ran counter to the traditions of the Australian mounted service, which had long emphasised rifle-based firepower for modern mounted troops. This article will examine the reasons why such a force adopted the sword in 1918, the nature of the change, and the experiences behind it. Even in the last year of the First World War, cavalry shock tactics still had a place on the battlefield.
THE Australian Light Horse of the First World War (1914-18) is frequently portrayed as mounted infantry, which by using rifle-based firepower and the mobility of its horses alone, played a prominent and successful role in the defeat of the Turkish armies in the Sinai Peninsula and later Palestine.1 Such a conception is, however, somewhat simplistic and not completely accurate. As this article will demonstrate, the Light Horse was not mounted infantry but, from its inception, was a form of abbreviated cavalry known as mounted rifles (which, as will be shown, is different from mounted infantry), and then late in the war became full cavalry. That more than half of the Light Horse had opted by the last months of the war to become full sword-wielding cavalry is not widely appreciated. That the change took place and was deemed useful at a time when cavalry was increasingly viewed as the anachronistic arm was a remarkable development, even more so when it is considered that the Light Horse had no strong tradition of using the sword or lance (the arme blanche). Its entire tradition had been based on the opposite belief, that only horsemen making exclusive use of firepower were going to be of use on modern battlefields. Once at war, however, this model was found to have limitations: while firepower was undoubtedly vital, the exclusive use of the rifle had not provided the tactical flexibility that mounted troops needed in this campaign. The present article's aim is to understand the change in tactical outlook that the Light Horse in the Sinai and Palestine underwent, examine the reasons behind this change, and highlight the fact...