Bear in mind that this story is one of the very few to come out as Australians have a habit of glossing over or totally ignoring anything they don't happen to like about themselves. This particular story is really only coming out now because all Australian WWI veterans have since died. So next time a proud White Australian Nationalist starts on at you because of your German ancestor's so-called war atrocities, remind him of this:
Anzacs' atrocity had to be done: diggerTim Elliott | Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/national/anzacs-atrocity-had-to-be-done-digger-20090724-dw5x.html (http://www.smh.com.au/national/anzacs-atrocity-had-to-be-done-digger-20090724-dw5x.html)
TO REGINALD MESSENGER, it was "just something that had to be done". He was a trooper in the 6th Light Horse Regiment at Beersheba in 1918 when he took part in what is emerging as one of the darkest, and and most overlooked, chapters of Australian military history.
Known as the Surafend massacre, it involved 200 Anzac troops, some from the famed Australian Light Horse, who retaliated for the murder of a New Zealand soldier by razing a Bedouin village in Palestine and murdering between 40 and 120 of its inhabitants.
"Dad told me about it numerous times," Reginald's son, Oliver, said. "He said that they were camped next to this Gyppo village and one day they woke up to find that some of their blokes had their throat cut and their things stolen. It had been going on for some time - the Gyppos would steal from them all the time - and so they decided to do something about it, because no one else would."
One night in December 1918 the soldiers surrounded the Bedouin village of Surafend, emptied it of woman and children, then fell upon the men with bayonets and heavy sticks.
"Dad never expressed any remorse about it," Mr Messenger said. "I gather that they had put up with it for too long. They were good soldiers, those blokes, but they didn't put up with any shit."
The incident occurred shortly after the end of World War I, and has been all but obliterated from the official record.
Just three pages of H.S. Gullet's 844-page official war history mention it, and neither the NSW Returned and Services League nor the Light Horse Association had heard of it.
A new book, called Beersheba, by the journalist Paul Daley, re-examines the Surafend massacre, and the long shadow it cast over the legend of the Light Horse, famed for their 1917 cavalry charge at Beersheba.
Daley says that, after the massacre the British commander-in-chief, General Sir Edmund Allenby, "wiped his hands" of the Light Horse, even maliciously withdrawing citations and decorations. "Dad said that after the incident, a general - perhaps it was Allenby - addressed the men and called them cowards," Mr Messenger said. "But the men just counted him out [counted loudly, in unison]. They just drowned him out, you know?"
A spokesman for the Australian War Memorial, said: "The Anzac legend is an uplifting one but, like all legends, there are some unfortunate aspects. But this doesn't detract from acts of heroism and bravery."
Firstly, let me say that to me also, it was "just something that had to be done."
Now, let's paraphrase the final quote from the Australian War Memorial:
QuoteA spokesman for the SS Soldier's League, said: "The SS legend is an uplifting one but, like all legends, there are some unfortunate aspects. But this doesn't detract from acts of heroism and bravery."
I don't mean to detract from either the "ANZAC legend" or the SS, but what is good for one is good for the other. Think about it.
@Cailen.