Australia's mounted troops in World War I were a dashing mobile force and 'earned the admiration of the world', according to their Commander-in-Chief, General Allenby. They fought dismounted at Gallipoli, and afterwards repulsed a Turkish invasion of Egypt.
Then, mobile, resourceful and above all enterprising, they pioneered the British mounted force that drove the enemy back through Sinai, Palestine and Syria, to its final capitulation at Aleppo. They suffered immense hardships, and extremes of climate and disease with fortitude, and eventually triumphed with 'the greatest feat of cavalry the world has ever known', and the last.
As well as the main campaign, this book adds insights and asides to the story as we follow the fortunes of three individual soldiers including the author's father, a decorated sergeant. This is about spectacular triumphs along with tragedies, superhuman endurance in adversity and above all, the heights to which the human spirit may attain. It is a story in need of retelling.
