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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 2: Well our next guest. We love him. A former Australian

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Speaker 2: rugby star, a journalist, author of over thirty books, thirty thirty.

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Speaker 2: I buy every single one of his books, and my

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Speaker 2: family consumes them, and you give it straight to your brother.

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Speaker 2: I do. He loves them. He's added one more to

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Speaker 2: the list. It's the last charge of the Australian Light Horse.

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Speaker 2: It's about the iconic cavalry charge of Bisheba. Might be

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Speaker 2: pronouncing that correctly. All these names I've seen written down.

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Speaker 2: Don't know how to say out loud. This is in

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventeen, and the brave men who built the legend,

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Speaker 2: Peter fitz Simon the Hello James.

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Speaker 1: And Amanda, my two favorites. Thank you for having me on.

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Speaker 1: As ever, I do appreciate it and it is whatever

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Speaker 1: you reckon. It is an extraordinary sag. He stayed the

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Speaker 1: right horse in the Middle East in that First World War. Now,

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Speaker 1: I guess I have a personal connection in My grandfather

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Speaker 1: was a member of the Victorian Light Horse in the

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Speaker 1: Boer War and that's where they established their reputation, so

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Speaker 1: that when the war broke out, the Imperial Government in

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Speaker 1: London said to Australia, we need men, we need horses.

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Speaker 1: We need them now. The Australian light horse was on

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Speaker 1: their way. They fought initially and galipply without their horses,

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Speaker 1: and then they came back from that trained within the

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Speaker 1: shadows of the pyramids and started pushing off to push

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Speaker 1: through the desert, to push back the Ottoman Empire.

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Speaker 2: Could I ask a dumb question, what's the difference between

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Speaker 2: a light horse and a heavy horse?

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Speaker 1: Chy I have done many interviews, it won't surprise you

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Speaker 1: that nobody has asked that question. Basically, they're they're the

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Speaker 1: light horse. They move fast, and the idea is you

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Speaker 1: and I are on one side of Sydney at dusk

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Speaker 1: and we're attacking, and by dawn we're coming from the north,

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Speaker 1: the west, the east. They moved fast, They live off

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Speaker 1: the land, and a lot of them were from the outback,

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Speaker 1: and so they were the whalers, which were the horses

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Speaker 1: could go long distances without water, and the men upon

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Speaker 1: them were They were used to living off the land

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Speaker 1: and the idea of the light horse was not quite cavalry,

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Speaker 1: but they were soldiers on horseback that could to go

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Speaker 1: and attack from different positions they could fighting units of

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Speaker 1: very small units to bigger units. They were trained to

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Speaker 1: work in coordination with each other. And the climax of

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Speaker 1: this story is on the afternoon of the thirty first

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Speaker 1: of October nineteen seventeen. The horses are there. The attack's

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Speaker 1: been going in on their seba all day. The Brits

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Speaker 1: have taken the southwest, the New Zealanders have taken the northeast,

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Speaker 1: and it's now for the Australians. As the sun goes down.

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Speaker 1: There's one chance to finish the job, to overwhelm them,

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Speaker 1: and it is to do the seemingly mad thing of

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Speaker 1: charging straight at the Turkish guns, eight hundred of them.

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Speaker 1: The orner goes in and off they go, first at

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Speaker 1: a trot, then at a canter, and then the full

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Speaker 1: blown galloped six miles straight into the Turkish guns. And

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Speaker 1: their daring do was extraordinary. They overwhelmed the Turkish guns,

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Speaker 1: they took their sever they got the wells of their sheep,

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Speaker 1: but the key thing being the water. And it was

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Speaker 1: an absolutely key breakthrough in that war, and it was

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Speaker 1: partly It was not the last charge there ever was,

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Speaker 1: but it was certainly the last huge, significant charge of

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Speaker 1: unbelievable bravery.

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Speaker 2: An extraordinary cast of characters who made up this group.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, one of them, what I focused on was Tiddy Cotter,

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Speaker 1: who was the Dennis Lily of his day. He was

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Speaker 1: the hero of Australia. He joined the Light Horse as

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Speaker 1: a stretcher bearer, the job being those bakes charge through

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Speaker 1: on horses. I'll come behind on my stretcher, get them

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Speaker 1: out of the battle and save them. But this charge

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Speaker 1: he swapped, he got, he swapped with the mate. The

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Speaker 1: mate took the stretcher, he took the horse. He charged

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Speaker 1: with the best of them, and very sad he was

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Speaker 1: killed and I later I laid I laid a flower

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Speaker 1: on his grave at jac Day this year.

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Speaker 2: But another incredible part of our history. Yes, where the

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Speaker 2: as you say in the book, same for these young men.

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Speaker 2: These were names from the Bible. They didn't know this

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Speaker 2: part of the world, and you've brought all this to life.

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Speaker 2: An incredible part of our story. Thank you, Peter. The

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Speaker 2: last charge of the Australian Light Horses on sale now.

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Speaker 1: Pete, say hi and Lisa for us, we certainly.

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Speaker 2: We wave love to you both too.

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Speaker 1: Okay bye,