page_title: Battle of Beersheba (1917)
section_title: XX Corps attack
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Beersheba (1917) / Battle / XX Corps attack
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail of Falls map 5 Battle of Beersheba
context_page_description: The Battle of Beersheba was fought on 31 October 1917, when the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force attacked and captured the Yildirim Army Group garrison at Beersheba, beginning the Southern Palestine Offensive of the Sinai and Palestine campaign of World War I. Infantry from the 60th and the 74th Divisions of the XX Corps from the southwest conducted limited attacks in the morning, then the Anzac Mounted Division launched a series of attacks against the strong defences which dominated the eastern side of Beersheba, resulting in their capture during the late afternoon. Shortly afterwards, the Australian Mounted Division's 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments conducted a mounted infantry charge with bayonets in their hands, their only weapon for mounted attack, as their rifles were slung across their backs. Part of the two regiments dismounted to attack entrenchments on Tel es Saba defending Beersheba while the remainder of the light horsemen continued their charge into the town, capturing the place and part of the garrison as it was withdrawing.
  German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein was commander of the three divisions of the Fourth Army.
context_section_description: With the EEF guns moved forward into captured Ottoman positions, shelling recommenced at 10:30, continuing with pauses to let the dust settle until noon, when there was still some concern that the wire in front of the 74th (Yeomanry) Division had not been cut. "In practice, much of the barbed wire had to be cut by the advancing troops as they came across the obstacle."
  The commanders of the 60th (London) and 74th (Yeomanry) Divisions decided to begin the main assault at 12:15, screened by dust and smoke from another bombardment. Four brigades—the 179th, the 181st, (60th Division) the 231st and the 230th (74th Division)—launched the attack with two battalions in the first line (except the 181st Brigade, which deployed three). The first-line battalions were mainly organised with two of their "four companies in first line, each on a front of two platoons, the companies in two 'waves' each of two lines", advancing between 50 and 100 yards (46 and 91 m) apart with a third wave to follow (if required) 300 yards (270 m) behind. The 2/22nd Battalion, London Regiment remained to guard Hill 1070.
  At 12 o'clock we heard that Hill 1070 had been taken and at 12.15 we went over the top. I was in the front of the first assaulting wave as platoon runner to Sergeant Boasted. We were in a little wadi behind a ridge. It was necessary to get over the ridge, and off the skyline as quickly as possible. Once over the ridge it was a rush down the valley and a charge up the opposite ridge where the Turkish trenches were at the top. Over the ridge I noticed at once that there were scattered groups of machine gunners ... in emplacements of rocks and shallow trench. They were out there to keep a protecting fire on the Turkish trenches. To me they seemed to be right in the open and in suicide position ... Once over the ridge we all rushed down the slope past the machine gunners. Bullets were falling everywhere ... I just went on running, yelling, cheering and shouting out the Sergeant's orders at the top of my voice. Every minute I was expecting a bullet to get me but my good luck stuck to me ... When we got to the Turkish trenches we jumped straight in and shot or bayoneted or took prisoner all that were there. I was lucky, the section of trench I jumped in was empty. On either side I could hear shooting and fighting but it was soon all over ... We advanced about 300 yards beyond the trenches where we worked "like hell" with our entrenching tools digging ourselves in.
  — Private F. V. Blunt, Civil Service Rifles Battalion, London Regiment (60th Division)
  The 2/15th Battalion, London Regiment on the right of the 179th Brigade, suffered severely from machine-gun fire; however, when the machine-gun positions were captured all resistance ceased. The 24th and 25th Battalions of the Royal Welch Fusiliers of the 231st Brigade (74th Division) "met with stout resistance" at one location, where the Ottoman soldiers fought to the last man. Intense hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches continued until 13:30, when the Ottoman trench line on the western side of Beersheba (stretching from the Khalasa-to-Beersheba road in the south to the Wadi es Saba in the north) was captured. For his actions Corporal John Collins was later awarded the Victoria Cross. During this fighting, the two Royal Welch Fusiliers battalions captured three-quarters of the prisoners (and suffered two-thirds of the casualties) of the XX Corps. The XX Corps captured 419 prisoners, six guns, "numerous machine guns" and materiel; casualties included 136 killed, 1,010 wounded and five missing (most casualties from shrapnel from Ottoman artillery and machine guns during the preliminary bombardment).
  The final objective of the XX Corps, as described in the "XX Corps Instructions", was to destroy the opposition units at Beersheba, in cooperation with the Desert Mounted Corps. The instructions continued, "The objective of the attack by the XX Corps on Z day is the capture of the line of works between the Khelasa–Beersheba road and the Wadi esh Sabe, the capture of the enemy guns between Beersheba and 
caption: Infantry deployment before their attack from the west
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