page_title: Harry Chauvel
section_title: Desert Mounted Corps
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Chauvel / First World War / Palestine / Desert Mounted Corps
caption_attribution_description: English: A group portrait including General Sir Harry and Lady Chauvel (third and fourth from left), taken at Dog River, Lebanon, near the tablet recording the occupation of Beirut, and Tripoli in October 1918.
context_page_description: General Sir Henry George Chauvel, GCMG, KCB was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War. He was the first Australian to attain the rank of lieutenant general and later general, and the first to lead a corps. As commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, he was responsible for one of the most decisive victories and fastest pursuits in military history.
  The son of a grazier, Chauvel was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a unit organised by his father, in 1886. After the family moved to Queensland he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in 1890, and saw service during the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. He became a regular officer in 1896, and went to the United Kingdom as part of the Queensland contingent for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. In 1899 he commanded one of two companies of Queensland Mounted Infantry that were Queensland's initial contribution to the Boer War. After the war, he was closely involved with the training of the Australian Light Horse.
context_section_description: When Chauvel learned that the Desert Column was to be renamed the 2nd Cavalry Corps he requested Desert Mounted Corps. The corps consisted of the Anzac Mounted Division, the Australian Mounted Division, the newly formed Yeomanry Mounted Division and the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade.
  Although some British thought that Allenby should replace Chauvel with a British officer, Allenby retained him in command. However he overrode Chauvel's own preference to appoint a Royal Horse Guards officer, Brigadier General Richard Howard-Vyse, known as "Wombat", as Chauvel's chief of staff. Chauvel thus, on 2 August 1917, became the first Australian to permanently command a corps. A "brass-bound brigadier" was quoted as saying, "Fancy giving the command of the biggest mounted force in the world's history to an Australian." On being told of the appointments, in a letter dated 12 August 1917 Chetwode wrote to congratulate Chauvel, "I cannot say how much I envy you the command of the largest body of mounted men ever under one hand – it is my own trade – but Fate has willed it otherwise." At Romani Chauvel had been a battleground commander who led from the front while Chetwode, relying on the phone had been deciding to retreat at the victory at Rafa. Chetwode's "arms length" style of command also impacted the First Battle of Gaza.
  In the Battle of Beersheba in October 1917, it was again Chauvel and his Desert Mounted Corps that had the critical role. Chetwode believed that the EEF did not have the resources to defeat the Turks in their fixed positions so he planned to drive the Turks from them by turning the enemy flank at Beersheba, in a waterless area on the flank of the enemy line. The Desert Mounted Corps would have a long overnight approach over waterless desert and would have to capture the town with its wells intact or be forced to retreat. The Battle of Beersheba went right down to the line, but the mission was accomplished, albeit not without a mounted infantry bayonet charge by the 4th Light Horse Brigade – the last of history's great cavalry charges – to capture the town and its vital water supply. Few battles have been won in such spectacular fashion. For this decisive victory, and the subsequent capture of Jerusalem, Chauvel was mentioned in despatches twice more, and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1918 New Year Honours List.
  Chauvel, however, was still disappointed with the failure to destroy the Turkish army. The Turks had fought hard, forcing the commitment of the Desert Mounted Corps in heavy action before the moment for a sweeping pursuit came. When it did, the men and horses were too tired and could not summon the required energy. In February 1918, the EEF began a series of operations across the Jordan. Allenby soon found his British troops diverted to France, to be replaced by two Indian cavalry divisions, and the Australian Mounted Division faced a similar fate for a time. In the meantime, during the second Transjordan operations Chauvel faced great difficulties with the terrain, the weather and a tenacious enemy; the campaign was not a success. The Desert Mounted Corps found itself fighting outnumbered, with Turkish reinforcements closing in from all sides. Chauvel was forced to withdraw to the West Bank of the Jordan. Subsequently, the 5th Yeomanry Mounted Brigade was disbanded and Chauvel replaced it with the 5th Light Horse Brigade, formed from the Australian and New Zealand components of the now disbanded Imperial Camel Corps Brigade, and a composite French cavalry regiment of Spahis and Chasseurs d'Afrique.
  In September 1918, Chauvel was able to effect a secret redeployment of two of his mounted divisions. Allenby launched a surprise attack on the enemy and won the Battle of Megiddo. He then followed up this victory with one of the fastest pursuits in military history – 167 km in only three days. This time he succeeded in destroying the Turkish army. The Desert Mounted Corps moved across the Golan Heights and captured Damascus on 1 October. Between 19 September and 2 October, the Austra
caption: General Sir Harry and Lady Chauvel (third and fourth from left) at the Commemorative stela of Nahr el-Kalb, near the stone tablet recording the occupation of Beirut and Tripoli
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