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| While traveling to England with his family to take up his apointment World War One broke out. On his arrival in mid August 1914 Chauvel discovered a cable at the War Office appointing him to command the 1st Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). He remained in England however, because that was where the brigade was scheduled to train. While his brigade was en route to join him, Chauvel became convinced that the proposed camps on the Salisbury Plain would not be ready on time. He persuaded the High Commissioner in London, former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, to approach Lord Kitchener with an alternate plan of diverting the AIF to Egypt, which was done. Chauvel finally sailed for Egypt on 14 November 1914. | While traveling to England with his family to take up his apointment World War One broke out. On his arrival in mid August 1914 Chauvel discovered a cable at the War Office appointing him to command the 1st Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). He remained in England however, because that was where the brigade was scheduled to train. While his brigade was en route to join him, Chauvel became convinced that the proposed camps on the Salisbury Plain would not be ready on time. He persuaded the High Commissioner in London, former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, to approach Lord Kitchener with an alternate plan of diverting the AIF to Egypt, which was done. Chauvel finally sailed for Egypt on 14 November 1914. | ||
| Chauvel arrived at the same time as his Brigade and he then began training them. He was noted for insisting on high standards of dress and drill from his troops. He was brigaded in the New Zealand and Australian Division under Major-General Godley and a fellow officer, commanding the 4th Australian Brigade was John Monash. | |||
| ==ANZAC Service== | |||
| When the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps assaulted the Gallipoli Peninsula north of Gaba Tepe on 25 April 1915, the three light horse brigades remained in Egypt. | |||
| When the light horse were called upon to provide reinforcements for the Gallipoli Campaign, Chauvel and the other light horse leaders protested that they would serve better intact in theior units. Their arguments won out, and the light horse were sent to fight at Gallipoli dismounted. The campaign would be a very different one from the open warfare for which the light horsemen had trained. | |||
| Chauvel arrived on 12 May 1915 and took over the critical sector which included Quinn's, Courtney's and Steele's Posts from Brigadier General J. Monash. Open to Turkish observation on two sides, these four advanced posts at the top of Monash Valley were the linchpin of the defence. Chauvel reorganised the defence, appointing permanent commanders for the posts. He also formed special sniper groups who eventually managed to suppress the Turkish snipers, making it safe even for mule trains to move up Monash Valley. | |||
| Chauvel's brigade soon found itself under heavy pressure from the Turks. On 29 May 1915, the Turks fired a mine under Quinn's Post and broke into it. As fate would have it, the permanent commander of the post, Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Cannan was absent on leave and the acting commander, Lieutenant Colonel G. J. Burnage was wounded in the fighting. Chauvel responded by bringing up reserves and appointing a temporary post commander, Lieutenant Colonel H. Pope, with orders to drive the Turks out at all costs. Fortunately, Major S. C. E. Herring was miraculously able to charge across the open practically unscathed, his attack having coincided with a Turkish one on another part of the post and the Turkish machine gunners could not shoot without hitting their own men. In fact, there were only about seventeen Turks in the post, who eventually surrendered. Chauvel's decision may have have been the wrong one, but it was decisive. He was also lucky. | |||
| Chauvel spent six weeks in Egypt in June and July in hospital. He took over acting command of the New Zealand and Australian Division on 19 September 1915, a position that became permanent on 2 October 1915. Then on 6 November 1915, he became commander of the 1st Division, and was promoted to Major General. He commanded this division through the final phase of the Gallipoli Campaign, the evacuation, and the reorganisation in Egypt in February and March 1916. | |||
| ==ANZAC Mounted Division in Sinai== | |||
| Once again, Chauvel's campaign started with being attacked by the Turks. His division was committed to No. 3 Section of the Suez Canal Defences, the northern part of the Suez Canal, under Major General H. A. Lawrence. Arrangements were far from ideal. Command was divided between Chauvel and Lawrence. The British infantry commanders would not take orders from Chauvel, and Lawrence was too far away to control the battle. Lawrence's dispositions were faulty, with the British infantry located too far away to support the mounted troops, which resulted in the burden of defence falling on the mounted troops. Chauvel chose his ground carefully, reconnoitring it from the ground and the air, and selecting both forward and fall back positions. His luck held; the German commander selected the same position as the forming up area for his attack. | |||
| Chauvel's was unable to do more than direct the defence of his position as two of his brigades had been taken away from him by Murray. Under Lawrence's command, they did not move until too late. The counterattack that Chauvel had been calling for all day did not materialise until dusk. At Katia and again at Bir el Abd, Chauvel attempted to sweep around the Turkish flank but wound up making frontal attacks on the Turkish rearguard and was beaten off by determined counterattacks and by the timidity of Brigadier J. M. Antill, who withdrew under light shelling. Despite a haul of over 4,000 prisoners, Chauvel felt frustrated, his failure to rout and destroy the Turks rankling him. However, for the Anzac horsemen, who suffered over 900 of the 1130 British casualties at Romani, it was a clear-cut victory, their first decisive victory and the turning point of the campaign. Later Chauvel realised that it was the first decisive British victory of the war outside Africa. And it was Chauvel's victory, almost single handed and in spite of Murray and Lawrence. Afterwards Chauvel visited each of his brigade and personally congratulated them for the way that they had fought, a gesture that became a habit. | |||
Revision as of 23:14, 2 April 2007
General Sir Henry George 'Harry' Chauvel GCMG KCB (April 16, 1865 - March 4, 1945) was a general officer of the First Australian Imperial Force that fought during World War I. He is less well known than a contemporary, General John Monash, because he served in the Middle East theatre and not the well-documented theatre of the Western Front.
Chauvel became the first Australian to attain the rank of acting lieutenant general and the first to command a corps (the Desert Mounted Corps) when he was promoted after the reorganisation of the British army in Palestine following the disastrous Second Battle of Gaza.
Early life
Henry (Harry) George Chauvel was born in Tabulam, New South Wales on 16 April 1865 and was educated at Sydney Grammar before doing his final year at Toowoomba Grammar. He was commissioned into the Upper Clarence Light Horse, a NSW militia unit raised by his father, Major C. H. E. Chauvel, in 1886. Two years later the family moved to Queensland and he resigned his commission and took up one in the Queensland Mounted Infantry. In 1896, Chauvel transferred to the Queensland Permanent Forces with the rank of captain.
Boer War Service
Harry Chauvel commanded A Squadron of the Queensland Mounted Infantry in the Boer War, where he was mentioned in dispatches and was made a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG). He returned to Australia to take command of the 7th Commonwealth Light Horse, which was to deploy to South Africa but did not get back to South Africa with it until after the war had ended.
Pre War Service
After the war Chauvel was promoted as brevet lieutenant-colonel and was posted as a staff officer with the Northern Rivers District near Townsville in Queensland. He was chief of staff there from 1904 to 1911, being promoted to lieutenant colonel in December 1909. Chauvel had served under Major-General Sir Edward Hutton, who was organising the new Australian Army, in South Africa. Hutton used Chauvel for a variety of tasks and this seems to have effected his career under Huttons Successor Major-General Hoad.
Based on his South African experience Chauvel developed views on the nature of mounted infantry and the need for Australian troops to improve their discipline in the field, better leadership from officers and better organisation for supply and medical evacuation.
On 16 June 1906, at All Saints Anglican Church, Brisbane, he had married Sibyl Campbell Keith Jopp; ultimately they had two sons and two daughters.
He was appointed to the Military Board (located in Melbourne) as Adjutant General in 1911, Chauvel was involved in the implementation of the compulsory training scheme. On 3 July 1914, Chauvel replaced Colonel J. G. Legge as the Australian representative on the Imperial General Staff in London, with the rank of full colonel, but the outbreak of war intervened.
War Service
While traveling to England with his family to take up his apointment World War One broke out. On his arrival in mid August 1914 Chauvel discovered a cable at the War Office appointing him to command the 1st Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). He remained in England however, because that was where the brigade was scheduled to train. While his brigade was en route to join him, Chauvel became convinced that the proposed camps on the Salisbury Plain would not be ready on time. He persuaded the High Commissioner in London, former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, to approach Lord Kitchener with an alternate plan of diverting the AIF to Egypt, which was done. Chauvel finally sailed for Egypt on 14 November 1914.
Chauvel arrived at the same time as his Brigade and he then began training them. He was noted for insisting on high standards of dress and drill from his troops. He was brigaded in the New Zealand and Australian Division under Major-General Godley and a fellow officer, commanding the 4th Australian Brigade was John Monash.
ANZAC Service
When the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps assaulted the Gallipoli Peninsula north of Gaba Tepe on 25 April 1915, the three light horse brigades remained in Egypt.
When the light horse were called upon to provide reinforcements for the Gallipoli Campaign, Chauvel and the other light horse leaders protested that they would serve better intact in theior units. Their arguments won out, and the light horse were sent to fight at Gallipoli dismounted. The campaign would be a very different one from the open warfare for which the light horsemen had trained.
Chauvel arrived on 12 May 1915 and took over the critical sector which included Quinn's, Courtney's and Steele's Posts from Brigadier General J. Monash. Open to Turkish observation on two sides, these four advanced posts at the top of Monash Valley were the linchpin of the defence. Chauvel reorganised the defence, appointing permanent commanders for the posts. He also formed special sniper groups who eventually managed to suppress the Turkish snipers, making it safe even for mule trains to move up Monash Valley.
Chauvel's brigade soon found itself under heavy pressure from the Turks. On 29 May 1915, the Turks fired a mine under Quinn's Post and broke into it. As fate would have it, the permanent commander of the post, Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Cannan was absent on leave and the acting commander, Lieutenant Colonel G. J. Burnage was wounded in the fighting. Chauvel responded by bringing up reserves and appointing a temporary post commander, Lieutenant Colonel H. Pope, with orders to drive the Turks out at all costs. Fortunately, Major S. C. E. Herring was miraculously able to charge across the open practically unscathed, his attack having coincided with a Turkish one on another part of the post and the Turkish machine gunners could not shoot without hitting their own men. In fact, there were only about seventeen Turks in the post, who eventually surrendered. Chauvel's decision may have have been the wrong one, but it was decisive. He was also lucky.
Chauvel spent six weeks in Egypt in June and July in hospital. He took over acting command of the New Zealand and Australian Division on 19 September 1915, a position that became permanent on 2 October 1915. Then on 6 November 1915, he became commander of the 1st Division, and was promoted to Major General. He commanded this division through the final phase of the Gallipoli Campaign, the evacuation, and the reorganisation in Egypt in February and March 1916.
ANZAC Mounted Division in Sinai
Once again, Chauvel's campaign started with being attacked by the Turks. His division was committed to No. 3 Section of the Suez Canal Defences, the northern part of the Suez Canal, under Major General H. A. Lawrence. Arrangements were far from ideal. Command was divided between Chauvel and Lawrence. The British infantry commanders would not take orders from Chauvel, and Lawrence was too far away to control the battle. Lawrence's dispositions were faulty, with the British infantry located too far away to support the mounted troops, which resulted in the burden of defence falling on the mounted troops. Chauvel chose his ground carefully, reconnoitring it from the ground and the air, and selecting both forward and fall back positions. His luck held; the German commander selected the same position as the forming up area for his attack.
Chauvel's was unable to do more than direct the defence of his position as two of his brigades had been taken away from him by Murray. Under Lawrence's command, they did not move until too late. The counterattack that Chauvel had been calling for all day did not materialise until dusk. At Katia and again at Bir el Abd, Chauvel attempted to sweep around the Turkish flank but wound up making frontal attacks on the Turkish rearguard and was beaten off by determined counterattacks and by the timidity of Brigadier J. M. Antill, who withdrew under light shelling. Despite a haul of over 4,000 prisoners, Chauvel felt frustrated, his failure to rout and destroy the Turks rankling him. However, for the Anzac horsemen, who suffered over 900 of the 1130 British casualties at Romani, it was a clear-cut victory, their first decisive victory and the turning point of the campaign. Later Chauvel realised that it was the first decisive British victory of the war outside Africa. And it was Chauvel's victory, almost single handed and in spite of Murray and Lawrence. Afterwards Chauvel visited each of his brigade and personally congratulated them for the way that they had fought, a gesture that became a habit.
Trivia
His daughter Elyne Mitchell wrote a number of non-fiction works about her father and his corps. He is perhaps best-known for his successful attack on Beersheba (Bir Saba) on October 31, 1917. He had been unexpectedly ordered by General Edmund Allenby to take the town by the end of the day and Chauvel accomplished this. He sent the 4th and 12th Mounted Light Horse Regiments across 4 miles of open ground at the Turkish defensive trenches; they captured the town and its important wells.
His nephew Charles Chauvel was a well-known film director.
He was portrayed in the 1987 film The Lighthorsemen by Bill Kerr, which covered the exploits of an Australian cavalry regiment during the Third Battle of Gaza, and in the 1990 film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia by Ray Edwards, which took place around the 1919 Paris peace conference. He was portrayed by Colin Baker in the 1992 Young Indiana Jones TV movie Daredevils of the Desert, another retelling of the Third Battle of Gaza from the director of The Lighthorsemen.
Reference
Hill, A.J. 1978 Chauvel of the Light Horse, Melbourne University Press
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byCyril Brudenell White | Chief of the General Staff 1923-1930 |
Succeeded byWalter Adams Coxen |
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