FOR the entire Gallipoli campaign, Bill the Bastard Australia’s famous war horse, worked tirelessly carrying loads up and wounded or fallen soldiers down the steep and twisting tracks.
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The Anzac field ambulance men and animals showed as much courage as any of the combatants, operating all around them as they moved up the valley retrieving the fallen.
Everyone noticed Bill in particular, along with a gritty yet always cheery Englishman John Simpson and his small donkey.
It seemed fitting that Bill would be the one who would carry the limp body of Simpson back down the valley the day his luck ran out as he was hit by a spray of shrapnel.
Each day a rider carrying urgent despatches would make the seven-kilometre run from Suvla Bay, north of Anzac Cove, to British campaign headquarters.
Everyone noticed Bill in particular, along with a gritty yet always cheery Englishman John Simpson and his small donkey.
The mail delivery had to be done at a gallop as the rider was fired at from the moment he left the shelter of Suvla Bay until he reached the wide communication trenches near the cove.
All the light horsemen were tumbling over each other to get the job and hundreds would place bets on whether the rider, his horse and the treasured mail would make it safely to the other end.
In early October, Captain Anthony Bickworth, an exceptional cavalryman, was ordered to mount the most difficult horse in an attempt to get a despatch through.
No one had been shot on this run for two weeks and the British wanted to change the odds to make it more ‘sporting’. It was ordered that Bill be brought out for this special ride.
The bet was usually that either the mail would get through or it would not. Once word got out that Bill was involved, the bet quickly changed to whether the mail would arrive with or without the rider. The result ended up with Captain Bickworth unconscious on the ground after two kilometres and Bill completing the gallop safely and delivering the mail riderless but with a bullet lodged in his flank.
It was here, in the veterinary sick bay, as Bill received treatment for his wounds that Shanahan claimed a bond with the big horse through sweet talk, daily walks and liquorice treats. This friendship continued well after the Gallipoli campaign ended and Bill was returned to the remount depot in Egypt.
- READ more about Bill the Bastard’s beginnings at www.hardenexpress.com.au.