ON HIS return from the Western Front to Sydney, writer, poet and journalist Banjo Paterson, learnt that the army was recruiting light horsemen and acquiring tens of thousands more horses as quickly as possible.
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After the belting at Gallipoli, the Anzacs would be fighting the Turks on a bigger scale in Egypt and Palestine.
He applied for remount service and was made a captain, accepting commander’s Harry Chauvel’s earlier offer to command the remount depot in Egypt.
Paterson’s directive was breaking, training and preparing tens of thousands of horses for one of the most vital roles of the war in the Middle East.
He soon had 800 riders and trainers under his command along with 45 vets and assistants.
During this time Lieutenant Michael Shanahan continued to visit Bill at the remount depot working to win his trust through soft talking and liquorice treats.
Shanahan became the first person to ride Bill without being bucked off.
In August 1916, Shanahan persuaded Paterson to let him take Bill into battle, when 100,000 horses headed out into the desert for the pivotal Battle of Romani.
Seeing the bond that Shanahan and Bill shared he agreed and from then on Bill was matched with Shanahan.
Bill soon gained the reputation for being fearless, standing his ground in an ambush and warning his rider of danger ahead, using his keen instinct and sense of smell.
At one point during the battle, spotting others in trouble, Shanahan was able to get four Tasmanian troopers who had lost their mounts onto Bill’s back and returned them to safety — earning Shanahan the Distinguished Service Order.
This was a huge achievement from Bill who struggled across more than 3km in heavy sand, carrying more than 500kg under constant siege to deliver his charges to safety.
With monumental stamina, Bill continued to power on for six hours that night. It is said that one general went through 17 horses in the same time that Bill stayed with Shanahan.
It was during this battle that Shanahan was shot in the leg but kept fighting until he passed out.
Bill, sensing that his rider was unconscious on his back, carried Shanahan three kilometres to the vet, who then passed him on to a medic where his leg was eventually amputated.
With Shanahan out of the war Bill was officially retired from battle but continued to serve as a packhorse, including an impressive effort at the Battle of Beersheba.
He would carry machine guns or lead the line and was seen by all as a symbol of strength and unfaltering courage.
Bill was also the hero of the day when General Chauvel devised a clever a ruse in the form of a horse race to distract the Turks so his troops could infiltrate the Turkish defence from behind enemy lines.
Bill won the horse race, aptly named the Jericho cup, ridden bareback by Mullagh, an Aboriginal digger, beating the favourite Khartoum.
