MANY of Australia's Light Horse units had been dismounted and sent to Gallipoli but after the evacuation in December 1915, those still able to, returned to Egypt and their horses.

It was now 1916, just under 100 years ago and the Light Horse, along with a number of British Army units were sent to guard the Suez Canal from attacks by Turkish troops under German control.

The German General, von Kressenstein, was moving his Turkish force slowly down through Palestine, intent on taking the Suez Canal even if it cost him every man in his command.

Treading the identical route Napoleon had traversed in his ill-fated expedition in 1801, the Turks brushed aside and scattered British cavalry and infantry formations which tried to bar their advance.

To meet the threat to the canal and Egypt, Major-General Harry Chauvel and his Anzac Mounted Division were ordered to prepare to halt the rolling Turkish juggernaut.

Chauvel, who was to prove himself the great strategist and leader of mounted troops of his era, spent days surveying large areas of desert before finally deciding on his battleground, the Romani tableland.

While the enemy was still many miles away, Chauvel dispersed his Anzacss around Romani and kept them there until they became accustomed to the fearful heat and reduced water rations.

These troops took up defensive positions amidst a series of towering sand dunes about 35km east of the Suez and were determined to put an end to these attacks by the Ottoman Empire troops.

In late July, far-flung mounted Australian patrols began a series of hit-and-run raids on enemy bivouacs.

The Turks however, disregarded these pin-pricks and rolled on towards Romani until they approached the ANZAC outposts situated some miles out from the tableland.

Yet it was not until almost midnight on August 3 that Australian listening posts heard the sounds of troop movement to their front.

These posts were still trying to get news of the enemy's rapid advance towards Romani when thousands of Turks, who had crept to within yards of the Australian outposts without being spotted, swept forward.

Next instant the whole desert exploded into action as wave after wave of fanatical Turks burst out of the night screaming, "Allah, Allah. Finish Australia."

The full fury of the assault now fell on the main body of the 1st Australian Brigade, 1st, 2nd & 3rd Regiments, which had been waiting tensely on Romani's lower slopes.

The Turks threw themselves at the Australians in shoulder-to-shoulder bayonet attacks, straight into blazing .303 rifle and machine gun fire and were cut to pieces however, as each line of troops fell, another line took their place.

For three hours the Light Horse threw back one massed attack after another. Then, still under tremendous enemy pressure, they were ordered to withdraw slowly.

The withdrawal was carried out as it should have been but the Turks thought they had the Australians at their mercy. As a result, they came in with increased fury and even crashed through some parts of the Anzac line.

Many died in those fearful attacks. The troopers, who, with their horses bogged in the loose sand, could not defend themselves as the enemy swarmed over them.

It was during this battle that the most famous Anzac Light Horse, known as 'Bill the Bastard,' came into his own.

His rider, Major Michael Shanahan DSO, seeing five of his men unhorses and surrounded by Turks, galloped wildly through the enemy ranks and pulled one Australian up into the saddle with him and then, with two more standing in each stirrup, rode clean away with them, such was the strength and courage of 'Bill the Bastard.'

As daylight flooded through the haze of battle, General Chauvel, watching the battle from a vantage point, could see his battered 1st Brigade still struggling against tremendous odds as it continued to retreat.

Chauvel had the 2nd and 3rd Australian Brigades waiting out of sight along with British cavalry and artillery units also moving into position.

Violent fighting continued and the Turks over-ran the New Zealander's front lines holding Wellington Ridge and then infiltrated the Anzacs area which led to deadly hand-to-hand fighting.

At this stage, 800 Turks threw themselves at the ridge, a key point in the defences, but were slaughtered by accurate fire from the New Zealand defenders

The slaughter was still going on when Chauvel at last decided to spring his trap.

First, the general directed the remnants of the 1st Brigade to stop their withdrawal and, after joining up with the New Zealanders, hold a firm line.

Then he brought the 2nd and 3rd Brigades in from the flanks, thus compressing the enemy into an area covered by the British artillery.

Finally, as the Anzacs dismounted and moved in a great mass towards the Turks, the British artillery opened up.

Salvoes crashed right into the enemy ranks and great gaps appeared in the tight-packed force preparing to counter-attack the advancing Australians.

The sand literally turned red and the thunder of the guns was the death knell of Turkey's hopes of conquest.

Helped by the never-ceasing artillery barrage, the Anzacs gradually clawed their way forward, throwing back desperate counter-attacks as they hurled the enemy from one position after another.

It started all over again just before dawn next day when Chauvel ordered his gaunt and haggard Anzacs to their feet and them to make a final onslaught against the Turks.

It was too much for the Turks, particularly when the artillery opened up.

They turned and fled, leaving 5000 dead on the battlefield.

In the pursuit that followed, the enemy was to lose many more men before finally falling back to their main position across the Sinai Desert.

The Battle of Romani was over.