Photograph allegedly showing the charge of the 4th and 12th Regiments of the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade at Beersheba, Palestine, 31 October 1917. The photograph has been claimed to have been taken by Trooper E.G. Elliot of the brigade's 4th Machine Gun Squadron who was in an advanced position performing range finding duties and was unaware that the charge was planned but fortunately had a small camera with him. Another claim is that it was taken by a Turkish defender whose camera was later captured.

The authenticity of the photo has long been disputed. Ian Jones in Is This The Charge At Beersheba?, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, October 1983 makes a case for it being authentic; Matthew Woodhead and and Jacqui Lobach, in The Australian Charge at Beersheba, 1917: Is the Photograph Genuine or Staged, Wartime, Issue 1 (November 1997) refute Jones' arguments and present a case for the photograph as showing a reenactment of the charge, staged for Frank Hurley, Australian Official Photographer on 7 February 1918 while the brigade was encamped at Belah.

Further evidence questioning the Elliott claim is presented by Australian Light Horse Studies Centre on the Palestine - Beersheba thread. A brief precise of the established evidence about the photograph is available at 9th LHR On Manoeuvres While compelling evidence is presented on this site, additional evidence derived by careful analysis of the picture is mooted to be made available in 2009.

This image is available from the Collection Database of the Australian War Memorial under the ID Number: A02684 This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. العربيَّة | български | English | español | français | हिन्दी | македонски | português | +/−

This image is protected by Crown Copyright because it is owned by the Australian Government or that of the states or territories, and is in the public domain because it was created or published prior to 1974 and the copyright has therefore expired. The government of Australia has declared that the expiration of Crown Copyrights applies worldwide. This has been confirmed by correspondence received by the Volunteer Response Team (Ticket:2017062010010417). العربية ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ македонски ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ 中文 ∙ +/−

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it meets three requirements: it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days), it was first published before 1 March 1989 without copyright notice or before 1964 without copyright renewal or before the source country established copyright relations with the United States, it was in the public domain in its home country (Australien) on the URAA date (1 January 1996). For background information, see the explanations on Non-U.S. copyrights. Note: This tag should not be used for sound recordings.