Haifa Commonwealth War Grave

I visited here in October 2017. It's a small war cemetery, sandwiched between a road and a railway line in the coastal city of Haifa in the north of Israel. 255 graves in total - 29 Australian, 28 of these being from World War I. In this picture the row of headstones closest are all men from the 11th Light Horse and would have ridden alongside my Grandfather. On 25 September 1918 the 11th Light Horse was involved in a very casualty heavy pre-dawn charge at Semakh. An account from the time - ''Draw swords, charge!' came the command, and away we went, full gallop, straight for the line of spurting flame...braving bullets, earth pits and trip wires....the wild sons of the Australian bush...their swords gleaming in the moonlight, seemed to demoralise the Turks.' Many of the Australian casualties in the Haifa War Cemetery are from this charge. Visiting there it didn't feel like it happened 99 years ago, it felt like it was only yesterday. So sad. So far from home. In this cemetery there is also a section for casualties from Indian units with Hindus and Muslims buried separately and in the forest at the rear of this drawing there is a German Templar cemetery that pre-dates the World War I graves.