ANZAC, Aussie's Greatest War Horse

Dunkirk

If you are a horse lover, you should read this book. "Bill the *kitten*", by Roland Perry. ISBN 978 1 74331 262 9.

A movie should be made about this stallion. He served heroically at Gallipoli and in the Middle East in World War 1. I tried to read it in one go, but started too late in the day. I'm finishing it today.

Excerpt from the back cover...

Bill was massive. He had power, intelligence and unmatched courage. In performance and character he stood above all the other 200,000 Australian horses sent to the Middle East in the Great War. But as war horses go he had one serious problem. No one could ride him but one man - Major Michael Shanahan. Some even thought Bill took a sneering pleasure in watching would-be riders hit the dust.

Bill the *kitten* is the remarkable take of a bond between a determined trooper and his stoic but cantankerous mount. They fought together. They depended on each other for their survival. And when the chips were down, Bill's heroic efforts and exceptional instincts in battle saved the lives of Shanahan and four of his men.

By September 1918, Bill the *kitten* was known by all members of the entire Desert Mounted Corps, who used his name not as an insult, but as a term of endearment. Bill had become a legend, a symbol of the courage and unbreakable will of the Anzacs. There was no other horse like Bill the *kitten*.