Technology and Tactics The Battle of Lone Pine was fought between Australia and New Zealand, and the Ottoman Empire, between 6th and 10th of August. Further fighting around Lone Pine continued throughout the early stages of the campaign, but eventually a stalemate developed in which neither side was able to advance and static trench warfare began. The Australians reached the front-line Turkish trench with light losses, but were startled to find it roofed over with wooden beams and earth. Advancing Australian infantry soldiers came up against entrenched Turkish positions. [22] The positions north and south of the Ottoman line at Lone Pine were held by the 125th Regiment at Johnston's Jolly[Note 6] in the north and the 48th Regiment in the south along Pine Ridge. Were they achieved? [53] The next day, the fighting "subsided" as both the Ottomans and the Australians worked to consolidate their positions.[3][54]. While some soldiers tried to break through, others jumped into uncovered communication trenches. The Battle of Lone Pine was one of the most famous assaults of the Gallipoli campaign. The Lone Pine battlefield was named for a solitary Turkish pine that stood there at the start of the fighting;[1] The tree was also known by the Anzac soldiers as the "Lonesome Pine". Much was done to help the Australians cross the 100 yards (91 m) to the Turkish front line successfully. There are a total of 1,167 graves in the cemetery and as of 2012, the identities of 471 bodies interred in the cemetery remain unknown. Australian losses during the battle amounted to 2,277 men killed or wounded,[3] out of the total 4,600 men committed to the fighting over the course of the battle. In a war characterised by appalling loss of life, personal sacrifice and residual damage, Lone Pine stood out as a benchmark to the veterans who survived it. They blocked the Ottoman communications trenches as best they could, often with the bodies of the dead, to thwart raids. [37], For the Australians, the attack had been successful, as they had gained possession of the main Ottoman line, and after being halted at The Cup they began preparing to defend their gains. [64] The toll was particularly heavy amongst the Australian officers; both the commanding officers of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were killed leading their troops. [12] Because of the salient around The Pimple, the Ottomans had focused on developing the trenches along the flanks of the position more than the centre,[12] and had placed the firing positions in the centre in depth in order to gain the advantage of being able to pour enfilade fire upon any attacking force. Due to concerns of shooting their comrades, the Australians were unable to fire their rifles initially,[33] and the fighting devolved into a melee as the soldiers attacked each other with bayonets and grenades. To the east of the salient, opposite The Pimple, the Ottoman line extended from the head of a gully—known as "Owen's Gulley" by the Australians—south for 400 yards (370 m) towards the neck of Bolton's Ridge and continued south along a spur called "Sniper's Ridge". By Guy Nesbit What were the strategic aims of the battle? [38] Due to crowding in the tunnels that had been used for the attack, the reinforcements were sent via the open ground that had been in front of the old Ottoman positions; despite being behind the recently captured position, the ground was still subjected to heavy Ottoman artillery and machine-gun fire, which was being poured down from positions in overwatch on the flanks. [15], In the Ottoman trenches, the darkness and cramped conditions led to considerable confusion amongst the attackers. [20] These battalions amounted to a total of about 1,000 men, of which 500 were positioned in the trenches along the front,[21] while another 500 were positioned further back in depth. [39], Shortly after dark, around 7:00 p.m., the first Ottoman counterattack came after a group from the 1st Battalion, 57th Regiment, under Major Zeki Bey, arrived to reinforce the battalions of the 47th. [49] By this time the 1st and 2nd Battalions, which had been defending the heavily counterattacked southern flank, had suffered so many casualties that they were withdrawn from the line, with the 7th Battalion moving into their positions late in the afternoon. [66], After the war, an Australian military historical mission was sent to Gallipoli, led by Charles Bean. A vicious battle developed in the warren of trenches, with grenades a principal weapon, sometimes thrown back and forth three times before exploding. The positions on the southern Australian flank continued to be subjected to grenading, so the 5th Battalion was brought up to relieve the 7th. "[33] Later, over 1,000 dead were removed from Australian position to be hastily buried. [15], Prior to the battle, isolated fighting around Lone Pine had begun early in the Gallipoli campaign. It is the main Australian and New Zealand memorial at Gallipoli and commemorates all the Australian and some of the New Zealanders who died during the campaign, including those who have no known grave and those buried at sea. At around 7:00 a.m. on the first day of the Australian and New Zealand landings at Anzac Cove, 25 April 1915, elements of the Australian force had pushed through to Lone Pine in an effort to destroy a Turkish artill… As reinforcements were brought up from New Zealand units, in the afternoon a second Ottoman regiment, the 77th, arrived and heavy hand-to-hand fighting ensued before the counterattack was blunted. Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. Today marks 100 years since the Battle of Lone Pine was launched at Gallipoli. It was named Lone Pine because the Turkish had cut down all the trees on the battlefield to use as cover for their trenches other than one Aleppo Pine. From the 400 Plateau it was possible to observe as far south as Gaba Tepe and its possession would have afforded the Ottomans the ability to place the approaches to the Second Ridge under fire, preventing the flow of reinforcements and supplies from the beachhead to the forward trenches. "Gallipoli: The August Offensive. These articles have not yet undergone the rigorous in-house editing or fact-checking and styling process to which most Britannica articles are customarily subjected. As the counterattacks intensified the ANZACs brought up two fresh battalions to reinforce their newly gained line. Although these articles may currently differ in style from others on the site, they allow us to provide wider coverage of topics sought by our readers, through a diverse range of trusted voices. [74] There are also many places in Australia named after the battle. Battle of Lone Pine. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [21] The preliminary bombardment was stretched over three days—initially confined to a limited "slow shoot", building up to a final intense bombardment an hour before the assault—and was successful in cutting much of the barbed wire that the Ottomans had placed in front of their position. Johnston's Jolly was known to the Ottomans as "Kirmizi Sirt". [57], Seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions during the fighting at Lone Pine,[3] including four men from the 7th Battalion, which had been rushed forward to help relieve the 1st Brigade at the height of the Ottoman counterattacks. [61] The stalemate continued as both the Australians and Ottomans lacked the strength to mount a determined attack and this situation ultimately lasted until the Allied evacuation in December 1915. The attack was planned as a diversion for the Australian and New Zealand units that were to breakout from the Anzac perimeter by capturing the heights of Chunuk Bair and Hill 971. [71][72], As a result of the battle's significance to the Australians, Lone Pine is the site of the annual Australian Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli. The Lone Pine battlefield was named for a solitary Turkish pine that stood there at the start of the fighting; The tree was also known by the Anzac soldiers as the "Lonesome Pine". [2] The Australians also brought up reinforcements, moving up men from two battalions[2] from the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades—the 7th and 12th Battalions—to hold the 1st Brigade's gains. At Lone Pine, with its sweeping views over the Aegean and down the Gallipoli peninsula, Turks and Australians lived, fought and died. It was a bloody battle, that would cost thousands of Australian lives. Private Victor Laidlaw of the Australian 2nd Field Ambulance wrote on 16 August: 16.8.15 ...looking through the periscope one can see quite well, also plenty of dead bodies can be seen, in fact in the Lonesome Pine Trench which we captured the Turks were lying there 5 feet deep and our fellows had to fight standing on the top of them. [41] Other bodies were moved to unused communication trenches and saps, and where possible the wounded were evacuated, however, the fighting was so intense, the conditions so cramped and the men so exhausted that in many cases they were left to lie at the bottom of the trench. "Kanlı Sırt" is roughly translated as "Bloody Ridge". The Battle of Lone Pine The fighting there lasted four days and resulted in over 2,000 Australian casualties, and an estimated 7,000 Turkish casualties. [48] Throughout the morning the remaining Australian positions overlooking The Cup were abandoned before the fighting stopped briefly as both the Australians and Ottomans evacuated their wounded and removed the dead from the front-line. [50] More grenade attacks were launched by Ottoman troops later that morning and as the Australian trenches were brought under fire from the Ottoman positions around Johnston's Jolly, an attack was launched at the junctions between the Australian battalions. [62], In most sources, Ottoman losses are estimated at between 5,000–6,000,[3][53][63] although Kenan Celik from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, has placed their losses as high as 7,164,[4] broken down as 1,520 killed, 4,700 wounded, 760 listed as missing and 134 captured by the Australians. [35] In the ensuing fighting there, almost all of the Australians were killed, while a handful were taken prisoner. [21], While the artillery prepared the ground for the attack, behind the Australian lines the assault formations moved up towards The Pimple. Afterwards, a stalemate situation developed on the Gallipoli peninsula although there were brief periods of localised fighting. [65] One of the recipients was Corporal William Dunstan,[66] who after the war became the general manager of The Herald newspaper in Melbourne. [1] Some of the attackers would have to make the advance over open ground from the Australian trench line. The Battle of the Nek (Turkish: Kılıçbayır Muharebesi) was a minor battle that took place on 7 August 1915, during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. The third wave had received the same amount of ammunition, but was also issued entrenching equipment that would be used to construct positions to defend the initial gains against the inevitable Ottoman counterattack. Of the nine Victoria Crosses awarded to Australian troops during the Gallipoli campaign, seven were for actions during the August Offensive, which included the Battle of Lone Pine. R.G. The Ottoman name for Chunuk Bair was "Conk Bayiri", while Hill 971 was known as "Koca Cimen Tepe", which is translated as "Hill of the Great Pasture". Before the Australians could engage the battery, the Ottomans had withdrawn to a ridge to the south-west, which the Australians later dubbed "Third Ridge" (or "Gun Ridge"). At Lone Pine, the assaulting force, initially consisting of the Australian 1st Brigade, managed to capture the main trench line from the two Ottoman battalions that were defending the position in the first few hours of the fighting on 6 August. ... His cobber takes his hand, and then the two turn, put their feet on the firing step, and start to pray together. [13], The width of the front of the attack was 160 yards (150 m) and the distance between the two trench lines was about 60–100 yards (55–91 m). Brigadier General Harold Walker, commander of 1st Australian Brigade, had no desire to assault well-constructed Turkish trenches as a sideshow to the concurrent landings at Suvla Bay, but his soldiers were keen for action. The 3rd, 4th and 12th Battalions remained holding the north and centre of the Australian line. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. As they did so, the brigade reserve—the 1st Battalion—was brought up. Walker did not like the idea of launching an attack at Lone Pine, let alone a mere diversion, but when General Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, insisted the attack proceed, through thorough planning, Walker endeavoured to give his troops the best chance of success possible on such an unfavourable battleground. Lone Pine (1915) was an ANZAC assault of Turkey (then known as the Ottoman Empire) more specifically in the Dardanelles and is one of the most famous battles of the Gallipoli campaign. [7] Being towards the southern end of the area around Anzac Cove, the terrain in the Lone Pine region was comparatively gentle and the opposing trenches were separated some distance with a flat no-man's land intervening. In some instances the attackers had to break in through the roof of the trench systems in order to engage the defenders. 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