First World War Battle of Lone Pine, 1915

Background

The Gallipoli Campaign began in February 1915 with an Anglo-French naval assault on the Dardanelles, a narrow waterway on the Gallipoli Peninsula’s southern shore. The plan was to open the maritime route between the Eastern Mediterranean and Russia’s Black Sea ports while bringing the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, under fire and possibly forcing the enemy’s surrender. When the fleet failed with the loss of hundreds of sailors, senior Allied (British and French) commanders decided to send infantry ashore to seize the Gallipoli peninsula and open a passage for the navy. Among the units from Britain, France and their dominions detailed for the attack was the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the Anzacs. 

Landing at Anzac Cove

On 25 April 1915, British troops went ashore around Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula’s southern tip, soon to be joined by the French who that morning launched a feint on the Dardanelles opposite shore at Kum Kale. Simultaneously Australians and New Zealanders landed at Ari Burnu, north of Helles, in an area soon to be known as Anzac. The Australians came ashore just before dawn and established a tenuous hold on the steep slopes above the beach. During the early days of the eight month long campaign, the Allies tried to break through the Ottoman defences while the Ottomans in turn tried to drive Allied troops into the sea. Neither side succeeded and the campaign settled into stalemate. 

Lone Pine

In August 1915, the Allies launched a major offensive in an effort to break out of the Anzac area while British troops made new landings at Suvla Bay to the north. An Australian assault on the Turkish position at Lone Pine, at the southern end of the Anzac area, opened the offensive on 6 August. The attack was a diversion to keep Turkish reserves from the British at Suvla and from the main assault by Australians and New Zealanders against the Sari Bair ranges, the strategically important high ground to the north of Anzac that had been an objective on the day of the landing. 

The Turkish position at Lone Pine was shelled in the lead up to the attack. At 4:30pm, an hour before the infantry attacked, the barrage intensified. When the officers’ whistles blew at 5:30pm the Australian’s assault wave emerged from the forward trenches and saps dug closer to the Ottoman line, and charged across no-man’s-land. As they reached the Ottoman position, the Australians found the enemy were sheltered in log-covered trenches. Men began to congregate along this part of the line, some removing logs descending into the darkness below. Others continued to the next line of enemy trenches. All along the line the explosion of bombs and the sound of rifle and machine-gun fire marked the progress of intense fighting. The Ottoman defenders were quickly driven from their forward trenches, but over the following days launched a series of heavy counter-attacks. The battle was characterised by deadly close quarter fighting which, at Lone Pine, often meant bombing duels over sandbag barricades. 

The main fighting lasted until the morning of 9 August, but bombing and sniping at Lone Pine continued until 12 August. Unable to regain the position, Ottoman forces withdrew leaving the battlefield to the Australians. 

While Ottoman attention was diverted by the attack on Lone Pine, senior officers kept a careful eye on the progress of the Allied attacks to the north, where the August Offensive’s main objectives lay. The feint at Lone Pine succeeded in driving Ottoman troops from this position, but had little impact on the fighting elsewhere. The Allied offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough anywhere along the Anzac perimeter or at Suvla Bay. 

By the end of August 1915, the British occupied a new slice of territory at Suvla, and the Anzac area was expanded, but Ottoman forces continued to occupy the important high ground and their positions on Gallipoli were never threatened again. The August Offensive was the last Allied attempt to achieve a breakout on Gallipoli. The campaign in the Anzac area continued until the evacuation on 20 December while fighting continued on Helles until it too was evacuated in January 1916.

Facts and figures

• The battle of Lone Pine was fought from 6–9 August 1915 as part of the Allies’ August Offensive on Gallipoli
• The attack was launched by the Australian 1st Brigade which was later reinforced by elements of the 2nd and 3rd Brigades
• More than 2,000 Australians were killed or wounded in the Battle for Lone Pine
• Estimates suggest that more than 6,900 Ottoman troops became casualties in the battle
• Lone Pine was at the southern end of the Anzac position on Gallipoli in an area where no-man’s-land was between 60 and 120 yards wide. Saps and trenches were secretly constructed closer to the Turkish position so infantry would have less distance to cross in the initial assault
• Seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross for their part in the fighting at Lone Pine, the highest number awarded for a single action in Australia’s wartime history.