4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery, Anzac, Gallipoli

Photo: Eric Goossens

4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery. The cemetery is on the southern slope of Braund's Hill. It is reached by a track from the main road just north of Johnston's Jolly. The cemetery can also be reached by following Shrapnel Gully and Bridge's Road from the beach. Three cemeteries were made near Bridge's Road during the campaign. Most of the graves are men of the 3rd and 4th Battalions killed in the fighting in May. At the time of the Turkish counter attack on 19 May, the 3rd Battalion held the position opposite Johnston's Jolly, and the 4th Battalion held the line at the head of Bridge's Road.

The 4th Battalion, AIF, buried 34 of its dead and six from other units on the site of this cemetery. Farther south on the opposite side of the small valley, was the 3rd Battalion Parade Ground where 31 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, AIF, were buried. To the southeast, behind Johnston's Jolly, was the 22nd Battalion Parade Ground cemetery which contained the graves of 13 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, AIF, and three others. In 1919 the two smaller cemeteries were concentrated into the 4th Battalion cemetery, and isolated graves from the area were also added.

Location Information:

4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery is on the track from the Wire Gully Sector of the front line back to Anzac Cove, 300 metres from the road, and is not accessible by car.

Historical Information:

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac.

This cemetery was used by the 4th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, from the end of April to the beginning of June 1915. It was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and from the nearby 3rd Battalion Parade Ground and 22nd Battalion Parade Ground Cemeteries. The cemetery contains 116 First World War burials, 7 of them unidentified.

No. of Identified Casualties:

109