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The Graveyards of Gallipoli; A Digger History Associate Site |
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A Tribute to the Men of all the Nations that took part in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 |
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New Zealand at Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli |
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Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. 7 August 1915.
It was over this country that the New Zealand infantry advanced during the early hours of the morning. Attacking up Chailak Dere they reached Rhododendron Spur, the highest point on the extreme left. Chunuk Bair, the distant hill on the right, was attacked at about 11 o'clock, but was not reached until the next morning. |
| Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. August
1915.
In the area shown here the New Zealand infantry had some hard fighting on 7/8 August 1915. In the early morning of the 7 August 1915 they advanced under very heavy fire. |
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| On the following morning the Wellington Battalion, with the 7th Gloucesters, marched almost unopposed into the Turkish trenches on the summit of a ridge. The Turks attacked so fiercely that the Wellington Battalion, which went in 762 strong, came out when relieved next day, 53 strong. The summit of the ridge was held until the morning of the 10th, when with two British Battalions, which relieved the Auckland battalion, they were driven out by a tremendous Turkish attack which came over the summit of Chunuk Bair. The Gurkhas had, in the meantime, been driven off the summit, which they had reached. The summit was never reached again. Little Table Top is shown in the foreground. | |
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Rhododendron Spur with Chunuk Bair on
right. Sniper's Nest in right centre below Chunuk Bair. Taken from No 1
Outpost looking north north-east. This is the centre image in a three
part panorama.
Photograph taken on the Gallipoli Peninsula under the direction of Captain C. E. W. Bean of the Australian Historical Mission, during the months of February and March, 1919. |
| Chunuk Bair and Table Top from No. 3 Post
Painting by Horace Moore-Jones. |
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The main attack of the August offensive
was made by a mixed New Zealand, Australian, British and Indian force
against the heights of Chunuk Bair and nearby peaks. It was believed
that if these positions could be captured and held, then the Turkish
line at Anzac would be in danger and a breakout towards the Dardanelles
possible. Between 7 and 9 August the attacking troops made their way up
the steep slopes and through the deep gullies on the approaches to the
heights.
Some units became lost in this wild country and planned assaults were often carried out too late and with inadequate support. The New Zealanders, fighting desperately and sustaining great losses, reached the Chunuk Bair summit and gazed upon the Dardanelles. By 10 August New Zealand troops had been replaced by British units when the Turks determinedly counter-attacked and regained the summit. The August offensive thus ended in failure. Before anything else this panel is a reminder that the Anzac Commemorative Site is just that – a site dedicated to the Australians AND New Zealanders who fought at Gallipoli. For New Zealand, the pre-eminent battle on Gallipoli was the effort made by the men of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles and the New Zealand Infantry Brigade to take the heights of Chunuk Bair between 7 and 10 August 1915. If this assault had succeeded then the outcome of the Gallipoli campaign might have been very different. As it was, the Turkish defence of Chunuk Bair, in the last stages led by Mustafa Kemal, prevented a breakout from Anzac by New Zealand, British, Indian and Gurkha troops. On Chunuk Bair today two great memorials face each other - the New Zealand Memorial and the (Mustafa Kemal) Ataturk Statue. Kemal’s leadership here on the night of 9-10 August was decisive in rallying the Turkish defenders of Chunuk Bair to a supreme effort at dawn on the 10th to drive the enemy from the summit. Over the days of the ‘August offensive’ in this area thousands were killed or wounded on both sides. Australians, proud of their countrymen’s efforts at Lone Pine and the Nek during the initial stages of the great offensive, should now and then cast their eyes when visiting Gallipoli to that summit whose name was once a byword for courage and sacrifice across the Tasman. |
