On the afternoon of 6 August 1915, 100 years ago today, the Battle of Lone Pine commenced, and would continue for four days, until 10 August. Like the disastrous frontal assault across open ground at The Nek which took place at the same time and which was later immortalised in Peter Weir’s 1980 film Gallipoli, Lone Pine was intended as a feint, a distraction, designed to draw Turkish forces away from Chunuk Bair further along the Gallipoli Peninsula, where the main assault was being launched, predominately by New Zealand forces. The series of actions encompassing the four day battle of Lone Pine, The Nek, and Chunuk Bair, were all a part of the so-called ‘August offensive’, the last roll of the dice for the Allied forces at Gallipoli. Overall, it was a futile attempt, at great loss, that hoped to break through the Turkish lines and end the deadlock before the summer dissipated, and the cold weather returned.
The fighting at Lone Pine was hand to hand, in close quarters, often in the dark and confined spaces of the trenches, which the Turks had covered over with large logs for extra protection. The Australians, charging across open ground at well defended and heavily fortified positions, broke through the Turkish lines on the first day, achieving that most rare of feats of the Gallipoli campaign – an Allied victory. For the next three days they held off furious Turkish counter attacks. The dead piled higher and higher in No Mans Land. By the end of it all there were some 2,200 Australian casualties, and more than 4,000 on the Turkish side.
From the Australian perspective, the most memorable thing about Lone Pine was, not that it was a victory of sorts, nor the familiar huge casualty lists, but the fact that, of the nine Victoria Crosses awarded to Australians during the entire nine months of the Gallipoli campaign, seven were won in this single action over those four days at Lone Pine. Four of those nine were, in fact, won in the first 24 hours, as the battle commenced on 6th August 1915, all four being awarded to men of the (Victorian) 7th Battalion, who led the heroic charge that captured the Turkish trenches opposite at great personal cost.
The Victoria Cross is, of course, the British Commonwealth’s highest award for bravery and valour in battle. The seven awarded to the men of the Australian Infantry Forces during the Battle of Lone Pine, over the four days of 6-10 August 1915, is, to this day, the second highest number ever awarded during the course of a single military action. Only the defenders of Rourke’s Drift in Natal, South Africa, exceed this, their heroic defence of that mission station over two days in 1879, against overwhelming odds, resulting in the awarding of 11 Victoria Crosses for valour.
Lest we forget!
