The Battle of Lone Pine
Lone Pine was one of the three attacks planned in order to create a diversion for a British landing in Suvla Bay, and was carried out by the 1st Division, which consisted of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Brigades. At 5:30 pm on August 6th, 1915 these men attacked when the sun was at their backs, and in the Turkish eyes.
The first wave of men were astonished to discover that their objective, being the Turkish frontline, was completely covered in logs and earth. This gave the Turkish soldiers the opportunity to fire safely from a point blank range, and made entry for the Australians nearly impossible. C.E.W Bean, who was observing this scene from the Australian trenches described the soldiers as "a crowd not unlike that lining the rope around a cricket field". However it wasn't long before the men began to enter the communication trenches which were connected to the front trench allowing them to to join their comrades who had dragged off the heavy log cover at the front.
Wave after wave of Australians continued to enter the dark and deadly trenches that were crammed full of dying and fighting men. Because the fighting was so close, there was no room to use a bayonet or throw bombs. Instead, hands and the swords from the bayonets were the substitute weapons.
By six pm the same day the trenches were taken, but the ANZACs defended and endured the Turkish counter attacks on their former trenches for five days, eventually gaining complete control of the Lone Pine objective.
During the attack, many men ran over the top of the Lone Pine trenches to discover massive amounts of Turkish reinforcements waiting in the depression behind the font line. However they never lived to tell the tale as they were killed instantly. In 1920 these bodies were found and were commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial dedicated to the missing.
Photos of Lone Pine can be found on the War Memorial web page search engine. Click on the address below for this search engine.