Lone Pine anniversary: 100 years since the Anzacs fought one of their bloodiest battles

A HUNDRED years on since the battle of Lone Pine and the place is picture postcard perfect but the scenery hides the true story of the place our Anzacs knew.

Centenary Lone Pine.

THOSE gathered at the 100th anniversary of Lone Pine late yesterday heard how the pretty surrounds were an illusion. The spilling lavender bushes and blooming roses? The neat trimmings and a chance to admire the gorgeous sea views? These are what Lone Pine has become. They get in the way of imagining the stinking boneyard that Lone Pine once was.

The crowd heard Pompey Elliott, the commander of the 7th battalion, describe the “glories of war”.

Pretty point ... (L-R) Victoria Cross (VC) recipient Corporal Mark Donaldson, Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, Doug Baird, the father of VC winner Corporal Cameron Baird, and VC recipients Keith Payne and Corporal Daniel Keighran at a ceremony for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. Picture: AAP

Elliott’s men had earned four of the seven Victoria Crosses in the battle, perhaps the most savage in Australia’s military history.

Their deeds are still honoured today, and some of their families were here to cherish their memory.

Yet, as 750 or more who sweated in the Turkish heat yesterday heard, Elliott was there. He saw the savagery. He smelt it.

A hundreds years on ... Centenary of Lone Pine Gallipoli ceremony. Picture: David Caird.

Australia’s chief of army, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell read a letter Elliott once wrote a friend: “When anyone speaks to you of the glory of war, picture to yourself a narrow line of trenches two and sometimes three deep with bodies ... mangled and torn beyond description by bombs, bloated and blackened with decay and crawling with maggots”.

Doug Baird, the father of Cameron, who was killed in a VC-earning action in Afghanistan in 2013, had fretted about his reading yesterday.

Reflection ... Australian Army soldier Warrant Officer Class One Colin Watego thinks of the sacrifice by indigenous Australian soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign as he stands on the shores of Anzac Cove. Picture: AAP

Cameron had delivered the same reading at a 2008 Anzac Day service at Gallipoli.

He quoted Ion Idriess, a light-horseman, at Lone Pine in September, 1915: “ ... we are right in Lone Pine now and the stench is just awful, the dead men, Turks and Australians, are lying buried and half-buried in the trench bottom ... the flies hum in a bee like cloud”.

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove gave the ceremony address.

Tribute ... Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife Lynne lay a wreath to soldiers of Turkey's 57th Regiment during a memorial to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine at Anzac Cove. Picture: AAP

He said the eager innocence of the arriving Anzacs faded into growing cynicism of illness and the prospect of death.

In Lone Pine, an “all or nothing” attack, they “clung to their mates” in adversity, a spirit that endures in modern Australia and our responses to calamity.

Less made the trip to Turkey than original estimates in the thousands.

Yet Sir Peter afterwards described the event as a “remarkable experience”, calling Mr Baird’s reading “very poignant”.

Modest crowds ... Centenary of Lone Pine Gallipoli ceremony drew about 750 people. Picture: David Caird.

Originally published as Lone Pine anniversary: 100 years since the Anzacs fought one of their bloodiest battles