Brave Diggers won fight but lost battle at Lone Pine

A century ago today Diggers from Australia’s 1st Infantry Brigade began one of the most brutal battles of the Gallipoli campaign at a Turkish stronghold called Lone Pine.

The Turkish Lone Pine trenches, captured on the afternoon of the 6 August 1915 by 1st Brigade under Brigadier General Walker, with the loss of 3,000 men. Source Australian War Memorial.

A century ago today Diggers from Australia’s 1st Infantry Brigade began one of the most brutal battles of the Gallipoli campaign at a Turkish stronghold called Lone Pine. \More than 4600 Australian troops were thrown into the fray on the small, open ridge line between August and November 1915; some 2277 were killed or wounded. The Turkish defenders suffered 7000 dead or wounded.

When the dust settled and the guns fell silent on August 10 after the initial attacks the Diggers held Lone Pine, but the broader August offensive, like the Gallipoli campaign itself, was doomed to failure.

CWar correspondent Charles Bean was in the trenches at Lone Pine and spoke to the men before they went over the top. Picture: Australian War Memorial

Lone Pine was in fact a diversion designed to draw Turkish attention away from the main offensive on the Sari Bair Ridge to the north.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions from NSW occupied the forward positions and, as they prepared for the opening charge, every man wore a white arm band or white material on his back to identify friend from foe.

Official war correspondent Charles Bean, who was in the trenches at Lone Pine, reported the Diggers “chaffed each other dryly” like rowdy spectators at a footy game: “Some belated messenger hurried along the trench to find his platoon, and, in passing, recognised a friend. ‘Au revoir’, Bill’, he nodded, ‘meet you over there’. ‘So long, Tom’, was the answer; ‘see you again in half an hour’.”

Diggers stans in the Turkish Lone Pine trenches, captured in the bloody fighting of August 6, 1915. Picture: Australian War Memorial.

At 5.30pm on a warm summer’s day the whistles blew and the Diggers went over the top to attack heavily fortified Turkish trenches some 100m away across open ground.

The men faced a similar task as their comrades would confront at The Nek the following day but, unlike that debacle, some actually dodged the withering Turkish fire and made it alive to the enemy lines.

According to Bean those few who crossed No Man’s Land huddled in small groups as they tried to find a way into the fortified Turkish trenches that were roofed with pine logs. Once they gained access, using grenades and by lifting the logs, the Diggers were slaughtered as they engaged in fierce close order combat in crowded, corpse-lined trenches. Rifles and bullets gave way to bayonets and bare hands as they engaged in a fight to the death where the sounds of steel on bone merged with the screams of the dying and those doing the killing.

Such was the ferocity of the fighting an incredible seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross. They were Corporal William Dunstan, Captain Alfred Shout, Privates Leonard Keysor and John Hamilton, Corporal Alexander Burton and Lieutenants Frederick Tubb and William Symons.

Captain Leslie Morshead views dead comrades in a captured Turkish trench at Lone Pine. Picture: Phillip Schuler, Australian National War Memorial

Captain Harold Jacobs of the 1st Battalion remarked: “The trench is so full of our dead that the only respect that we could show them was not to tread on their faces, the floor of the trench was just one carpet of them.”

The architect of the plan, General William Birdwood, was more prosaic: “The boys went right through these Turkish works, and had regular hand-to-hand fights every yard. To show you the nature of the fighting I may mention that in one corner we came across eight Turks and six Australians, all dead, who had evidently fought it out man-to-man
to the last.”

Australian War Memorial historian Peter Burness said that surprise, dash and the raw courage of Australian soldiers prevailed at Lone Pine. However, despite the success the main objectives of the grand plan failed.

“In the following weeks the Gallipoli campaign slipped back into stalemate,” Mr Burness said. “This sorry state was nowhere more evident than in the chain of actions between the Nek and Lone Pine, where today that line is marked by war cemeteries.”

The Australian cemetery and memorial at Lone Pine stands where many of the 1915 trenches were dug. It is the final resting place for 1167 Allied soldiers including 504 “unknown”. The walls adjacent to the Memorial carry the names of 4228 missing Australians as well as those who died on hospital ships and were buried at sea.

Today, every Australian should pause to remember the courage and sacrifice of those young men.

Originally published as Brave Diggers won fight but lost battle at Lone Pine