Битва за Лоун Пайн в Галлипольской кампании

Battle of the Gallipoli Campaign in WWI

was fought between Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) and Ottoman Empire forces during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War, between 6 and 10 August 1915. The battle was part of a diversionary attack to draw Ottoman attention away from the main assaults being conducted by British, Indian and New Zealand troops around Sari Bair, Chunuk Bair and Hill 971, which became known as the August Offensive. At Lone Pine, the assaulting force, initially consisting of the Australian 1st Brigade, managed to capture the main trench line from the two Ottoman battalions that were defending the position in the first few hours of the fighting on 6 August. Over the next three days, the fighting continued as the Ottomans brought up reinforcements and launched numerous counterattacks in an attempt to recapture the ground they had lost. As the counterattacks intensified the ANZACs brought up two fresh battalions to reinforce their newly gained line. Finally, on 9 August the Ottomans called off any further attempts and by 10 August offensive action ceased, leaving the Allies in control of the position. Nevertheless, despite the Australian victory, the wider August Offensive of which the attack had been a part failed and a situation of stalemate developed around Lone Pine which lasted until the end of the campaign in December 1915 when Allied troops were evacuated from the peninsula.

The Lone Pine battlefield was named for a solitary Turkish pine that stood there at the start of the fighting; The tree was also known by the Anzac soldiers as the "Lonesome Pine". The battlefield was situated near the centre of the eastern line of the Australian and New Zealand trenches around Anzac Cove on a rise known as "400 Plateau" that joined "Bolton's Ridge" to the south with the ridge along the east side of "Monash Valley" to the north. Being towards the southern end of the area around Anzac Cove, the terrain in the Lone Pine region was comparatively gentle and the opposing trenches were separated some distance with a flat no man's land intervening. |alt=A thematic map showing several ridge lines and high features]]

The main part of the Australian position at Lone Pine was centred on a feature known as "The Pimple", where a salient had developed at the point where the Australians' position was closest to the Ottoman line. To the east of the salient, opposite The Pimple, the Ottoman line extended from the head of a gully—known as "Owen's Gulley" by the Australians—south for towards the neck of Bolton's Ridge and continued south along a spur called "Sniper's Ridge". Because of the salient around The Pimple, the Ottomans had focused on developing the trenches along the flanks of the position more than the centre, At the rear of the Ottoman line, near Owen's Gully, was a depression called "The Cup" that was not visible from the Australians' position on The Pimple. Despite overflights of the area by British reconnaissance aircraft in June, the Australians were unaware of The Cup's existence, and at the time of the attack they believed this area to be flat and to consist of further trench lines. In reality it was actually a reserve area where the Ottomans had established a regimental headquarters and sited a series of bivouacs in terraces and at the time of the attack there were large numbers of reinforcements camped there.

Prior to the battle, isolated fighting around Lone Pine had begun early in the Gallipoli campaign. At around 7:00 a. m. on the first day of the Australian and New Zealand landings at Anzac Cove, 25 April 1915, elements of the Australian force had pushed through to Lone Pine in an effort to destroy an Ottoman artillery battery that had been firing down upon the landing beach. Before the Australians could engage the battery, the Ottomans had withdrawn to a ridge to the south west, which the Australians later dubbed "Third Ridge" (or "Gun Ridge"). Pressing further inland, troops from the 6th Battalion had attempted to reach the ridge, crossing a wide valley (later known as "Legge Valley"), but they were pushed back when an Ottoman regiment, the 27th, had launched a counterattack from the south east towards Lone Pine at 10:00 a. m., with the objective of retaking the 400 Plateau. Rolling up the 6th Battalion, the Ottomans pushed the Australians back to Pine Ridge, a finger of land that jutted south from Lone Pine towards Gaba Tebe. In early July 1915, while making plans for an offensive to break the deadlock that had developed around the Gallipoli Peninsula following the initial landings in April, the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, Lieutenant General William Birdwood, had determined that an attack at Lone Pine could be used to divert Ottoman attention away from a main attack that would be launched by a combined force of British, Indian and New Zealand troops further north around Sari Bair, Chunuk Bair and Hill 971. refn|The Ottoman name for Chunuk Bair was "Conk Bayiri", while Hill 971 was known as "Koca Cimen Tepe", which is translated as "Hill of the Great Pasture". under the command of a British officer, Colonel Nevill Smyth. a British officer who had replaced Major General William Bridges as temporary commander after Bridges had been killed by a sniper in May. Walker did not like the idea of launching an attack at Lone Pine, let alone a mere diversion, but when General Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, insisted the attack proceed, through thorough planning, Walker endeavoured to give his troops the best chance of success possible on such an unfavourable battleground. under the command of Tevfik Bey. These battalions amounted to a total of about 1,000 men, of which 500 were positioned in the trenches along the front, while another 500 were positioned further back in depth. The positions north and south of the Ottoman line at Lone Pine were held by the 125th Regiment at Johnston's Jollyrefn|Johnston's Jolly was known to the Ottomans as "Kirmizi Sirt". Immediately after the attack, one of these tunnels was to be opened along its length to make a communications trench through which reinforcements could advance without having to cross the exposed ground. The preparation stage of the attack began at 2:00 p. m. on 6 August, when the Australians detonated the three mines they had dug in front of the Ottoman lines, in an attempt to create cover for the advancing troops. while naval gunfire support from the British cruiser HMS Bacchante provided counter battery fire on Ottoman artillery positioned along Third Ridge. Retreating into tunnels which had been cut as part of mining operations, the majority of the forward Ottoman troops were able to find shelter from the bombardment that lasted for an hour. Once the 1st Battalion had taken up its position, the assault battalions moved through them towards the forward line at The Pimple. Once the attack was launched, half the force would go via tunnels that had been dug out into no man's land, while the other half would simply go "over the top". By 5:00 p. m. all the troops had taken up their positions and as the barrage came to a conclusion, the tunnels were opened and final preparations were made. In support, each battalion had four Vickers medium machine guns, which had been issued with 3,500 rounds, and contributed a platoon whose job would be to throw the 1,200 grenades that the brigade had been allocated for the attack. A small section of engineers was also allocated to undertake demolitions. To their north, the troops of the 2nd Infantry Brigade laid down suppressing fire on the supporting Ottoman troops at Johnston's Jolly, while the 3rd Infantry and 2nd Light Horse Brigades held the line opposite Sniper's Ridge. Half the force went via the prepared tunnels and half crossed the exposed ground between the trench lines. Dubbed the "Daisy Patch", Others ran on past to the open communications and support trenches behind, about 70 Ottoman troops were captured as they attempted to escape and ran into the Australians entering the trenches. In the ensuing fighting there, almost all of the Australians were killed, while a handful were taken prisoner. These amounted to positions in the communication trenches on the flanks of the captured ground and about seven or eight posts in the centre that were "isolated" but connected by hastily dug saps. For the Australians, the attack had been successful, as they had gained possession of the main Ottoman line, and after being halted at The Cup they began preparing to defend their gains. Hastily erecting sandbag barriers along the parapet, Due to crowding in the tunnels that had been used for the attack, the reinforcements were sent via the open ground that had been in front of the old Ottoman positions; despite being behind the recently captured position, the ground was still subjected to heavy Ottoman artillery and machine gun fire, which was being poured down from positions in overwatch on the flanks. Nevertheless, in company lots, the 1st Battalion moved up and began filling in the gaps between the assault battalions, while engineers from the 2nd Field Company began the task of extending the tunnels from The Pimple towards the new Australian line.

The fighting was "some of the fiercest" the Australians experienced during the campaign to that point. The ground captured during the battle amounted to a total of about across a front. The higher commanders believed it to have been a tactical success, however, with Hamilton describing it as a "desperate fine feat". His force arrived in time to seriously delay the New Zealand attack, and ultimately the wider offensive of which the battle was a part failed. Afterwards, a stalemate situation developed on the Gallipoli peninsula although there were brief periods of localised fighting. In September, the troops of the Australian 1st Division who had taken the position at Lone Pine were relieved by the 23rd and 24th Battalions. Dominated by the heights of Baby 700,refn|Known to the Ottomans as "Kilic Bayir", or "Sword Ridge". The stalemate continued as both the Australians and Ottomans lacked the strength to mount a determined attack and this situation ultimately lasted until the Allied evacuation in December 1915. In most sources, Ottoman losses are estimated at between 5,000–6,000, although Kenan Celik from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, has placed their losses as high as 7,164, broken down as 1,520 killed, 4,700 wounded, 760 listed as missing and 134 captured by the Australians. These included the commanding officers of both the 47th and 15th Regiments. The toll was particularly heavy amongst the Australian officers; both the commanding officers of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were killed leading their troops. One of the recipients was Corporal William Dunstan, who after the war became the general manager of The Herald newspaper in Melbourne. Another VC recipient was Captain Alfred Shout who had already earned the Military Cross and been Mentioned in Despatches earlier in the Gallipoli campaign. He was mortally wounded at Lone Pine and was later buried at sea. The other VC recipients were Privates Leonard Keysor and John Hamilton, Corporal Alexander Burton and Lieutenants Frederick Tubb and William Symons. Also standing within the cemetery's grounds is the Lone Pine memorial. It is the main Australian and New Zealand memorial at Gallipoli and commemorates all the Australian and some of the New Zealanders who died during the campaign, including those who have no known grave and those buried at sea. As a result of the battle's significance to the Australians, Lone Pine is the site of the annual Australian Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli. After the service Australian visitors congregate at the memorial to remember all their countrymen who fought and died at Gallipoli. At the New Zealand National World War I Museum, there is an exhibit for the Battle of Lone Pine, and there is also one in the Australian War Memorial. There are also many places in Australia named after the battle.