Gallipoli Campaign 1915: Anzac Cove to Chunuk Bair

Before dawn on 25 April 1915 the ANZAC covering force came ashore about 2 km too far north, at a small cove only 600 metres long. The ground rose steeply, and the broken terrain stopped any coordinated drive inland. Instead of a quick advance, the cove became the main base for Australian and New Zealand troops for the eight months of the campaign. The beach was later narrowed by erosion and a coast road, and the Anzac dawn service now takes place at a purpose-built site on nearby North Beach.

Visitor guidance: The Anzac Commemorative Site, used for the dawn service since 2000, is on North Beach next to the cove.

At the southern tip of the peninsula the main landings came ashore at V Beach, beneath the old Seddülbahir fortress. The collier SS River Clyde was run aground so troops could leave by ramps, but Ottoman defenders at the fort fired on every man who emerged. Of the first 200 soldiers to disembark, only 21 reached the beach. Of the 1,012 Dubliners who landed, just 11 came through the whole campaign unscathed.

At 5:30 pm on 6 August 1915, 1,800 Australians of the 1st Brigade charged the Ottoman line at Lone Pine as a diversion for the main August Offensive. They found the trenches roofed with pine logs and no easy way in, so some fired and bayoneted from above while others lifted the logs and dropped inside. The fight lasted until 10 August and gained about 150 metres across a 300-metre front. The Lone Pine Memorial now names Australians killed in the Anzac sector.

Location precision: The pin marks the Lone Pine Memorial; the trenches fought over lie in the same sector.

The landing at Suvla Bay began on the night of 6 August 1915, to support a breakout from there. Yorkshire troops drove the defenders off the hillock of Lala Baba at heavy cost. Landing in darkness caused chaos: attempts to take Hill 10 failed because no one in the field knew where it was. After a week of indecision the British commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford, was dismissed on 15 August.

Location precision: The landing spread across several beaches in the dark; the sources give no single exact spot to pin.

Early on 8 August 1915 New Zealand's Wellington Battalion and other troops reached the summit of Chunuk Bair. Under Ottoman counter-attacks the defenders could only scrape shallow trenches among the rocks. Malone was killed around 5 pm by a misdirected shell. Of the 760 Wellington men who reached the summit, 711 became casualties. A memorial to New Zealand's fallen was unveiled on Chunuk Bair in May 1925.

Location precision: The pin marks the Chunuk Bair area; the exact trench lines on the summit are not given in the source.