The Story of ANZAC. From 4 May 1915 to the Evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula (Volume 2, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918)

6–15 August 1915

Landing at Suvla Bay

OFR

General Headquarters, 1914-16, and Its Critical Decisions, by General von Falkenhayn; Fiinf Jahre Tiirkci, by Liman von Sanders; Gallipoli: Der Kampf um den Orient, von einem offizier aus dem stabe Marschalls Liman von Sanders; Der Kampf um die Dardanellen, by Major E. R. Prigge; Australia in Arms, by P. F. E. Schuler; Five Months at Anzac, by Colonel J. L. Beeston; The Australian Army Medical Corps in Egypt, by Lieutenant-Colonel James W. Barrett and Lieutenant P. E. Deane; The History of the 7th Light Horse Regiment, A.LF., by Lieutenant-Colonel J. D. Richardson; With the Ninth Light Horse in the Great War, by Major T. H. Darley; Westralian Cavalry in the War, by Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. N. Olden; The Fighting Thirteenth, by T. A. White; With the Twenty-second, by Captain E. Gorman; The Red and White Diamond, by Sergeant W. J. Harvey; The 28th, Volume I, by Colonel H. B. Collett; The New Zealanders in Gallipoli, by Major F. Waite; The Auckland Regiment, by 2/Lieut. O. E. Burton; The History of the Canterbury Regiment, N.Z.E.F., by Captain David Ferguson; The Royal Naval Division, by Douglas Jerrold; The Pals at Suvla Bay, by Henry Hanna; The Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli, by Major Bryan Cooper.

MAPS

7—Landing at Suvla Bay.

THE OPEN FLANK AT ANZAC

of which the north-eastern limit was until the end of the campaign the lofty backbone of Abdel Rahman Bair. Beyond Damakjelik Bair lay the Suvla plain, stretching from Suvla Bay and its adjoining Salt Lake on the west towards the two villages of Anafarta at its eastern end. From it rose three minor heights—near Nibrunesi Point the little hump of Lala Baba, separating part of Suvla Bay from the Salt Lake, and immediately inland of the lake the two rounded “Chocolate Hills”; inland of the Chocolate Hills the steeper heights of Ismail Oglu Tepe, upon whose corrugated sides

THE OPEN FLANK AT ANZAC

unguarded. Not far from Northern Anafarta the Turks about this time emplaced the battery generally known as the “ Anafarta” guns, which began to enfilade the Beach from the north in much the same way as the Olive Grove did from the south. These guns, which were ascertained to be within a certain area in the “W” Hills, daily killed and wounded a number of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles on Walker’s Ridge, and the mounted rifles were accordingly prompted to locate them by sending out patrols similar to those carried out by the three Tasmanians towards the Olive Grove. On May 16th Lieutenant Blackett,’® of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, made a first reconnaissance in this direction. Eight days later a small patrol left No. 2 Outpost after dark with the intention of creeping along the coast, crossing the Suvla plain, and reaching this battery; but after proceeding little more than half-a-mile the party was detected, fired on, and forced to return singly. On the 27th a party of five volunteers made a further attempt to reach and “destroy” the guns, but again failed. Finally, after the set of the moon on the night of June 2oth, Blackett, with a native guide, an interpreter, and a trooper of the mounted rifles, was taken on a trawler by Lieutenant Giffard,?° of the British Navy, and landed by night at a quiet point in the steep coast-line imme- diately north of Suvla Bay. The party made its way inland, and Blackett succeeded in reaching a position from which, as he lay eating his sandwiches, he watched the crew of one of the Turkish guns in this neigh- bourhood at work about their emplacement. He returned to the coast and was picked up < during the night. SS The Anafarta battery now (hah eX , Ne regularly upon Walker’s 5 Biyuk An ahs “les idge, and on Reserve Gully {yas Ye scieutar Hill below the Sphinx. According — scnocolste Hille permens to some estimates it had by the s