Chapter 74 – Jayjay

Charles Bean includes a detailed account of the 1st Brigade attack on Lone Pine on 6 August 1915 in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18, vol II (Chapter XVIII, The Attack on Lone Pine, pp. 497-566).  At 2:00pm three mines were blown to open the tunnels and at 4:30 an intensive bombardment by warship guns commenced. (p. 500). At 4:30, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions moved via Brown’s Dip to the Pimple in readiness for the initial attack (p. 501). Map 13, opposite p. 498 shows the trenches and tunnels of both sides, including B5 tunnel.

Simon Cameron has written a book about the Lone Pine battle of August 1915, Lonesome Pine – The Bloody Ridge . Cameron states that substantial reinforcements arrived on 5 August. Men were expected to carry bombs, sandbags, food, water and 200 rounds of ammunition (p. 43). In addition men took shovels, picks and wire. Bayonets were sharpened that afternoon (p. 44). The 1st Battalion was first to move, and on the way they felt the tremor and heard the blast as engineers blew three mines in no-man’s-land (p. 53). A final meal was brought to Browne’s Dip, consisting of rice and tea with rum (p. 52). Men of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions filed past at Browne’s Dip (p. 53).

The History of the First Battalion A.I.F. includes the following details:

p.36 – On 8 July, on returning from a break on Imbros, the 1st Battalion moved to Braund’s Hill. At the pimple (Lone Pine) 50 yard long tunnel was dug to allow attack from close than the Turks would expect.

p. 37 – 1st Battalion reinforcements arrived on 5 and 6 August in preparation for the battle of Lone Pine.

p. 38 – The 1st Battalion moved into position as reserves at Browne’s Dip at 2:30pm on 6 August 1915. The artillery battle started at 4:00pm and the 1st Battalion suffered numerous casualties before the attack started at 5:30pm. Men from the 1st Battalion joined the attack from 5:40pm, D Company advanced at 6:50pm, and the last were in the trenches by 7:45pm.

The 1st Battalion war diary states that on 6 August, D Company advanced at 7:04pm along B5 tunnel.

Some first-hand experience is recorded by Archie Barwick of the 1st Battalion in his WWI diary, In Great Spirits , pp 45-49. Barwick notes that they travelled via Gun Lane. At 5:00pm all batteries and warships turned “on the Pine”, and at 5:15 the shelling climaxed in one continuous roar. He records a test of nerves while waiting at Browne’s Dip, an incoming shell came straight at him, and missed him by one yard but didn’t explode, then three more hit within three yards, but none exploded (p. 47). He was ordered not to use the white patches that the earlier Battalions had used to assist the artillery in identifying them (p. 48).

In Randwick to Hagincourt , Eric Wren’s history of the 3rd Battalion A.I.F, the ongoing repetition of Colonel MacLaurin’s phrase to the 1st Brigade “you are now fit for war” by men of the 1st Brigade is recorded on p. 38. Colonel Burret is quoted: “I saw a badly wounded Digger, at Lone Pine, grin and tell his pals who were trying to help, “Men, you are now fit for war.”

Dale Blair describes the 1st Battalion involvement at Lone Pine in Dinkum Diggers – An Australian Battalion at War (p. 92-96), as he follows the 1st Battalion actions through the war and compares the realities of this battalion’s performance with the Anzac legend. He states that some of the 1st Battalion would have been involved in removing the pine logs that covered the Turkish trenches, although they did not instigate it (p. 93). He states that “Lone Pine resembled a charnel house in which men were slaughtered and maimed in droves” (p. 92). One Australian soldier is quoted as saying: “The major is standing next to me and he says “Well we have won”. Great—God—won—what means a victory when all those bodies within arms reach—then may I never witness a defeat.” (p. 93).

Every Australian fighting at the front line carried a “first field dressing”, as described by Arthur Butler in Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914-1918, Volume 1, Part 1: The Gallipoli Campaign . The following description is provided (p. 93): “The first and fundamental medical supply is the “first field dressing,” carried, as part of his equipment, by every officer and man, and “issued” from “Ordinance” immediately before proceeding “to the front”.”

Butler also describes (p. 293) 1 Battalion’s role attacking in support immediately after 2, 3 and 4 Battalions which led the Lone Pine charge at 5:30pm on 6 August, and also how engineers tunnelled and trenched forward to join the new position, retrieving wounded after dawn on 7 August.

Translation of Turkish phrases to English:

“Neden Ingiliz?”: Why Englishman?

“Seninki mi?”: Is it yours?

“Allah git Ingiliz!”: Go to God, Englishman!

In his autobiography Khaki and Gown , General (later Field-Marshall) William Birdwood states of the Lone Pine trenches after the Australian attack in August 1915:

“I am sad to think that our casualties in this fighting amounted to 2000 men, but the Turks themselves acknowledge losses totalling 6930 in their 16th Division, and of these some 5000  were sustained in a small sector of the Lone Pine trenches. God forbid that I should ever again see such a sight as that which met my eyes when I went up there—Turks and Australian piled four and five deep on one another. The most magnificent heroism had been displayed on both sides.” (p. 273).

In his Third Gallipoli Despatch (sent December 1915), Ian Hamilton stated the following of the Lone Pine attack by the Anzac 1st Brigade on 6 August 1915:

“The hand-to-had fighting in the semi-obscurity of the trenches was prolonged and very bitterly contested. In one corner, eight Turks and six Australians were found lying as they had bayoneted each other. To make room for the fighting the dead men were arranged in rows  on either side of the gangway. After the first violence of counter-attacks had abated, 1,000 corpses – our own and Turkish – were dragged out from the trenches.”

(referenced from Despatches from the Front – Gallipoli and the Dardanelles , Introduced and Edited by John Grehan and Martin Mace, p. 104).