Bataille de Lone Pine

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The Battle of Lone Pine

source récit : http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/lonepine.htm

source images : http://commons.wikimedia.org

(note: aucune version en Français, en cours de traduction)

 

The Battle of Lone Pine, along with the Battle of Sari Bair, was planned by Allied regional Commander-in-Chief Sir Ian Hamilton as a diversionary operation intended to shift focus away from the planned Allied landings at Suvla Bayon 6 August 1915.

The attack, launched by Sir William Birdwood’s 1st Australian Division of 4,600 men (from 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades), was chiefly intended to draw attention away from the key diversionary attack at Sari Bair.  It was directed against the so-called ‘Lone Pine’ position in Turkish hands some 100 metres above Anzac Cove – thus a key target on 6 August 1915 given the planned mass landings intended for Anzac Cove the same day.

Opening on the evening of 6 August at 5.30pm the attack developed into a ferocious hand-to-hand assault ultimately spanning five days.  Attacking with the sun at their back (and thus with the sun in the Turkish defenders’ eyes) the Australians were astonished to find the Turkish trenches covered with logs and earth.

Effectively brought to a halt while they searched for a means of entering the Turkish trenches, the Turk defenders were presented with point-blank targets; the Australians suffered significant initial casualties, a pattern that continued on both sides.

Having finally gained entrance to the Turk lines via communication trenches, and with the log covers heaved off the front trench by persistent Australian troops, a fierce hand-to-hand battle was conducted, often in virtual darkness.  Such was the nature of the fighting that there was often insufficient room to use either bayonet or grenades: instead fighting was conducted using fists and bayonet swords.

Within half an hour – 6pm – the trench line was in Australian hands and the Lone Pine position secured two days later.  Wave after wave of diminishing Turkish counter-attacks were subsequently launched, lasting some five days in total.

Casualties were heavy, 10,000 in total (7,000 Turkish, 3,000 Australian).  Of these some 9,000 comprised fatalities.  The Lone Pine action remains notorious to the present day.  Seven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the Australian force as a consequence of fighting at Lone Pine.

Unfortunately for the Allies the attack upon Line Pine proved far less diversionary than intended, for the Turkish reserves drafted in to defend Lone Pine were subsequently better placed to rush to the Sari Bair range once its importance became clearer.

 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lone_Pine_%28AWM_A02025%29.jpg?uselang=fr

Description     AWM caption : « A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet. In the foreground of this much published image is Captain Leslie Morshead (later Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead) of the 2nd Battalion and on his right (standing facing camera), is 527 Private James (Jim) Brown Bryant, 8th Battalion, of Stawell, Vic. As a 60th Battalion (« daughter » or « pup » battalion of the 8th) Company Quartermaster Sergeant (CQMS) Bryant was awarded the Military Medal (MM) in 1918. He enlisted in the Second AIF as VX55299 Lieutenant J B Bryant, and survived three years as a prisoner of the Japanese in Changi Prison, Singapore. Bryant lent his camera to an unknown friend who took AWM image A03869, an equally famous image of the Gallipoli trenches. Later in life he was one of the few Gallipoli veterans to undertake a private pilgrimage to Anzac Cove. Private Bryant was previously identified as Private Angus Sutherland Allen, later (Captain Angus Sutherland Allen MC), who was killed in action on 21 July 1918 in France. Note the prominent white over red 8th Battalion colour patch worn on Bryant’s right shoulder ».
Date     1915

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_taking_of_Lone_Pine_%28Fred_Leist%29.jpg?uselang=fr

Detail from The taking of Lone Pine (1921, oil-on-canvas, 122.5 cm x 245.5 cm) by Fred Leist (1878–1945). Depicts the attack by the Australian 1st Brigade on covered Turkish trenches at Lone Pine, 6 August 1915, during the Battle of Gallipoli.

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Harold Bridgwood Walker, Général britannique et la Bataille de Lone Pine

Walker participe avec la 1^re division australienne à l’offensive du mois d’août 1915. Cette attaque du 9^e corps britannique formé des divisions neé-zélandaise et australienne consiste à un débarquement des troupes sur Suvla. Le rôle de la 1^re division est de déclencher une attaque de diversion à Lone Pine et une attaque secondaire sur la tranchée dite des officiers allemands afin d’éliminer les mitrailleuses de cette tranchée qui prennent en enfilade des positions alliées.
L’attaque de la tranchée est déclenchée à minuit, le 7 août 1915, par le 6^e bataillon australien de la 2^e  brigade commandé par le lieutenant-colonel HG Bennett. Après trois assauts infructueux, Walker décide d’annuler l’attaque sur cette partie du front. Le 29 septembre 1915, Walker est enterré vivant dans son abri par l’explosion d’un obus, il est grièvement blessé 15 jours plus tard par des tirs de mitrailleuses lors d’une visite des premières lignes. Il est d’abord remplacé par le brigadier-général Talbot Hobbs jusqu’à la maladie de ce dernier, puis par brigadier-général H.G. Chauvel.

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