This website has been prepared by
the first authentic hotel on the Gallipoli peninsula
HILL 60 CEMETERY
By this time
companies had become very mixed, and the charge was composed of a crowd of
man belonging to all the companies, mad with the lust for battle. Their
officers did little to restrain them, for their Irish blood was aflame, and
they were as eager as the men. The line surged up the bare exposed glacis,
only to encounter
tremendously
heavy rifle and machine gun fire from the crest. At the same moment the
enemy’s guns opened, displaying marvellous accuracy in ranging, and the attack
was annihilated. In spite of this the men went on as long as they were
able to stand, and fell still facing the foe. From the wells below their
bodies could be seen, lying in ordered ranks on the hillside, with the bayonets
pointing to the front.
"The Tenth (Irish) Division",
(Dublin
1993),
Major Bryan Cooper, p. 108.
IF STONES COULD SPEAK - ANZAC
closest friend,
who, white and trembling, confined that he was afraid. The New Zealander, J.F. Rudd, did all
he could to comfort his friend but the latter was sure he was soon to be
killed. With final checking of ammunition and guns completed, “I can still
remember the feeling as we looked at our watches and saw the time creeping
nearer to five o’clock. The whistle went and out hopped the first row of men and they fell
like ninepins, then the second row went out and my friend
Jack Bindon’s
premonition was fulfilled”.
Trooper J.F. Rudd (CMR) quoted in
"Men of Gallipoli", Peter H. Liddle, p. 210
To the infantry waiting in the trenches on Damakjelik Bair it seemed that very few of the shells landed in the
"Humain remains collected on Hill 60 by the Imperial War Graves
Commision team
during 1919", picture reproduced
from "Gallipoli
Then and Now", (London 2000), Steve Newman, p. 159.
Map detail reproduced from "Military Operations: Gallipoli", Volume II - maps &
appendices, (London 1929), Brigadier-General Cecil F. Aspinall-Oglander.
Turkish positions on Hill 60. Certainly the Turks,seeing the Suvla Bay advance, were alert and expecting an attack. As the New Zealanders charged forward they were met by intense, accurate Turkish Fire. Lt Gordon Harper noticed his sergeant,
George Ferguson, cracking jokes with the men as they waited for the artillery to lift. “His body was the first we had to jump over as we left the parapet. His South African ribbons were still on his breast”.
Just before one of these attacks a New Zealander was approached by his closest friend, who, white and trembling, confined that he was afraid.Just before one of these attacks a New Zealander was approached by his
Last updated : 01/12/06