the first "hotel de charme" on the Gallipoli peninsula
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The inscriptions (translated) on the panels at the Scimitar Hill Memorial read as follows:
Panel 2
At the end of the first battle of Anafarta, on the 12th. of August 1915,
Turkish forces under the command of Colonel Mustafa Kemal, commander of the
Anafarta group, defeated the enemy forces and drove them back to the line of
Kireçtepe and Mestantepe (Chocolate & Green Hills)
Panel 3
At the end of the second battle of Anafarta, ( August 21st. and 22nd. 1915),
which was fought by large forces on both sides, the enemys assault strength
was broken on the line of Sivritepe (Sharp Hill) and Mestantepe. This battle
resulted in Turkish casualties of 8,155 and enemy casualties of 19,850.
This point, the centre of the Turkish 12th
Division's front, was crucial in the struggle to control the Anafartalar
(Suvla) sector during the campaign.
Throughout August, British troops repeatedly sought to push on and beyond this
point, although they briefly managed to capture the hill on August 8, August 9
and August 21, it was retaken every time due to the determined resistance of
Colonel Mustafa Kemal and the counterattacks of the Turkish soldiers under his
command. The British attack on Scimitar Hill and İsmailoğlutepe (Son of
İsmail Hill) on August 21, utilising a force of three brigades and one full
division, a total of 30.000 troops, was the single greatest action of the
Gallipoli Campaign at a single point. At the end of this great battle,
during which the British suffered 5300 casualities and the Turkish side 2600,
the Turks still held the two hills.
"Gallipoli Battlefield Guide", (Istanbul 2006), Gürsel Göncü & Şahin Aldoğan, p. 133
Panel 1
The enemy forces who landed at Anafarta Port (Suvla) on the 7th. of August
1915, faced weak reconnaissance units and went as far as the Ismailoglu and
Yusufçuk Hills (W Hills & Scimitar Hill) in order to surround the Turkish
forces on the Ariburnu (Anzac) front.
Scimitar Hill
became a Golgotha, and its name a synonym for massacre.
The Suvla Bay
Landing (London,
1964),
John Hargrave, p. 160