hill 60

"A view over the trenches at hill 60. A dead man lies on one of the mounds of earth." period picture reproduced from "Gallipoli, a guide to New Zealand battlefields and memorials", (Auckland 2004), Ian McGibbon, p. 109.

After the debacle of the August offensive, commanders began tidying house, straightening the lines, making maps look neater, and in the process became obsessed with the obscure Turkish elevation, hardly even a hill, but nevertheless known as Hill 60. By late August it was seen as an impediment to safe movement between Anzac Cove and the British positions established at Suvla Bay. But their was another motive for an assault on Hill 60. General Sir Ian Hamilton had just shocked Britain's politicians by calling for another hundred thousand men; he was in need of a success to report. But now the British high command seemed to have forgotten what the campaign was about -the seizing of the Dardanelles, the silencing of Turkey, the relieving of the pressure on Russia. All those powerful aspirations were gone. British thinking narrowed to the capture of this totally insignificant, altogether worthless pimple on the Gallipoli peninsula.

"Voices of Gallipoli", (Auckland 1988), Maurice Shadbolt, p. 120