rhododendron ridge

the first authentic hotel on the Gallipoli peninsula

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The Wellingtons manned the Apex with the Otagos. Lieutenant Colonel Hart wrote: "I am surrounded by a perfect maze of trenches, the front lines on three sides of my bivouac being only 25 yards distant, and the Turk trenches a further 49 yards away. Three or four times a day I run along the firing line to ensure that all is correct and everyone alert."

Rifle fire, shelling and bombing go on incessantly day and night, but one hardly notices it except during occasional heavy bursts"

"Gallipoli, The New Zealand Story", (Auckland 1998),  Christopher Pugsley, p. 334

"New Zealanders in the trenches on Rhododendron, Autumn 1915".period picture reproduced from "Gallipoli Mission", (Crows Nest 1990), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 234

Members of the Wellington Battalion’s machine-gun section at the Apex, following the offensive.  Robert William Dyer is in the foreground.", period picture reproduced from "Gallipoli, a guide to New Zealand battlefields and memorials", (Auckland 2004), Ian McGibbon, p. 66

Northern Anzac sector. A prominent spur running westwards off Chunuk Bair, between the Chailak Dere to the north, and the Sazli Beit Dere to the south. The point on the spur nearest Chunuk Bair was known as 'The Apex'. This was the main route along which the New Zealanders and British units attacked and for a time held the summit of Chunuk Bair during the August offensive, before eventually being forced back to the Apex.

Information reproduced from the "Gallipoli" website of the late Jul Snelders, a true "Gallipolian".

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