page_title: Battle of Lone Pine
section_title: Terrain
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Lone Pine / Prelude / Terrain
caption_attribution_description: Map of the Anzac battlefield at en:Gallipoli depicting the main plateaus and ridges. Traced from marginal map in Ch.11, Vol. I "The Story of Anzac" of the en:Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 by en:C.E.W. Bean.
context_page_description: The Battle of Lone Pine was fought between Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and Ottoman Empire forces during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War, between 6 and 10 August 1915. The battle was part of a diversionary attack to draw Ottoman attention away from the main assaults being conducted by British, Indian and New Zealand troops around Sari Bair, Chunuk Bair and Hill 971, which became known as the August Offensive.
  At Lone Pine, the assaulting force, initially consisting of the Australian 1st Brigade, managed to capture the main trench line from the two Ottoman battalions that were defending the position in the first few hours of the fighting on 6 August. Over the next three days, the fighting continued as the Ottomans brought up reinforcements and launched numerous counterattacks in an attempt to recapture the ground they had lost. As the counterattacks intensified the ANZACs brought up two fresh battalions to reinforce their newly gained line. Finally, on 9 August the Ottomans called off any further attempts and by 10 August offensive action ceased, leaving the Allies in control of the position.
context_section_description: The Lone Pine battlefield was named for a solitary Turkish pine that stood there at the start of the fighting; The tree was also known by the Anzac soldiers as the "Lonesome Pine". The battlefield was situated near the centre of the eastern line of the Australian and New Zealand trenches around Anzac Cove on a rise known as "400 Plateau" that joined "Bolton's Ridge" to the south with the ridge along the east side of "Monash Valley" to the north. Being towards the southern end of the area around Anzac Cove, the terrain in the Lone Pine region was comparatively gentle and the opposing trenches were separated some distance with a flat no-man's land intervening. Due to its location relative to the beachhead and the shape of the intervening ground, Lone Pine's importance lay in the fact that its position provided a commanding view of the Australian and New Zealand rear areas. From the 400 Plateau it was possible to observe as far south as Gaba Tepe and its possession would have afforded the Ottomans the ability to place the approaches to the Second Ridge under fire, preventing the flow of reinforcements and supplies from the beachhead to the forward trenches.
  The main part of the Australian position at Lone Pine was centred on a feature known as "The Pimple", where a salient had developed at the point where the Australians' position was closest to the Ottoman line. To the east of the salient, opposite The Pimple, the Ottoman line extended from the head of a gully—known as "Owen's Gulley" by the Australians—south for 400 yards (370 m) towards the neck of Bolton's Ridge and continued south along a spur called "Sniper's Ridge". Because of the salient around The Pimple, the Ottomans had focused on developing the trenches along the flanks of the position more than the centre, and had placed the firing positions in the centre in depth in order to gain the advantage of being able to pour enfilade fire upon any attacking force. At the rear of the Ottoman line, near Owen's Gully, was a depression called "The Cup" that was not visible from the Australians' position on The Pimple. Despite overflights of the area by British reconnaissance aircraft in June, the Australians were unaware of The Cup's existence, and at the time of the attack they believed this area to be flat and to consist of further trench lines. In reality it was actually a reserve area where the Ottomans had established a regimental headquarters and sited a series of bivouacs in terraces and at the time of the attack there were large numbers of reinforcements camped there.
caption: The main features of the area surrounding Anzac Cove. Lone Pine lies on the south-west arm of the kidney-shaped 400 Plateau. "Johnson's Jolley" lies on the north-west arm of the 400 Plateau, while "Owen's Gulley" lies in the crook of the 400 Plateau. "Anderson Knoll" lies to the south-west, while Monash Valley lies to the north. "Gun Ridge" was also referred to as the "Third Ridge". "Legge Valley" lies in between Lone Pine and the "Anderson Knoll".[10]
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