page_title: Landing at Anzac Cove
section_title: Turkish reaction
hierarchical_section_title: Landing at Anzac Cove / Anzac Cove / Turkish reaction
caption_attribution_description: English: Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) at the trenches of Gallipoli during the First World War.
context_page_description: The landing at Anzac Cove on Sunday, 25 April 1915, also known as the landing at Gaba Tepe, and to the Turks as the Arıburnu Battle, was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula by the forces of the British Empire, which began the land phase of the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War.
  The assault troops, mostly from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, landed at night on the western side of the peninsula. They were put ashore one mile north of their intended landing beach. In the darkness, the assault formations became mixed up, but the troops gradually made their way inland, under increasing opposition from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. Not long after coming ashore the ANZAC plans were discarded, and the companies and battalions were thrown into battle piece-meal, and received mixed orders. Some advanced to their designated objectives while others were diverted to other areas, then ordered to dig in along defensive ridge lines.
  Although they failed to achieve their objectives, by nightfall the ANZACs had formed a beachhead, albeit much smaller than intended. In places they were clinging onto cliff faces with no organised defence system.
context_section_description: At 05:45, Lieutenant-Colonel Mehmet Sefik of the Turkish 27th Infantry Regiment received orders to move his 1st and 3rd Battalions to the west and support the 2nd Battalion around Gaba Tepe. The two battalions were already assembled, having spent that night carrying out military exercises. They could not be sent to Ari Burnu as it was not marked on the Turkish maps. Colonel Halil Sami, commanding the 9th Division, also ordered the division's machine-gun company and an artillery battery to move in support of the 27th Infantry Regiment, followed soon after by an 77 mm artillery battery. At 08:00 Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal, commanding the 19th Division, was ordered to send a battalion to support them. Kemal instead decided to go himself with the 57th Infantry Regiment and an artillery battery towards Chunuk Bair, which he realised was the key point in the defence; whoever held those heights would dominate the battlefield. By chance, the 57th Infantry were supposed to have been on an exercise that morning around Hill 971 and had been prepared since 05:30, waiting for orders.
  At 09:00 Sefik and his two battalions were approaching Kavak Tepe, and made contact with his 2nd Battalion that had conducted a fighting withdrawal, and an hour and a half later the regiment was deployed to stop the ANZACs advancing any further. Around 10:00 Kemal arrived at Scrubby Knoll and steadied some retreating troops, pushing them back into a defensive position. As they arrived, the 57th Infantry Regiment were given their orders and prepared to counter-attack. Scrubby Knoll, known to the Turks as Kemalyeri (Kemal's Place), now became the site of the Turkish headquarters for the remainder of the campaign.
caption: Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal (left), whose actions as commander of the Turkish 19th Division won him lasting fame.
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