page_title: New Zealand and Australian Division
section_title: Consolidation at Anzac Cove
hierarchical_section_title: New Zealand and Australian Division / History / Consolidation at Anzac Cove
caption_attribution_description: English: Map depicting unit positions and movements during fighting around Baby 700 at Gallipoli, May 1915
context_page_description: The New Zealand and Australian Division was a composite army division raised for service in the First World War under the command of Major General Alexander Godley. Consisting of several mounted and standard infantry brigades from both New Zealand and Australia, it served in the Gallipoli Campaign between April and December 1915.
  At Gallipoli, the division landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, coming ashore as follow-on troops to the initial assault force that had made it ashore earlier in the day, and later occupied the northern areas of the Allied lodgement. After the initial Allied assault at Anzac Cove, elements of the division were sent to Cape Helles in early May, where they participated in the Second Battle of Krithia, launching an unsuccessful attack towards the Achi Baba peak. The division's mounted units were sent to Gallipoli in mid-May without their horses, to serve as dismounted infantry, making up for previous losses. Later that month, the division helped repel an Ottoman counter-attack at Anzac Cove, after which it occupied the line until August, when the Allies launched an offensive designed to break the deadlock.
context_section_description: In the second week after the landing, efforts were made to straighten the Allied line, to prevent a salient from forming between Pope's Hill and Quinn's Post. Godley was ordered to recapture Baby 700, which was considered a key feature of the northern perimeter, allowing the Ottoman troops observation and fields of fire down important Allied avenues of approach. On 1 May, an Ottoman counter-attack was held off, and at 7:00 pm the following night, the division launched its attack on the left flank: the Canterbury Battalion around Walker's and the Otago Battalion around Pope's, tasked with maintaining contact with the Australian 4th Brigade, which was to advance around the far end of Monash Gully (sometimes also called Shrapnel Gully). Under Colonel Francis Johnston, who had been ill during the landing and had temporarily deferred his command to Walker, the New Zealand Infantry Brigade was tasked with assaulting the western aspect of Baby 700, while the Australians rushed the southern slope.
  Commencing at 7:15 pm, the two Australian assault battalions – the 13th and 16th – were only able to push forward about 100 yards (91 m), while the Otago Battalion was held up on its 3-mile (4.8 km) approach march from Walker's and were delayed by 90 minutes. Lacking artillery support to suppress the Ottoman defenders, upon their arrival the Otago Battalion took heavy fire.  Almost half the battalion became casualties, but they managed to secure some of the lower parts of the feature, holding on overnight even though the Canterbury Battalion's attack was checked and turned back, having been hampered by poor maps and unfamiliarity with night attacks. Throughout the night, Ottoman troops attacked the Otago Battalion with grenades. At midnight, a company from the Australian 15th Battalion was pushed forward into the gap that had formed between the Otago Battalion and the Australian 13th. The following day a brief counter-attack was launched by the Ottomans, but the Anzac defensive line  held, after which marines from the Royal Naval Division launched an attack between Quinn's and Pope's around Dead Man's Ridge, which was unsuccessful and resulted in heavy casualties. By the morning of 3 May, Dead Man's Ridge was firmly under Ottoman control. 
  The failure of the second attempt to take Baby 700 marked the end of the first phase of the fighting around Anzac Cove. Following this, the most forward part of the Anzac line was Quinn's Post. Having been occupied initially on the first day of the landing by troops from the Australian 4th Brigade, the position allowed Allied troops to move between several positions without observation. However, the Ottoman position around Dead Man's Ridge offered them a good firing position into the rear of the Allied position at Quinn's, and necessitated heavy sandbagging along the tracks to protect those moving up to the position. As a result, New Zealand engineers worked to build sandbag walls to protect the tracks around Quinn's, and to dig a sap trench to advance the Allied firing line.
caption: Map depicting final positions of Australian and New Zealand troops at the end of the fighting around Baby 700
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