page_title: Battle for Baby 700
section_title: Strategic situation
hierarchical_section_title: Battle for Baby 700 / Background / Strategic situation
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 for Baby 700, was an engagement fought during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War, between the forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
  On 25 April 1915, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, conducted an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The landing at Anzac Cove was supposed to capture Baby 700, on the third ridge from the Aegean coast on the first day, but Turkish opposition being stronger than expected foiled their plans and they were forced to form a defensive perimeter on the second ridge. Having successfully defended against a Turkish counter-attack on 27 April, they realised it would strengthen their position if they captured Baby 700. The operation was given to the New Zealand and Australian Division, their then strongest formation, supported by the 1st Royal Naval Brigade.
  The attack proved a costly failure for the British Empire forces, after the New Zealand troops on the left flank were delayed, resulting in the main assault by the Australians becoming pinned down.
context_section_description: Baby 700 is a hill in the Sari Bair range, between Russell's Top and Battleship Hill, on the third ridge from the Aegean coast. It was named after its supposed height above sea level, but its actual height was only 590 feet (180 m). The Turkish name for the hill was Kilic Bayir. The most direct route to there from the present ANZAC lines was a distance of 350 yards (320 m) from Russell's Top through The Nek, a twenty-yard (18 m) piece of high ground between Malone's Gully to the north and Monash Valley to the south.
  During the Landing at Anzac Cove, Baby 700 was supposed to have been secured by the 3rd Australian Brigade. However, heavy Turkish resistance had forced the brigade commander, Colonel Ewen Sinclair-Maclagan, to instead stop and form a defence line on the second ridge. This left Baby 700 in Turkish hands, providing them with a dominant position overlooking the ANZAC beachhead. That and their other positions at Russell's Top, The Nek and the head of Monash Valley, provided them with a distinct advantage, over the ANZACs. To such an extent that the ANZAC posts along the south-west side of Monash Valley (Quinn's, Steel's, Courtney's) had Turkish trenches to their front and rear.
  When they landed over the night of 25/26 April, the 4th Australian Brigade had occupied the posts along Monash Valley. The men defending Quinn's Post were overlooked from the Chessboard on the left, and from the German Officers' Ridge to the right. The Turkish lines were only fifty yards (46 m) to their front. While the men at Pope's Hill on the opposite slope of Monash Valley, had  Turkish positions along Dead Man's Ridge only one hundred yards (91 m) to their rear. At this early stage of the campaign the ANZACs lines were a series of intermittent trenches and posts with large gaps between them which allowed Turkish snipers to daily infiltrate their rear areas. A strong Turkish counter-attack against Anzac Cove was launched on 27 April by Ottoman troops occupying the high ground around Chunuk Bair. Following this, it was decided that to make the positions around Monash Valley safe that Baby 700 and those positions overlooking the valley had to be captured.
caption: Anzac beachhead plateaus and ridges
exif: {}