Battle of Scimitar Hill The Battle of Scimitar Hill ( " Yusufçuk Tepe " ( Dragonfly Hill ) ) was the last offensive mounted by the British at Suvla during the Battle of Gallipoli in World War I . It was also the largest single - day attack ever mounted by the Allies at Gallipoli , involving three divisions . The purpose of the attack was to remove the immediate Ottoman threat from the exposed Suvla landing and to link with the Anzac sectors to the south . Launched on August 21 , 1915 , to coincide with the simultaneous attack on Hill 60 , it was a costly failure , in which the Turks were forced to use all their reserves in " severe and bloody fighting " far into the night , with some Turkish trenches lost and retaken twice . Prelude . Paralysis had set in to the British campaign in the Dardanelles after repeated failures to advance at Helles on the tip of the peninsula since the original 25 April landings . In August a new offensive , known as the Battle of Sari Bair , was opened at Suvla in an attempt to regain the initiative from the Ottomans . Two divisions of Lieutenant - General Sir Frederick Stopford ' s IX Corps were landed at Suvla on the night of 6 August while a simultaneous breakout was made from the long - stagnant Anzac sector to the south of Suvla . Scimitar Hill , so named because of its curved summit , and the neighbouring W Hills to the south were part of the Anafarta Spur that marked the southern edge of the Suvla sector . Their capture had originally been first - day ( 7 August ) objectives but General Stopford was exceedingly hesitant about making any major advances without artillery support . Consequently the troops of the British 11th ( Northern ) Division ( which had made the initial landing on the night of 6 August ) and the 10th ( Irish ) Division ( which had landed the following morning ) did not advance from the immediate environs of the beach until 8 August , by which time they were already exhausted from lack of water and being under constant shrapnel and sniper fire . On the morning of 9 August , the British made their first effort to advance towards the high ground to the east , a ridge called Tekke Tepe . Scimitar Hill , which guarded the approach to this ridge from the southwest along the Anafarta Spur , had been captured unopposed by the 6th Battalion , The East Yorkshire Regiment , on 8 August but was then abandoned . The British attempted to recapture the hill on 9 August and in the intense fighting it changed hands a number of times before the British were forced off around midday . Despite the arrival of reinforcements in the form of the 53rd ( Welsh ) Division on 9 August and the 54th ( East Anglian ) Division on 10 August , any hopes the British had of a swift victory at Suvla were now gone as the Ottomans consolidated their hold on the surrounding ridges . On 10 August the 53rd Division made another attack at Scimitar Hill , which was another massive failure for the British and effectively ruined the division as a fighting unit within two days of its landing . The 21 August battle . On 15 August Stopford was sacked and Major - General Beauvoir De Lisle , commander of the 29th Division , was made temporary commander of IX Corps until Lieutenant - General Julian Byng could be sent from France . De Lisle abandoned any immediate thoughts of a major offensive — preparations for a major push by the 54th Division had been made at great cost but little effect on 12 August . Instead , he intended to secure the ground he held and make a strong link to Anzac to the south , where , as at Suvla , the original August objectives had proven unreachable . This required the capture of Scimitar Hill , the W Hills and Hill 60 . To make the attack from Suvla , De Lisle had the dismounted yeomanry of the 2nd Mounted Division and the 29th Division , which had moved from Helles where it had already borne the brunt of the fighting since the initial landings of 25 April . The plan for 21 August was to attack Scimitar Hill with the 29th Division and the W Hills with the 11th Division , keeping the yeomanry in reserve near the beach . As was so often the case at Gallipoli , the preliminary artillery barrage looked impressive but achieved little . The British had no sight of their targets , which were obscured by mist and smoke , whereas the Ottoman artillery had a clear view of the entire Suvla battlefield and ample opportunity to register their targets . The 11th Division ' s attempt to capture the W Hills collapsed in confusion when confronted by an Ottoman strongpoint and artillery fire . As a consequence when the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers managed to capture the summit of Scimitar Hill , they found themselves under fire from the defenders higher up the Anafarta Spur to the east and from the W Hills to the south . The Irish retreated from the summit while the undergrowth around them was set ablaze by the shellfire , incinerating the wounded as they lay helpless . Around the troops of the 2nd Mounted Division were ordered forward from their reserve position on Lala Baba , near the beach . They advanced , marching in formation , across the bed of a dry salt lake . By this time the air was clouded by mist and smoke so that they had little idea of where they were going . The of the five brigade s formed in columns by regiment and , marching in extended order , were easy targets for the shrapnel . Most of them halted in the cover of Green Hill , west of Scimitar Hill but Brigadier - General Lord Longford , led his 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade in a charge over Green Hill and up to the summit of Scimitar Hill . Continuing on , Lord Longford was cut off and killed . The yeomanry too were driven from the summit . The attack at Scimitar Hill on 21 August was the last attempt by the British to advance at Suvla . The front line remained between Green Hill and Scimitar Hill for the remainder of the campaign until the evacuation on 20 December . Aftermath . Casualties . In one day of fighting the British suffered 5 , 300 casualties out of the 14 , 300 soldiers who participated . Victoria Cross . The only two Victoria Cross es awarded at Suvla were made for rescuing of wounded at Scimitar Hill , one on 9 August by Captain Percy Hansen and the other following the 21 August battle by Private Frederick Potts .