Battle for Scimitar Hill

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Battle for Scimitar Hill
Map of the Dardanelles
Map of the Dardanelles
date August 21, 1915
place Suvla, Gallipoli , Ottoman Empire
output Turkish victory
Parties to the conflict

United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom

Ottoman Empire 1844Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

Commander

United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle

Ottoman Empire 1844Ottoman Empire Mustafa Kemal

Troop strength
14,300
losses

5,300

2,600

The Battle of Scimitar Hill , Yusufçuk Tepe in Turkish , was the last offensive of the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force near Suvla . It took place on August 21, 1915 as part of the Gallipoli expedition during the First World War on the Suvla front - at the same time as the attack at Height 60 on the ANZAC front.

It was the largest attack in a single day in the entire Gallipoli expedition. Three British divisions took part in it.

The aim of the attack was to eliminate the immediate Turkish threat to the Suvla landing zone and to achieve alliance with the ANZAC sector further south. Both offensives, the Battle of Scimitar Hill and the Battle of Height 60, ended as loss-making failures for the attackers.

Starting position

Attack by the 3rd Light Horse Brigade on August 7, 1915

The British Dardanelles Campaign had come to a standstill after several attempts to advance and shift the front inland after the original landing at Cape Helles , on the extreme southwest tip of the peninsula. To regain the initiative, an offensive known as the Battle of Sarı Bayır was launched in August . Two divisions of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stopfords IX. Corps landed in Suvla Bay on the night of August 6, while at the same time an attempt to break out of Anzac Bay, south of Suvla, had been made, the course of which had been stagnating for a long time.

The scimitar height got its name because of the sickle-shaped curvature of its summit, which reminded the British of a scimitar , a Turkish curved sword . They and the W heights to the south were part of the Anafarta foothills that formed the southern boundary of the Suvla sector. Taking these heights was actually the stage goal of the first day of the August offensive (August 7th), but the goal was not achieved because of the extremely hesitant leadership of Stopford, who did not want to make any major forward movements without artillery support. As a result of this hesitation, the men of the 11th British ( Northern ) Division, who had landed first on the night of August 6, and of the 10th ( Irish ) Division, who had followed the next morning, until August 8th remained in the immediate vicinity of their landing zone. They were now exhausted and drained from the lack of water and from the constant shrapnel fire and the fire from Turkish snipers.

On the morning of August 9, the British had made the first attempt to advance against the Tekke Tepe ridge to the east. Scimitar Hill, which dominated the access to this ridge from the south-west, along the Anafarta foothills, had been captured without resistance by the 6th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment the day before, August 8, and then left again. The British had tried to retake it on August 9, after which it had changed hands several times in heavy fighting before the British were finally repulsed around noon. Although reinforcements in the form of the 53rd ( Welsh ) Division on August 9th and the 54th ( East Anglian ) Division on August 10th had been brought in, all hopes of the British for a quick victory at Suvla were dashed after the Turks succeeded was to consolidate their positions on the surrounding heights.

On August 10, the 53rd Division launched another attack on Scimitar Hill, which had also ended in a debacle for the British. After this failed attack, the division's losses were so great that - only two days after their landing - they were no longer fit for action.

The battle on August 21st

On August 15, Stopford had been relieved of his command and General Beauvoir de Lisle , the commander of the 29th Division , was temporarily in command of the IX. Corps received - until Lieutenant General Julian Byng , who had been Sir Ian Hamilton's preferred candidate from the start, should arrive from France. De Lisle gave up any immediate idea of ​​a major offensive after the 54th Division attempted it on August 12 with great losses but little success. Instead, he intended to secure the conquered territory and create a stable connection with the ANZAC in the south, whose goals of the August offensive had proven to be just as unattainable. This plan required the capture of Scimitar Hill, W Heights, and Height 60.

In order to be able to lead an attack from Suvla, de Lisle had planned parts of the 2nd Mounted Division ( Yeomanry , i.e. mounted militia) as infantry and the 29th Division, which had been moved here from Cape Helles and had been there since the landing on April 25 had borne the brunt of the battle.

The plan for August 21 was to attack Scimitar Hill with 29th Division and W Heights with 11th Division. The dismounted militia should remain as a reserve near the beach. As was so often the case during the Dardanelles campaign, the initial barrage of the artillery was impressive, but achieved little. The British had no direct view of their targets, which were obscured by fog and smoke, while the higher-lying Turkish artillery had a very good view of the entire Suvla battlefield and ample opportunity to spot their targets.

The attempt of the 11th Division to take the W-Heights collapsed when it came across a Turkish position and heavy artillery fire. As a result, the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was at the intersection of violent fire from the heights of the Anafarta Foothills to the east and the W Hills to the south when they managed to take the summit of Scimitar Hill. The Irish division was forced to withdraw from the summit when the undergrowth was set ablaze by shellfire. The helpless wounded lying inside were burned.

Around 5 p.m. the soldiers of the 2nd Mounted Division (General William Peyton ) received the order to leave their reserve positions near the beach at Lala Baba. They advanced in marching order across the bed of a dried up salt lake. Since the sky was covered with haze and clouds of smoke at the time, they could not see well where they were going. The 5,000 men of the five brigades, who marched in columns by regiment, were good targets for the Turkish shrapnel. After this acid test, most of the brigades stopped their advance in the shelter of the "Green Hill", called elevation, west of the Scimitar height. Only Brigadier General Lord Longford led his 2nd (South Midland) Brigade in an attack over the green hill towards Scimitar Summit. Lord Longford was eventually cut off from his troops and killed. The militia was thrown back from the summit.

Review

The British had suffered 5,300 casualties in a single day of fighting. Private Frederick Potts received the Victoria Cross that day for rescuing the wounded on Scimitar Hill. The only other cross awarded at Suvla was given to Captain Percy Hansen, a Dane, on August 9th for the same reason.

The attack on Scimitar Hill on August 21, 1915 was the last attempt by the British to advance the deadlocked front line at Suvla. After the failed attack, the front ran between Green Hill and Scimitar Hill and was not to be postponed until the evacuation on December 20.

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