Chunuk Bair (battle)

Battle of Chunuk Bair

Turkish POWs being escorted in Chunuk Bair

Date	7–19 August 1915
Location	Anzac, Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire
Result	Ottoman victory

Belligerents

British Empire

Ottoman Empire

Commanders and leaders

Alexander Godley

Mustafa Kemal Pasha
Hans Kannengießer

Strength

9,000–15,000 men

19th Division
9th Division
(20,000–30,000 men)

Casualties and losses

6,000
of 12,000–13,000

9,200
of 18,000

British Empire

The Battle of Chunuk Bair (Turkish: Conk Bayırı Muharebesi) was a World War I battle fought between the Ottoman defenders and troops of the British Empire. British units that reached the summit of Chunuk Bair early on 8 August 1915 to engage the Turks were the Wellington Battalion of the New Zealand and Australian Division, 7th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment and 8th Battalion, Welch Regiment of the 13th (Western) Division. The troops were reinforced in the afternoon by two squads of the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment, New Zealand and Australian Division. The first troops on summit were severely depleted by Ottoman return fire and were relieved at 10:30 pm on 8 August by the Otago Battalion (NZ), and the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment New Zealand and Australian Division. The New Zealand troops were relieved by 8:00 pm on 9 August by the 6th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, who were massacred and driven off the summit in the early morning of 10 August, by an Ottoman counter-attack led by Mustafa Kemal. The capture of Chunuk Bair, (Turkish: Çanak Bayır Basin Slope, now Conk Bayırı), the secondary peak of the Sari Bair range, was one of the two objectives of the Battle of Sari Bair, the British August Offensive at Anzac Cove and Suvla, to try to break the stalemate that the campaign had become. The capture of Chunuk Bair was the only success for the Allies of the campaign but it was fleeting as the position proved untenable. The Ottomans recaptured the peak for good a few days later.

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