Battle of Lone Pine - Aftermath

Aftermath

The fighting was "some of the fiercest" the Australians experienced during the campaign to that point. The ground captured during the battle amounted to a total of about 150 metres (160 yd) across a 300-metre (330 yd) front. Amidst scenes of considerable devastation, the Australian divisional commander, Walker, believed the result "disastrous". The higher commanders believed it to have been a tactical success, however, with Hamilton describing it as a "desperate fine feat". Though a tactical victory for the Australians in terms of the fact that they remained in possession of the ground captured, and had managed to draw off some Turkish reinforcements nevertheless the wider repercussions of the attack at Lone Pine weighed heavily on the outcome at Chunuk Bair. Sent north to reinforce Lone Pine, due to the effectiveness of the Australian attack, Kannengiesser's 9th Division was directed instead to proceed on to Chunuk Bair where, at the time there was only one Turkish artillery battery and a covering force of 20 infantrymen. His force arrived in time to seriously delay the New Zealand attack, and ultimately the wider offensive of which the battle was a part failed. Afterwards, a stalemate situation developed on the Gallipoli peninsula although there were brief periods of localised fighting. In September, the troops of the Australian 1st Division who had taken the position at Lone Pine were relieved by the 23rd and 24th Battalions.

Dominated by the heights of Baby 700, the position was regularly shelled and was subsequently described by one Australian soldier, Trooper Ion Idriess, as "the most dangerous spot" in the Australian lodgement and it ultimately proved a "liability" for the troops tasked with holding it. Opposed by troops from the Turkish 47th Regiment, for the remaining three months of the campaign, the two Australian battalions would alternate their positions in the front line as the Turks and Australians engaged in mining and countermining operations against each other's positions. The stalemate continued as both the Australians and Turks lacked the strength to mount a determined attack and this situation ultimately lasted until the Allied evacuation in December 1915.

In most sources, Turkish losses are estimated at between 5,000–6,000, although Kenan Celik from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, has placed their losses as high as 7,164, broken down as 1,520 killed, 4,700 wounded, 760 listed as missing and 134 captured by the Australians. These included the commanding officers of both the 47th and 15th Regiments. Of the Australian force that had launched the attack, almost half became casualties. Australian losses during the battle amounted to 2,277 men killed or wounded, out of the total 4,600 men committed to the fighting over the course of the battle. These represent some of the highest casualties of the campaign. The toll was particularly heavy amongst the Australian officers; both the commanding officers of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were killed leading their troops. After the battle, the dead were so thick on the ground that one Australian, Captain Harold Jacobs of the 1st Battalion, remarked "he trench is so full of our dead that the only respect that we could show them was not to tread on their faces, the floor of the trench was just one carpet of them, this in addition to the ones we piled into Turkish dugouts." Later, over 1,000 dead were removed from Australian position to be hastily buried.

Seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions during the fighting at Lone Pine, including four men from the 7th Battalion, which had been rushed forward to help relieve the 1st Brigade at the height of the Turkish counterattacks. One of the recipients was Corporal William Dunstan, who after the war became the general manager of The Herald newspaper in Melbourne. Another VC recipient was Captain Alfred Shout who had already earned the Military Cross and been Mentioned in Despatches earlier in the Gallipoli campaign. He was mortally wounded at Lone Pine and was later buried at sea. The other VC recipients were Privates Leonard Keysor and John Hamilton, Corporal Alexander Burton and Lieutenants Frederick Tubb and William Symons.

Following the war, an Australian military historical mission was sent to Gallipoli led by Charles Bean. On Bean's advice the Australian government sought permission from the newly formed Turkish Republic to establish an official war cemetery in the area. In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified, and through its provisions the Lone Pine cemetery was established in the area dubbed the Daisy Patch by the Australians. There are a total of 1,167 graves in the cemetery and as of 2012, the identities of 471 bodies interned in the cemetery remain unknown. Also standing within the cemetery's grounds is the Lone Pine memorial. It is the main Australian and New Zealand memorial at Gallipoli and commemorates all the Australian and some of the New Zealanders who died during the campaign, including those who have no known grave and those buried at sea.

As a result of the battle's significance to the Australians, Lone Pine is the site of the annual Australian Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli. After the service Australian visitors congregate at the memorial to remember all their countrymen who fought and died at Gallipoli. At the New Zealand National World War I Museum, there is an exhibit for the Battle of Lone Pine, and there is also one in the Australian War Memorial. Memorial "Lone Pine" trees have also been planted in Australia, New Zealand and Gallipoli to commemorate the battle and the Gallipoli campaign in general, seeded from specimens taken from Gallipoli. There are also many places in Australia named after the battle.