The primary aim of the British IX Corps was to establish a base at Suvla
which could be used to supply the northern sector through the winter. The
British aimed also to capture the surrounding semicircle of the Kirectepe
and Tekketepe ranges which overlooked the proposed base areas on Suvla Plain.
On the night of 6 August the IX Corps landed just south of Nibrunesi Point using armoured, motorised landing craft. By the morning of 7 August over 20,000 men were ashore and Turkish resistance was negligible-they were opposed initially by about 1,500 Turks. But the landing force stalled on the beaches in confusion and disarray. The few units which advanced inland towards the foothills suffered in the heat from shortages of water and faltered under Turkish fire.
By the time an organised advance was attempted the Turks had brought up two divisions from Bulair in the north. On 9 August a single Turkish division of 6,000 men counter-attacked from Tekke Tepe. They routed the advancing British force who fled back across the plain, their wounded being consumed in scrub fires started by intense machine-gun fire. By 10 August the Turks held the principal heights and the British had suffered nearly 8,000 casualties. The front lines settled into positions which would remain substantially unchanged until the evacuation.
There are five significant cemeteries and memorials at Suvla, most of them on or near the prominent hills. Four Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries contain the remains of over 5,000 dead, more than half of whom are unknown. Little remains of the piers and other works constructed at the Suvla Base and landing beaches. The best access to Suvla is by the extension of the shore road from Anzac Cove (dry weather road only) or by the signposted road opposite the turnoff to Hill 60 cemetery.
Scimitar Hill was a vital key to the Turkish defences as it overlooked Suvla to the north and west and the British positions on the lower hills of the Anafartalar Plain. On 21 August the British launched an attack on Scimitar Hill which in terms of the numbers engaged was the largest battle fought in the Gallipoli campaign. The hill was repeatedly captured and lost under heavy Turkish fire until the British finally abandoned the attempt. British forces suffered over 5,000 casualties; Turkish losses were 2,600. Yusufcuktepe Memorial on Scimitar Hill commemorates the Turkish victory.
Green Hill Cemetery contains 2,971 graves, 2,196 of them unidentified, many of them British soldiers who died in the fierce battle of Scimitar Hill on 21 August.
Lala Baba Cemetery is located on the site of the first attack made by the British at the Suvla landing on 6 August. It contains the graves of 216 British soldiers.
Hill 10 Cemetery, on the north shore of the dry Salt Lake (now a fish farm), was one of the first defended positions captured by the British on 7 August. It contains 699 graves.
Azmak Cemetery is the most northerly and isolated cemetery on Gallipoli. Amongst its 1,074 graves lie the unidentified remains of the 'missing battalion', the 1/5th Norfolk Regiment's Sandringham Company. This Territorial unit of 16 officers and 250 other ranks was cut off and completely wiped out in an attack on Tekke Tepe on 12 August. Their skeletons were found after the war, unburied, still facing the Turkish positions where they fell almost 2 kilometres in front of the British front line.
 Australians of the Royal Naval Bridging train at Suvla bay, August 1915. This unit constructed piers and harbours in Suvla Bay. |