Lone Pine
The Australians attacked the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine in the late afternoon of 6 August 1915. They had a rare victory at Lone Pine, but at great cost. After four days, in an area the size of two football fields, 2000 Australians and 7000 Turks lay dead. Fighting was intense and close, often hand-to-hand. It was at Lone Pine that Charles Bean recorded an Australian soldier's poignant request, 'Can you find room for me beside Jim here? Him and me are mates an' we're going over together'. Seven of the 10 Victoria Cross medals awarded Australians for bravery at Gallipoli were won at Lone Pine.
Charles Bean's article on the 6 August offensive at Gallipoli recounts many of the events of battle as Bean witnessed them, but also gives us an insight into the censorship to which every despatch from Gallipoli was subject. Though we know that the 6 August offensive was one of the bloodiest and most wasteful of the Gallipoli campaigns, Bean's account falls short of conveying the true horror or failure experienced by the troops during battle, as such details were not allowed.



