The Nek
A series of smaller feints were launched on the morning of 7 August 1915, including the battle of the Nek, in which well over half of the Australian attacking forces became casualties. This battle featured in the 1981 film Gallipoli with Mel Gibson. Two regiments of the Australian Light Horse mounted an attack on Baby 700. The Nek is a narrow strip leading to Baby 700 Hill. At the time, the Anzac trenches were at its base. The Light Horsemen had left their horses in Egypt and fought as infantrymen. They were to be backed as they made their assault on the Turks by a naval bombardment and by New Zealanders attacking from the rear. Those who conceived the strategy had not taken account of the impenetrable terrain that would confront the New Zealanders, who were delayed by a day in taking up position. A failure to synchronise watches meant the naval bombardment stopped seven minutes before the first wave of soldiers went over the top of their trenches and they were slaughtered. Further confusion meant the attack was not aborted until four more groups of soldiers had gone to their deaths.
Other August assaults at Anzac were more successful, although they, too, incurred high casualties. In spite of difficulties that severely slowed the progress of the attack, the New Zealanders held the hill of Chunuk Bair above Anzac Cove for two days from 8 August before succumbing to a counterattack led by the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Bey. This action helped establish Kemal's reputation and contributed to him becoming the first leader of modern Turkey after the war.

![Sheltering from bursting shells, [showing three Anzac soldiers huddled together sheltering in a shallow trench] [between June and August 1915]](images/pic-an23297150-t.jpg)
