Two names. Two battles. One legend. At Chunuk Bair and Lone Pine, ANZAC soldiers faced hell on earth and forged a legacy that still shapes Australia and New Zealand more than a century later.
They climbed in darkness and fought in blood. In August 1915, on the rugged hills of Gallipoli, New Zealanders stormed Chunuk Bair while Australians clashed hand-to-hand in the trenches of Lone Pine. These weren’t just battles....they were crucibles. From the smoke, terror, and sacrifice, the ANZAC spirit emerged: fierce, loyal, unyielding. Though separated by ridges, Chunuk Bair and Lone Pine stand together in memory as the defining moments of courage, tragedy, and national identity.
Chunuk Bair is one of the most iconic and sacred sites for New Zealanders in the story of the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). It stands as a symbol of national identity forged through sacrifice, courage, and tragedy during the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I.
This strategic hilltop on the Gallipoli Peninsula overlooked the battlefield and the Dardanelles Strait - making it a vital objective in the Allies’ attempts to break through the Ottoman lines. In early August 1915, the Allies launched the August Offensive, a last-ditch effort to seize the high ground. The New Zealand Infantry Brigade, under Brigadier General Francis Earl Johnston, was tasked with capturing Chunuk Bair.
The New Zealanders’ route was among the steepest and most treacherous; dense with thorny scrub, narrow ridges, and enemy snipers. They advanced by night through tangled gullies like Rhododendron Ridge. At dawn on 8 August, the Wellington Battalion, led by Lieutenant Colonel William Malone, captured the summit and held it under relentless counterattacks by Turkish forces commanded by the brilliant Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk). Of the roughly 760 men in the Wellington Battalion, just 70 remained standing when they were relieved two days later.
Malone, a farmer and lawyer from Taranaki, refused to send his men into a suicidal daylight attack, insisting they wait for nightfall .... a defiant act of leadership that likely spared many lives, at least temporarily. He was later killed by friendly fire, likely from a British naval shell. His steadfastness and sacrifice has made him a legendary figure in New Zealand military history.
Chunuk Bair was never fully secured.
It was one of the few moments in the Gallipoli Campaign where Allied victory seemed within reach. The broader operation was under British General Sir Alexander Godley, who commanded from far behind the lines. His overly complex orders expected exhausted troops to scale uncharted ridges at night. When delays and confusion inevitably set in, he refused to adapt. Even after the summit was taken, he failed to reinforce the position adequately.
In the chaos, Australian Colonel Johnston reportedly issued a call to halt just as momentum was building, another hesitation that allowed Turkish forces to regroup. What might have been a breakthrough dissolved into yet another heartbreaking loss, compounded by decisions made too far from the ground to feel it shake beneath their feet.
It is no surprise, then, that the Turks retook the position within days. Yet the courage of the New Zealanders became legend. Chunuk Bair was one of the few times Allied troops reached their objectives on the Sari Bair range. For New Zealanders, the hill is now hallowed ground. Every ANZAC Day, commemorations are held there. The New Zealand Memorial at Chunuk Bair honours all who died in Gallipoli, especially the 850 New Zealanders lost during the August Offensive.
Meanwhile, at the same time, across the ridges at Lone Pine, Australian forces launched a diversionary assault. What began as a feint turned into one of the most savage battles of the campaign. The Turkish trenches were not just dugouts but fortified with pine logs, forming roofed-over bunkers that Australian troops had to tear apart under fire. What followed was a brutal, close-quarters battle fought with bayonets, rifle butts, fists..whatever could be wielded in the blood-choked dark.
Over four days, the fighting raged through a morbid warren of tunnels and trenches. Corpses piled up so thickly that men fought knee-deep in the dead. The air stank of rot and cordite, thick with flies and the screams of the wounded.
Despite horrific losses, the Australians captured and held Lone Pine. Seven Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions there - more than in any other battle of the Gallipoli campaign. Lone Pine remains a sacred name in Australian military history, not just for its strategic value but for the sheer grit and courage shown by ordinary men in unthinkable conditions.
Chunuk Bair and Lone Pine, though geographically separated by only a few ridges, offered starkly different landscapes of war. One was fought in the open air, the other underground. One was lost, the other held. Yet both have become enduring symbols of the ANZAC legend: courage under fire, mateship amidst madness, and the quiet heroism of men who did their duty without fanfare.
More than a century later, these battles remain etched in the national consciousness of Australia and New Zealand. They are not just stories of military engagement, but moments when two young nations proved their mettle on the world stage...at terrible cost.
As the dawn breaks each ANZAC Day, the names of Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair are whispered once more into the morning silence, carried on the wind like the ghosts of men who never stopped fighting.
Lest We Forget.
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