A PIECE of ANZAC history has made its way to Townsville on the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. One of the fiercest battles during the ANZAC military engagement at Gallipoli was the Battle of Lone Pine, August 6-9, 1915.
A Lone Pine tree grown from seeds of the original Aleppo Pines at Gallipoli was presented to the North Queensland President of the RSL, Steve Sergeant by the State President, Terry Meehan, AM, at the Townsville Cenotaph last Wednesday.
"All the trees at Gallipoli were cut down to cover and line trenches except one single Aleppo Pine and where it stood became known as Lone Pine Ridge," Mr Meehan said.
"The fact that we have kept the memory of the Gallipoli campaign alive through a tough old tree speaks volumes about the meaning Australians attach to that Campaign," he added.
"This Lone Pine, with a commemorative plaque, is one way RSL Queensland can remind Australians of the incredible sacrifice and resolve of those brave men who took part in the military engagement which marked our coming of age as a nation.''
According to official records the Battle of Lone Pine was originally intended as a diversion from attempts by New Zealand and Australian units to force a breakout from the ANZAC perimeter on the heights of Chunuk Bair and Hill 971. There were 2000 ANZACS were killed during the three day offensive.
The attack was launched by the 1st Brigade AIF in the late afternoon of August 6th, 1915 and pitched Australian forces against formidable entrenched Turkish positions, sections of which were securely roofed over with pine logs.
In some instances the attackers had to break in through the roof of the trench systems in order to engage the defenders. The main Turkish trench was taken within 20 minutes of the initial charge but this was the prelude to days of intense hand-to-hand fighting, resulting in over 2000 Australian casualties.
In many respects Lone Pine was a battle of the 'bombs'. The Turks, according to official historian Charles Bean, seemed to have an 'inexhaustible supply' of their cricket-ball style bombes and they had been well trained in throwing them. The Anzacs had come ashore without any kind of 'bomb' so a 'bomb factory' was hastily.
This "factory" consisted of a group of Australian soldiers creating make-shift grenades from empty ration tins which they filled with stones, bits of metal and a detonator attached to a short length of fuse.
