Heading for Chunuk Bair

While all this was happening on the south flank, other Anzac troops were struggling in the impossible landscape N and NE of Ari Burnu. In this sector, the confusion was even greater : officers did not recognize their surroundings on their maps and units from different battalions had got hopelessly mixed up during the landing. After the initial rush up Plugge’s Plateau, which had been a very fast move, now a fragmented general movement inland was being organized much more slowly.

Lt Tulloch of the 11th and Captain Lalor of the 12^th Battalion, had landed with their men on North Beach, just N of Ari Burnu. As soon as they got out of their boats, they were fired at from the high ground above and from the direction of Fisherman’s Hut further north. They made for Walker’s Ridge close by and although they were still under fire, they somehow succeeded in clambering up the steep slope to Russell’s Top. Once there, they advanced until they reached the Nek, a narrow saddle that connected the small plateau to the slopes of Baby 700, the southernmost hill of the Sari Bair Ridge. As their orders for the first day stated that they were to try and capture the heights further up the ridge, Battleship Hill, Chunuk Bair and Kocha Cimentepe, they decided that Lalor and his men had better stay as a reserve, while Tulloch and his platoon would carry on to try and reach the summit of Battleship Hill, where a rendez-vous had been planned.

Soon after Tulloch had left, he got the company of another platoon, so that he had now some sixty men with him. Although they were continually fired at by Turkish troops on the ridges in front of them and suffered casualties, they made steady progress, until they reached a position on the inland slope of Battleship Hill. There, Tulloch was faced with a problem : at every hillcrest they had crossed so far, Turkish opposition had increased, and now he was facing a deep dip in front of his small force with a line of Turks on the slope behind it. Their fire was so intense that his men could only lie down in the shrub that covered the entire area. It was now past 9 o’ clock in the morning. Tulloch could see the first slope of Chunuk Bair, only one km distant, but any attempt to advance upon it seemed impossible. To his right, it was possible to see the Narrows in the distance. Apparently, his position was so precarious though, that he did not notice this fact. When new Turkish troops seemed to appear on the scene, and threatened to outflank him, his only option was to retreat to Baby 700, where in the meantime another fight had developed.

One anecdote is perhaps worth mentioning here : in an interview after the war, Tulloch told Bean how from his forward position, he had noticed a single stunted tree, 900 m away, on the slope of Chunuk Bair. Under the tree was standing a Turkish officer, who was apparently handing out orders to messengers who came running to him. We’ll never know for sure who the officer was, but one thing is certain : Mustapha Kemal, who had left his troops behind the summit for a short rest, had gone forward on foot himself to evaluate the situation from that slope. Around the same moment in time. And in his memoirs, he tells about people coming running to him for orders.

Before he retreated, Tulloch took his rifle and fired one shot at the Turkish officer.

He missed.