9 August 1915
Suvla: the dawn attack
Two Ottoman divisions, the 7th and the 12th, march south from Bulair and reach the Suvla front on the evening of 8 August. Their commander, Feyzi Bey, refuses to attack at once with tired men and no guns, and Liman von Sanders replaces him with Mustafa Kemal. Mustafa Kemal now commands the whole Anafarta sector, from Suvla south to Chunuk Bair.
Mustafa Kemal at Gallipoli, 1915Wikimedia Commons, unknown author, Public domain (Mustafa Kemal during the Gallipoli Campaign.jpg)
That night the British 32nd Brigade is ordered to march 4 km to the Tekke Tepe ridge. It nears the summit at about 4.00 on 9 August, shortly after the Ottoman reinforcements have arrived there, and is met with a bayonet charge. Within minutes the brigade is broken and its survivors fall back towards the beach. Now that the Ottomans hold the high ground at Suvla, Mustafa Kemal turns to Chunuk Bair and in the evening reconnoitres it for an attack.
Sources
- Christopher Pugsley, Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story (1984).
- Andrew Mango, Atatürk (1999).
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