In Memory of John NEELY

Private 1593, 7/Battalion, 3rd Reinforcements, 2/Infantry Brigade, AIF was Killed in Action on the night of 8/9 August 1915 at Lone Pine, aged 26 years. He Attested on 07 December 1914 in Melbourne aged 26 years. He was the fourth son of Charlotte NEELY and the late Ernest Alexander NEELY of 41 Molesworth Street, North Melbourne, Victoria (late 45 Molesworth Street). He is recorded at Johnson's Jolly Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery, Gallipoli as ' Believed to be in this cemetery'.
Above: 7/Battalion colour patch	Above: Portrait of John NEELY: The Australian 09 October 1915 p.32

Jack was born at 94 Curzon Street, Hotham, which in 1887 became North Melbourne. (Vic BMD 4512/1889). (94 Curzon Street, now State Route 60, has been redeveloped.)

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Errol Street School

James attended Errol Street School (now North Melbourne Primary School). It dates back to 1874, once situated on the main road to the goldfields and was one of the few primary schools close to the city. In 1872, education for all was introduction for those between six and 15 years, Jack would have been there between 1892 and 1903.

In 1872, there were 4000 eligible children in the Hotham district: Hotham being the original name of the then working class area now known as North Melbourne. Just over one fifth of the local children attended Common School No 206 in Errol Street. It was an overcrowded private school founded by Mrs E Mattingley and her son Mr A Mattingley. Fortunately, a new school was required to State standard sizes and architectural standards at 18 Collins Street, Hotham at a cost of £9751 10 shillings. It was opened on 01 May 1874 as Errol Street School No 1402; described as 'the best school erected by the Education Department' with a seating capacity of 1250. The North Melbourne Advertiser described the building as 'undoubtedly one of the finest in the colony … with handsome stone and brick facing … with nicely varnished and well ventilated ceilings.' However, the school was built in a hollow, the location of a later to be improved drain and swamp. Jack left before the 1908, preliminary renovations were completed to be followed by a request for the removal of the stacked seating galleries.

A large core of pupils, who had enrolled at State School 206, transferred to the 1874 school bringing with them affection for their teachers, a record of steady academic progress and an acceptance of discipline required of those who undertook study under the regime of annual examination.

The school building still exists today, with modifications and extensions, as the only government primary school servicing the North and West Melbourne area.

Source: Errol Street. The first hundred years 1857-1957 by Elaine Warne (Accessed: 01 May 2020)

In 2019, Brigadier Bob Slater AM (Retired) gave the Anzac Day address to North Melbourne Primary School. He told the story of the three Neely brothers and the two Kleeberger brothers who went to war from the school. Brigadier Slater mentioned how on Anzac Day the two who returned would be joyfully reunited with their mates who were fortunate enough to return home to a grateful nation. (Source: North and West Melbourne News Winter 2019)

Right: A composite image of Errol Street Roll of Honour Source: Elaine Warne

The Errol Street Honour Roll records Jack as working for Sands & McDougall of possibly 391 Spencer Street, Melbourne (Sands & MacDougall 1910), the street directory company before moving to the New South Wales railways. He returned to Victoria to enlist.

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Attestation

The 26 year old John NEELY, a labourer giving his address as 41 Moleswoth Street, Attested in Melbourne on 07 December 1914 naming his widowed mother Charlotte as his next of kin and the recipient of two shillings per day of his pay. Charlotte was also the sole beneficiary of Jack's will signed on 06 May 1915. He was described as being 5 foot 8¼ inches (1.73m) tall, with a 35 inches (0.9m) chest expanding by 2 inches (50mm). He had grey eyes and black hair. On one Attestation paper his address is incorrectly amended to 39 Molesworth Street. Most official correspondence was sent to number 39 though Charlotte's medal receipt was sent from number 41. Right: John Neely probably at his at Attestation With thanks to Vivian Bugden

Jack's Attestation Papers allocated him to the 3rd Reinforcements of 7th Battalion, who sailed from Melbourne on 25 February 1915 on HMAT A54 Runic arriving in Egypt on 03 April 1915. His Attestation Papers record him as joining the battalion on 30 April 1915. Right: HMAT A54 Runic AWM P00707.027

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Above: John NEELY joined his battalion - from his Attestation papers

This complicates the record in the War Diary, which states the 3rd Reinforcements arrived at Krithia at 4.15pm on 08 May 1915, the day of the Krithia attack.

Above: 7/Bn War Diary for 08 May 1915 recording the arrival of the 3rd Reinforcements Click on the map to open a scalable pdf map in a new window

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Gallipoli - Second Krithia

Having landed at Helles, the British thrust five miles north with the intension of taking the hamlet of Krithia, the second town of the peninsula, and the dominating heights of Achi Baba, which commanded the Peninsular and Anzac for the Turkish artillery. ¹ Taking control of Achi Baba, it was thought, would allow the fleet to pass through the Dardanelles to take Constantinople. The First Battle for Krithia was fought by the British and French between 28 April 1915 and 2 May 1915. The poorly planned and executed attack failed miserably.

After this failure, Major-General Hunter-Weston requested 5000 'effective' ² reinforcements. On 03 May, Hamilton ordered Lt. General Sir William Birdwood, commanding the ANZACs, to release two of his best brigades for temporary use at Helles. Birdwood chose to send the 2nd Australian Brigade, comprising of the four Victorian battalions - 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th, and the New Zealanders from Anzac Cove. Eight days after the first battle, Hunter-Weston was preparing a second strike to capture the strategic Krithia and the Achi Baba. On 06 May, depleted by the first battle, the British attack made little progress against the reinforced Turks. The next morning Hunter-Weston resumed an equally unsuccessful attack. He lacked imagination and ignored the advice of his commanders on the spot, who argued for a night attack. The first two British attacks commenced at 1000 hours, with the New Zealand battalions making the third, on 08 May 1915, 15 minutes later. The Australians were in reserve. All three attacks had poor staff work, deplorable medical facilities and lacked adequate artillery, high explosive shells, detailed orders, preparation time, adequate maps, knowledge of the terrain and the position of unknown devastating enfilading machine guns hidden in Fir Wood. Sir Ian Hamilton, commanding the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF), did not overrule Hunter-Weston.

Above: Helles Peninsular Source: Bean

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At 3.30am 06 May 1915, the Battalion embarked from the beaches on HMS Folkestone, a deep sea trawler converted to a minesweeper, bound for Cape Helles. At 5.30am, after a two hour trip, Folkestone berthed alongside River Clyde at V Beach and disgorged its troops. On the same day Jack completed his will, which assigned ' the whole of my money to my mother Mrs C. Neely.' Right: Trawler Lancashire Fusiliers, similar to Folkestone, with troops - 26 May 1915 Source: IWM Q13221

The Battalion War Diary records:

6.5.15   In general reserve in Square 168Y5 Gallipoli sheet 1
7.5.15   In Bivouac as general Reserve - Ready to move at a moments notice. 'C' Coy has 3 casualties from shrapnel.
8.5.15   11.30am Moved in artillery formation to some 300yds [yards] behind supports. Few casualties in this formation ...
8.5.15 4.30pm Reinforcements - 2 Officers 130 other ranks arrive - 3rd Reinforcements
8.5.15   5pm  Were given order to attack - 6th & 7th Bns to form firing line - 5th & 8th to support.
8.5.15   5.10pm A&B [Coy] forming firing line advanced about 250 yds in lines of sections & then extended & moved forward until the firing line occupied by the British Troops was reached. C&D Coys then moved up in support until they also reached the firing line. After a spell of about 5 minutes [in Tommies' Trench] the Australians continued to advance until [verbal] orders came from the left from Major Bennett of the 6th to dig in. The 7th who were a couple of hundred yards further had to retire under cover of darkness & complete the line. Our line was exposed on the right until the 'Drakes' [Royal Naval Division] came up ... Dug in under cover of darkness & the line was consolidated by support coming up.
8.5.15   Casualties: approx. 250 [3 officers killed, including Lt.Col. Gartside, and 13 officers wounded].
9.5.15   In trenches. Holding line from Road to creek [Krithia Nullah] Short of water.
10.5.15 In trenches
11.5.15 11pm Relieved by Fusilier Brigade
16.5.15 11am Left Bivouac for Y Beach by companies. Embarked on mine sweeper Reindeer
16.5.15 5pm  Left for Gaba Tepes
16.5.15 6.30pm Arrived. ... ordered to stay on board all night.
18.5.15 Casualties from 8th to 18th May inclusive: Officers 17 and OR killed 40, Wounded 139, Missing 89

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Above: Location of Krithia Key Dere - stream Nullah = dry stream bed ADS and CCS positions are approximate Based on: The New Zealanders at Gallipoli Chapter IX, The Battle of Krithia, Fred Waite 1919 (Accessed: 15 October 2019)

Two days of attacks by the British resulted in repeated failure with no changes to their fruitless tactics of daylight advances. Sir Ian Hamilton tried to persuade Hunter-Weston to attack at night, but bowed to his subordinates unchanged planning. Even a direct appeal from New Zealand's Colonel Johnston about the inadvisability of the same attack brought instructions to proceed as planned. Eventually, Sir Ian Hamilton decided to attack along the entire front at 5.30pm on 08 May 1915.

On 07 May 1915, 7th Battalion remained in reserve, although ordered to move at short notice. There were three casualties from Turkish shrapnel directed from Achi Baba.

After a fifteen minute bombardment, the 7th Battalion was to join the attack to storm the Turkish trenches with fixed bayonets. ³ At 11.25am the Australians began to move out in Artillery formation across some beautiful country, starred with daisies and groved in olive trees. ⁴ After a short breather in Tommies' Trench, the Battalion moved forward in artillery formation and went into a storm of bullets from the front and from enfilade fire. With men falling fast, the Battalion made a hundred yard rush struggling in short stages of rush and drop. The loss of officers and men brought the attack to an end approximately 500 yards in front of Tommies' Trench with another 500 yards needed to reach the Turkish trenches. Captain Weddell was the only officer of the leading companies still standing. ⁵ The 7th Battalion had their right on the Krithia Road and their left on the dry creek bed of Krithia Nullah on the Central Spur.

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Left: Second Krithia - sketch of disposition of 2nd Brigade troops along the central spur 08 May 1915 Adapted from Austin, The White Gurkhas p.111

Reverend Creighton, a chaplain to the British 29th Division, recorded the attack in his diary, published in 1916.

Saturday 8th May. I made my way again to the gully where I had been the day before. On the way I met New Zealanders and Australians going up to the attack, line after line of them ... These Colonials are magnificent men. The Australians and New Zealanders made a tremendous charge about 6 PM. They fixed bayonets and with three shouts for Australia with the Brigadier and Brigade-Major in the firing line, they rushed forward in masses against an extremely strong position full of machine guns. They were simply mown down ... It was simply ghastly ... But when I got back to camp the wounded were already pouring in - those who could hobble. I never saw a less complaining lot. They bore their wounds stoically. 'But it was fine to see the boys charge!' was the one comment. I think the idea of the three days operations was to rush Achi Baba by these different attacks. But the Turks had dug themselves in and had machine guns all about and it was absolutely impossible to oust them by direct attack: hence these fearful casualties, almost equalling the landing. All regiments suffered during the three days but none as badly as the Colonials . . . All I can vouch for was the ghastly mass of casualties which came in this night. Every officer and man (of the 88th Brigade) I spoke to afterwards said it was one of the most magnificent sights they had ever seen. On they dashed, as though nothing could stop them.

On the following morning, Sunday 9th May, Chaplain Creighton returned to the British Casualty Clearing Station.

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There was a mass of wounded everywhere. The bad cases had started coming in during the night. They came in all day. Terrible stomach wounds and head wounds. The Australians, who were the vast majority, were wonderfully plucky. I saw the Brigade Major (Cass) lying on a stretcher in the open. 'My it was grand to see the boys charge!' People who saw it said it was a great charge, but utterly reckless. They don't seem to understand fear ... But what a terrible waste it all seemed of such magnificent men! ⁶

The men are in a very exhausted state owing to no sleep, and the bodies of our dead and also the dead of tour enemy that are starting to decay make it very uncomfortable for them. [...] The traumatic relief took place from 10pm until 3pm from trenches in inky black and rainy night by 7th and 8th Lancashire Fusiliers. We could not see one yard in front of ourselves and the screaming shells and the slippery ground made it very trying for the men. The general opinion was that the men would rather go through another KRITHIA charge than do an evacuation as this was. ⁷

It is difficult to assess Jack's part in the battle. The War Diary records the 3rd Reinforcements arriving at 4.30pm on 08 May 1915, five hours after the Battalion had moved off in artillery formation, but forty minutes before the attack went in. It is impossible to know what Lt. Col. Gartside ⁸ did: whether he was able to allocate the much needed 130 other ranks to their companies and then throw the raw recruits straight into action. He may have chosen to keep this number as a reserve and put them in the trenches, after the battle, to replace the approximately 236 Other Rank casualties. Jack would have been at Second Krithia, would have at least seen the attack and was likely to have been involved in some part of the action until withdrawn.

The ruins in the main street in Krithia, Cape Helles. One of a series of photographs taken on the Gallipoli Peninsula under the direction of Captain C E W Bean of the Australian Historical Mission, during the months of February and March, 1919. Source: AWM G02057 At about 9am on 12 May 1915 the battalion moved to the rear, first to their bivouac site on landing and two hours later a further two miles back to the British position at Cape Helles, where they remained for the next few days doing fatigues and being shelled by the Turkish Asian gun.

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Bean summed up the qualities of Hunter-Weston when he wrote:

General Hunter-Weston seeing tired troops coming out and waiting to be told where they were to be camped, told them he despised them! If he had any troops he could put in their place to do the same thing this battle would have been won. ⁹

On 16 May 1915, orders came for the brigade to embark. At 11am the battalion boarded minesweepers that conveyed the troops to HMAT Ionian, [The author can find no reference to this vessel.] arriving off Gaba Tepe at 6.30pm. Disembarkation was delayed until 7.30am the next morning, when the Battalion came ashore at Anzac Cove.

The details of the Battle of Krithia reached Melbourne six weeks after the battle. In an article, The Age, published several incorrect claims, including the capture of the village. The article reads as though the 'Special Correspondent' wasn't actually there. It was written to glorify the Victorian battalions without fully describing the extremely difficult and costly action. Right: The Age 18 June 15 Trove (Accessed: 03 May 2020)

End notes:

1. On Achi Baba the Turks had located six field artillery batteries and one howitzer battery, which had observation to Krithia. This would play an important part in the coming attack. Austin p.67
2. Bean p.4
3. Austin pp. 84-89
4. ibid p.87 quoting Captain Gutterridge, RMO
5. Dean & Gutteridge p.20
6. Austin p.121 quoting Creighton, D, With the Twenty Ninth Division in Gallipoli, p.82-85
7. ibid p.123 Austin attributes this to 7th Battalion diarist and the War Diary - I can find these quotes.
8. Lt. Col. Gartside was Killed in Action
9. ibid quoting Bean diary AWM with no other reference

Sources:

• Austin, Ron, The White Gurkhas, The Australians at the Second Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli, RJ & SP Austin, McCrae,1989
• Chambers, Stephen, Anzac The Landing, Battleground Gallipoli, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley, 2015
• Dean, A, Gutteridge, E, The Seventh Battalion AIF, Naval & Military Press, Uckfield, Reprint 2019
• 7 Battalion War Diary, May 1915 (Accessed: 02 May 2020)
• Bean CEW, Vol I, Gallipoli Campaign to May 4, 1915, Chapter XV pages 322-335 – The Extreme Left (Accessed: 23 March 2020)
• Bean CEW, Vol I, Gallipoli Campaign to May 4, 1915, Chapter XVII pages 359-404 – 2nd Brigade on the "400 Plateau" (Accessed: 23 March 2020)

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Battle of Lone Pine

Introduction – The purpose of Lone Pine

Lone Pine was essentially a diversionary attack, in association with the British 29/Division’s attack from Helles, for the Suvla landings and ‘breakout’ of 06 August 1915. In addition, Lone Pine, if successful, would drive a wedge into the enemy’s main position. Whilst the British attack failed, the Lone Pine attack had the advantage of careful planning and cunning, which in previous efforts had been missing. ¹ The first attack, by 1/Australian Brigade (1/Bde), was to be against the southern lobe of 400 Plateau known as Lone Pine on the late afternoon of 06 August 1915. 6/Bn would attack further north towards German Officer’s Trench, just north of Johnston’s Jolly.

The formidable Lone Pine, opposite the Australian position known as The Pimple, was separated by only 100m of open ground. The Turkish trenches to be attacked were protected by barbed wire and a mixture of sandbags and mud bricks. In places, pine logs and earth covered trenches, a feature not identified by the Australians. At 5.30am on 06 August, with high morale, the 1800 soldiers of 2/Bn, 3/Bn and 4/Bn of 1/Bde attacked on a frontage of 200m over flat scrubby ground in three waves, with about 250 men from one company of each battalion. Whilst 1/Bde attacked the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine, 2/Bde concentrated on Johnston’s Jolly. With the capture of Lone Pine, tunnels of about 100 yard, were driven from Brown’s Dip and The Pimple to Pine trenches. The tunnel in front of German Officer’s Trench had such a narrow exit that the 6/Bn’s attack failed so cancelling 7/Bn’s attack on Johnston’s Jolly. Right: Trench map of Lone Pine area. Features on the map appear in the text

On the fourth and last day of the struggle in the Pine, the Australian position was held in the north by the 4th Battalion; in the centre by the 3rd; and in the southern and largest sector by the 7th. Elliott had sub-divided the front into three commands: that of Symons, Tubb, and West. These appear in the text and maps.

At the moment, there is no indication of Jack’s company, so the occasion and details of his death cannot be specific. Any one of the 7/Bn incidents described could have resulted in Jack’s death.

The 7/Bn during the Battle

Prior to the battle, on 05 August, 7/Bn were in 2/Bde Reserve at Braunds Hill ² preparing to move forward as a whole or to supply parties for specific tasks. Of its bombers, lead by Captain Hubert, sent to the Pine on the night of 07 August to support 6/Bn at Johnston’s Jolly, almost all had been killed or wounded.

On the evening of 06 August, whilst at Bridges Road, the Battalion received a message First Bde report LONE PINE about to be counter attacked from Northern Flank. Send one company of your reserves to strengthen GULLY & MORE’S POST Lieut Tubb ³ with B. Coy ⁴ was at once dispatched. ⁵ Lieut. Edwards took a party to construct blanket screens in front of the trenches opposite Johnston’s Jolly. At 9pm a second party was prepared to supply 1/Field Coy with a party of 20 men to work on communication trenches to GERMAN OFFICERS TRENCH when it was captured. At 2230 Brigade, ordered One Coy 7th sent into SOUTHERN NO II to reinforce firing line in rear CRATER POST. ⁶

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When the 7th moved up to Lone Pine it had a fighting strength of only 13 officers and 511 Other Ranks. Some had been detached on other duties and, its bombers sent to support 6/Bn. (See above). Fortunately, the fighting had temporarily died down and Lt. Colonel Elliott was able to evaluate the situation and divide the front between two companies. On the left, Symons controlled from Goldenstedt’s to Woods’ where the Turks entered his trench on many occasions only to be bombed out by Symons. On the right, in the dangerously isolated Jacobs’ Trench and where Elliott increased the number of posts, Lieutenants Fisher and Dyett commanding, built barricades and netting trench parapet screens. Machine guns in the first and third posts commanded the ridges and gullies towards Gaba Tepe. However, as Elliott inspected his trenches he was concerned:

4.34pm Sent message to 1st Inf Bde as follows "2nd Bn & MG Section who are still here appear quite exhausted Could you arrange with 2nd Inf Bde to allow one of my guns to come here"
4.45pm Sent message to 1st Inf Bde as follows "Would be glad of Engineers assistant Trenches & Bomb screens are being Badly knocked about by gun already reported on our right flank"

The enemy reinforced the ridges to the south. Sniping by Fisher and Private Erikson brought a sharp bombardment upon their posts, which killed Fisher and Erikson and caused heavy loss amongst the recently arrived and inexperienced reinforcements and Lieutenant Dyett, who had come with them. Elliott had to reassure the reinforcements that they would deal with the coming attack. A heavy bomb-attack on Jacob’s Post resulted in more casualties when the grenades exploded in the overcrowded trenches. The congestion was part due to inexperience, part to the shortage of bombs sent from the Beach stores and the need to repel a feared and rushed frontal attack. As a result, Elliott thinned out the men in the trench and ordered the men to stay under shelter.

Right: General map of Lone Pine trenches locating 3/Bn HQ and the respective trenches Source: Bean page 559 At 7pm on the evening of 08 August, the attack, which had been expected throughout the afternoon, was renewed against the whole of the southern sector. It was especially violent at Jacobs's Trench and the neighbouring part of the new right-flank line, and also at what had been Goldenstedt's Post, now held by a portion of Lieutenant Symons's company. Here the enemy's bomb-throwers were sheltered by a few beams of head-cover which had given partial protection to Goldenstedt's men and from beneath which there was now the greatest difficulty in ejecting the enemy. 7 Many times the Turks successfully forced their way over the low barricades into the main positions causing heavy Australian casualties.

Symons, with his reserves and bombers protected by a wire netting dugout, cleared all the incursions and after a struggle lasting most of the night the Turkish bombers were driven off at about 2am. The situation then eased.

7.25pm About 7pm Enemy attacked s--lated dead end forming our No 1 causing casualties of 6 men which I replaced from C Coy. All combined causing around of 30 casualties. Received message from 1st Bde that Connaught Rangers were coming to remove dead. Relief for gun –ie-- arrived being Reserve Section of 7th Machine Gun

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Meanwhile in Jacobs's Trench, Lieutenant West replaced the severely wounded Lieutenant Dyett. At Tubb's Corner, which also required urgent reinforcements, half of Lieutenant Tubb’s reserve company came from The Pimple to garrison the New Flank Trench. The other half company reinforced the Pine where they were drafted into the posts. About 10.30pm on 08 August, the fighting at Jacobs' had died down, and in the morning of 09 August, the struggle farther north subsided.

10.37 Received report from sentry on right that enemy moving for attack [reported] same to Brigade

On the fourth and last day of the battle the 4/Bn held the northern flank, 3/Bn the centre and the largest southern sector by 7/Bn, which Elliott had divided into his three commands – Symon’s, Tubb’s and West’s.

LONE PINE 9/8/15
4am All quiet. Stood to arms. Almost immediately afterwards a very heavy attack by enemy commenced & sent message to that effect to Brigade & requested that Brigade send me down one platoon of Reserve Coy.

At dawn, Turkish troops were seen preparing for another important assault with what appeared to be skirmishing troops creeping forward from The Cup to positions behind the Turkish parados. From here parties advanced along saps which ran into the Australian front line.

Right: An attempt to represent 7/Bn's trenches at Lone Pine by amalgamating Bean's maps from pages 555 to 561. Every effort has been made to be accurate and maintain the scale At 4am on 09 August, intense machine-gun and rifle fire burst from the enemy’s positions around the Pine and from Johnston’s Jolly. All the periscopes of the watching sentries were quickly shattered. Bayonets were broken. Sandbags, torn and ripped, emptied themselves and then slipped into the trenches, and every spare man had to be engaged in replacing them. Under cover of this there fell upon Lone Pine a most violent general attack, extending, upon this occasion, as far north as Sasse’s Sap 8 The enemy first bombed back the men at Sasse’s Post but was driven out by a grenade counterattack. A little later, however, the enemy forced the 4 feet 6 inches high barricade and came up the sap, which led up the hill directly to the heart of the Pine and the advanced- headquarters of the 1/Bde and the 3/Bn. Southward, along the whole front of the Pine, the attack was furious.

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LONE PINE 9/8/15
4.45am Sent message to Brigade "Send more Bombs Running very short" During this period attack very heavy & losses great.

5am Sent message to Brigade "Am being very heavily bombed. Have lost No1 post which I am undertaking to recapture" This had occurred a few minutes earlier. Received reinforcements of one platoon of “B” Coy

By the morning of 09 August, the worst of the Lone Pine fighting was over, though the Turks would counter-attack until 10 August. In Woods' Trench, Lieutenant Edwards, of Symons’s company, was killed and Lieutenant Hamilton was wounded near-by. When even heavier fighting broke out at Goldenstedt's, farther south, Symons himself took charge and by throwing the big Lotbiniere bombs (slabs of gun-cotton tied to a small board shaped like a hairbrush), temporarily subdued the enemy. ⁹ He was soon summoned by Lt. Colonel Elliott to take over the barricaded entrance of Goldenstedt's Trench, with Lieutenant Tubb, who moved from Tubb's Corner and took over Symons' Post with ten men, eight of whom were on the parapet, while corporals, Webb and Wright, remained on the floor of the trench in order to catch and throw back the enemy's bombs, or else to smother their explosion by throwing over them Turkish overcoats which were lying about the trenches. ¹⁰

Those enemy, shouting 'Allah', who had scrambled into the Australian trench, were shot or bayoneted. Tubb and his men now fired at them over the parapet, shooting all who came up Goldenstedt's Trench or who attempted to creep over the open. Tubb, using his revolver, exposed himself recklessly over the parapet, and his example caused his men to do the same. ¹¹

One by one, the men who were catching bombs were mutilated and died. When several bombs exploded simultaneously, four men were killed or wounded and a fifth was blown down. Until reinforced from the next post, the wounded Tubb supported by his two corporals, rebuilt the destroyed barricade and defended the post until Burton was killed. Whilst the Turks rifle fire and bombing continued, they never attempted to rush the barricade again.

An equally fierce fight took place in Jacobs's Trench. Support from Elliott’s New Flank Trench had failed and at daybreak on the 09 April, the trench was visible to the enfilade enemy machine- guns from Johnston's Jolly, to the Australian's rear, which isolated the post and killed the Australian occupants except Lieut. West and Pte Shadbolt. Further reinforcements under Lieut. Woodhouse and Lieut. Bastin were all killed or wounded and the post lost. Elliott, [i]n this emergency, therefore, sent for Symons, handed him his own revolver, and ordered him to retake Jacobs's Trench. "I don't expect to see you again," he said, "but we must not lose that post." ¹²

Shooting two with his revolver, Symons successfully drove out the enemy and rebuilt the barricade. When the Turks attacked the post from three sides, he asked permission from Elliott to abandon it and withdrew his men under the overhead cover at its western end, leaving fifteen yards of open trench to the enemy. The Turks, continuing the attack, twice set fire to the head-cover, but on each occasion Symons, leading a rush, drove them back and extinguished the flames. An attempt by the enemy to encircle him by rushing up the old No-Man’s Land in his rear was driven off by fire both from The Pimple and from the Pine.

At an early stage in the morning attacks of 09 August part of the reserve companies of the 12/Bn had been sent into the Pine to reinforce 7/Bn. At 6am General Walker inspected the positions. At 6.30 the 4th Battalion reported that the Turkish attack had failed in the northern half of the Pine, and ten minutes later it became clear that it had also failed in the southern half. As the enemy was showing signs of demoralisation, Walker forthwith ordered up the 1st Battalion with a view to delivering, if possible, an immediate counter-stroke. But, as was usual in the experience of the A.I.F., no such opportunity arrived […] ¹³ In the afternoon the 5/Bn relieved the 7/Bn.

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LONE PINE 9/8/15
12 noon All the morning the enemy made intermittent attacks with Bombs & Rifle fire. We suffered Heavy Casualties but held our ground easily.
12.37 Received a message from Brigade that 5th Batt would relieve us heae(?)

LONE PINE 9/8/15
5pm Back in Bivouac at PHILLIPS TOP. Men & officers who survived are utterly exhausted.

And of course Jack was not one who survived. The 2/Bde War Diary records:
1226 5th Bn moved into LONE PINE and relieving 7th Bn, who are reported to have suffered severely from bombs. 7th Bn to remain attached to 1st Bde & garrison LONE PINE alternately with 5th Bn. ¹⁴

At 6.30pm the enemy attack had definitely failed. An attempt was made to organise a counter-attack on the now thoroughly demoralised enemy and the 1/Bn was brought in, but it was abandoned. ¹⁵

For the rest of the month the 7/Bn’s rotation with 5/Bn involved two days at the Pine before moving back to Phillips Top in reserve.

Above: Sketch of trenches after Lone Pine, after Bean page 563

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The majority of casualties were from close hand-to-hand fighting with rifle, bayonet and bomb. The War Diary records the casualties as:
LONE PINE 10/8/15
5pm In Reserve at PHILLIPS TOP
Strength 10 Officers & 346 other Ranks
Casualties from 8/9 Aug } 1 officer killed         27 other Ranks killed
                                        } 11 officer wounded 210 other Ranks wounded
                                                                          108 other Ranks missing
Killed 2nd Lieut B Edwards
Wounded Capt. Ross, Lieuts Hopkinson, Tubb, West, Bastin, Young, Dyer, Fisher, Act. Lieuts Borrowman, Hamilton ¹⁶

Of the battle at Lone Pine, Lt. Colonel Elliott wrote in his letters, a very vivid description of what Jack and the 7/Bn experienced:

Letter to Kate [his wife], 8[10].8.1915

The regiment, which was recently brought up by reinforcements to just under 700 men, was engaged yesterday in the fiercest fighting it has had on any single day since we landed, the Turks making a most tremendous effort to break through our lines right at the place we were sent to hold. We were fighting for nearly 24 hours on end. I am not allowed to tell you the casualties. The lists will tell their tale. But the old 7th held its ground though twice I drew my revolver to join with the privates to repel the rush. The wave came up to the parapets, 6 Turks came into the trench, but the boys shot them dead as they came in and no living Turk got through the line. The Turks had a strong position in front of our line, and the First Brigade the NSW men charged it magnificently and took it. That charge will live for ever in history I think, it was such a terribly strong place and swarming with machine guns, but the NSW men took it and held it for 24 hours. It is like a bow window now into the Turkish lines ... a labyrinth like an underground city with streets and roads (narrow) cut through criss¬crossing everywhere. Abdul the Turk was very savage about this as it greatly weakened his position, and made most determined efforts to get it back ... [After the 7th was transferred to Lone Pine, the Turks] swarmed up about seven o'clock in the evening and kept going for several hours. We got the best of them that time.

At about 3am the next morning he came at us again, very fierce this time. He had thousands of little bomb hand grenades and shied them in at us. We responded, but we had only a limited supply of bombs and they are shaped like jam tins and are not nearly so good. They also threw slabs of gun cotton against the sandbag barricades and blew them in on us and we had to build them up again. Then at daylight their artillery smashed us. Then three times they charged us with fixed bayonets, and as we manned the parapets they poured on the machine gun fire from north and south in their positions on each side of us and heaps of men were shot that way. Three times they went back again and they caught it pretty hot then. In one little trench there were 13 dead Turks piled on each other while others lay all around. We were the same. In one charge it was so hot that we had no time to remove the wounded, and horrible to tell you we had to tread on these poor dead and dying men lying in the trench to keep the gaps in the line filled. All war is horrible but this trench warfare is awful. A large proportion of wounds were in the head. I cannot wear my tunic today because it is all soiled and stained with a poor boy's brains which were splashed all over it.

Letter to JF Henderson 2.1.1916

At Lone Pine, after six officers had been struck down and a great many men lost in the defence of an isolated sap, the Turks made a charge and got into the trench. I sent my adjutant [Lieutenant Bastin] to rally the men, called up some reinforcements from the supports, recalled Symons from the post he had held with great bravery all night, and ordered him to retake the sap. In the meantime ... Bastin, after a hand-to-hand fight with a Turk, whom he shot dead just in time to avoid being bayoneted, had been severely wounded by a bullet, and the men were again giving way. Symons rushed down the sap at the head of his men, shot the first two Turks he met dead with his revolver, and drove out the remainder. Finding that the extreme end of the sap, where all this had taken place, was really untenable, he fell back

1821info15c, sheet 17

about 15 yards where there was some overhead cover which would give protection against the bombs, and there built up a second barricade to cover the old one. This was all done under hot fire and many men were lost. When the barricade was almost complete the Turks managed to [set fire to it]. It became necessary to pull the barricade down and get outside and extinguish the fire, then rebuild the barricade. This was at length accomplished and ... it became quite secure.

The action at Lone Pine resulted in the award of seven Victoria Crosses, the most for one single action at Gallipoli. These included Lieutenants WJ Symons and FH Tubb and Corporals AS Burton (Posthumous) and W Dunstan of 7/Bn. Sergeant Ball and Corporal Webb of 7/Bn were awarded the DCMs for the actions of 8/9 August 1915. ¹⁷

End notes

1. Chamber p.28
2. 2/Bde War Diary 5/8/15
3. Later Major FH Tubb VC who died of wounds 20 September 1917
4. Tubb as OC ‘B’ Coy is the only company commander identified
5. Text in this font are taken from 7/Bn War Diaries. 2/Bde War Diaries are indicated separately.
6. 2/Bde War Diary 6/8/15
7. Bean p.557
8. ibid p.558
9. ibid p.560
10. ibid p.560
11. ibid p.560
12. ibid p.562
13. ibid p.564
14. 2/Bde War Diary 5/8/15 12.26pm
15. Dean p.27
16. 2/Bde War Diary 5/8/15 p.54
17. Elliott pp.78 and 80

Sources:

• 2 Brigade War Diary August 1915 (Accessed: 04 May 2020)
• 6 Battalion War Diary, August 1915 (Accessed: 10 May 2020)
• 7 Battalion War Diary, August 1915 (Accessed: 04 May 2020)
• Bean CEW, Vol II The Story of ANZAC from 4 May 1915, to the evacuation, Chapter XIX, The Counter-attack at Lone Pine, pp. 535-566 (Accessed: 04 May 2020)
• Chambers, Stephen, Anzac The Landing, Battleground Gallipoli, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley, 2015
• Dean, A, Gutteridge, E, The Seventh Battalion AIF, Naval & Military Press, Uckfield, Reprint 2019
• McMullin, Ross, Pompey Elliott  at war - in his own words, Scribe, Melbourne, 2017

His obituary

Johnston's Jolly (called by the Turks Kirmezi Sirt, or 'Red Ridge'), was named from the commander of the 2nd Australian Division Artillery, Brigadier-General G J Johnston, CB, CMG, VD. The position was reached by the 2nd Australian Infantry Brigade on 25 April 1915, but lost the next day and it was never retaken. The cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefield. There are now 181 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 144 of the burials are unidentified and there are special memorials to 36 Australian casualties, including Jack NEELY, believed to be buried among them, almost all of whom were killed in the capture of Lone Pine in August 1915. CWGC (Accessed: 07 May 2020)

In a letter of 03 April 1924, a Captain of Base Records sent Mrs C NEELY of 39 Molesworth Street, North Melbourne a letter detailing the grave. In the letter he writes that the personal inscription will be preceded by, '"Believed to be buried in this cemetery, actual grave unknown." This action is being taken with a view to suitably perpetuating the memory of those of our fallen whose remains are believed to be interred in the above named cemetery, but whose actual grave cannot be located.'

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Of the 36 special Australian memorials, nineteen are from the 7/Bn, with seventeen believed to have been killed on 08 August and two on 09 August 1915. By comparison Lone Pine Cemetery has fourteen grave of 7/Bn with seven killed on both 08 and 09 August 1915. Only one is a special memorial. The Imperial War Graves Commission used 'special memorials' to men 'for whom there is evidence of burial' in the area. Peter Stanley offers an explanation. When Cyril Hughes and his war graves unit arrived in Gallipoli in December 1918 they had to find abandoned cemeteries and the hundreds of individual graves before creating the modern cemetery. Hughes reported that whilst some cemeteries were in good order 'practically every grave bore traces of desecration', and often skeletons partially reburied. Dogs and jackals had disturbed some graves, whilst others had been pillaged: the wooden crosses taken for fire wood or by organised bands of 60 to 80 strong looking for saleable 'treasure'. Equipped with cemetery plans constructed before December 1915, war grave parties endeavoured to locate and reintern named bodies. Those named on the plan and not identified were attributed 'believed to be buried'. ¹

A package of Jack's personal effects, transported by Thos. Cook & Son, on the Argyleshire, arrived with Charlotte on 20 April 1916. That it contained a wristlet watch, a wallet, letters and a diary suggests Jack's body was found, identified and buried. He is not recorded in the Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing file. Charlotte was granted a pension of £24 per annum from 10 October 1915. Left: The Argus 06 October 1915

The announcement that Jack was attached to 'D' Coy, 6/Bn poses a conundrum. At 0030 on 07 August 1915, 6/Bn were tasked to attack German Officer's Trench with 250 men, Sniper's Trench with 100 men and the support trench beyond. The attack failed, with the War Diary recording the Battalion incurred 146 casualties. On 08 August, a combined 'C' and ' D' Coys manned the quiet No. 4 sub-section of Southern [Sector] Number 2. There is no obvious record of 7/Bn men being seconded to 6/Bn apart from Captain Hubert's bombers who were largely killed in front of Johnston's Jolly. However, the it would seem more appropriate for those killed on the German Officer's Trench raid to be buried at Johnston's Jolly Cemetery or initially in the ground around and on the Johnston' Jolly slopes. ²

1821info15c, sheet 19

The family posted a poignant memorial in The Age: one of very many that Saturday. Left: The Age 10 August 1918

Above: John Neely on the Errol Street honour roll Note that the Honour Roll uses the battalion information on the the family ' Death Notice' above, Jack was buried at a member of the 7/Battalion and there is no service record of a permanent transfer to 6/Battalion. With thanks to North Melbourne Primary School

On 01 August 1967, Jack's brother Leonard of 38 Bell St, Clontarf Beach, Qld 4019 applied for Jack's Gallipoli Medallion.

1821info15c, sheet 19

End note

1. Stanley, Peter, Quinn's Post, Anzac, Gallipoli, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p.188
2. 7 Bn War Diary - various

This page was created by Richard Crompton and maintained by Chris Glass		Version A4 Updated 04 October 2020