Connaught Rangers at Lone Pine

[emrezmen]

Hello all,

Does anybody have anything regarding the activities of burial parties of the 5th Connaught Rangers at Lone Pine/Brown's Dip, apart from the war diaries? I am especially interested in personal accounts and photos about the burial of the Turkish dead.

And what do you think about the photo below? This is from an album belonging to an officer from the 12th Australian Battalion. The caption reads: "Burial party at Anzac, 12th Battalion (unidentified)" The soldiers appear to be British/Irish and are possibly burying the Turkish dead. Could this be taken at Brown's Dip? Any thoughts?

 

[Jeff Pickerd]

Hi Emrez,

The burial party are most likely men of the 12th Battalion, as the photo caption states. Just because they are wearing Woresely Helmets does not mean that they have to be British troops, the helmets were issued to Anzac forces, for instance, the entire 3rd Light Horse Brigade were issued them , slouch hats having to be left behind, on embarkation to Gallipoli.

The cemetery does look very much like Brown’s Dip, but as to the four bodies, it is very hard to distinguish whether they are Turkish or Australian. I had thought the boots would tell the difference, but those of both sides are similar in appearance. It is also strange that Turkish dead are being buried in an Australian cemetery, having to have been brought down from Lone Pine, cannot recall any Turkish dead being buried there.

Jeff

[emrezmen]

Hello Jeff, many thanks for your reply.

I know the LH (and NZs) wore Wolseley but it was rarer amongst Australian infantry, I would suggest.

I have been searching the Turkish burial site at Brown's Dip for a long time. I was able to locate two ditches very close to what's marked as "Engineers' Stores" in some sketches, but I wonder if the burial we see on my original post is of the third site.

Cheers
Emre

 

Edited 24 April , 2022 by emrezmen

[Jeff Pickerd]

Hi again Emre,

You are obviously well in front of me with your research of the Turkish burials at Brown’s Dip. I can offer little more to the subject without doing further work on it myself, but, one point that can be drawn from the first AWM photo you have put up shows that it was taken after the 6th August, white patches on the men’s backs determine that. That photo is in contrast to your 12th Battalion photo, where the men have no evidence of attire for the August campaign. It is possible the 12th Bn men are those from later Reinforcements, hence the Wolseley helmets.

I will be most interested to see what you uncover with your research.

Jeff

[emrezmen]

Thanks again. Yes, I had noticed the absence of patches. It may not even be August. Just thought this group might be an exception.

I will be there later this year. Happy to share what will possibly come out. 

Cheers

[michaeldr]

Despite having attended a Dawn Service this morning, I hesitate to join-in here as I am by no means an expert on Anzac.

What I can add is a passage from 'The Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli' by Major Bryan Cooper

(p.77) “The Connaught Rangers, who were selected for this duty, reached the position allotted to them at 8.10pm. They detached one company to Brown's Dip, where they were employed in burying the Turks and Australians who were killed in the Lone Pine fighting. The unpleasantness of the task was increased by the fact that the position was being heavily shelled, and several men were wounded. On the following day (August 8^th) the Connaught Rangers were again moved, this time to Victoria Gully, about three-quarters of a mile nearer Anzac Cove. The detached company at Brown's Dip was relieved by another from the same battalion, which carried on the duty of burial party, and also sustained casualties.”

So, quite a job if it had to be spread over more than one day, and the unpleasantness of it all emphasised by the necessity to switch companies after the first day.

Looking around Google for anything further on this, there are one or two more details in David W. Cameron's book 'Shadows of Anzac' – see https://books.google.co.il/books?id=4KbuDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT245&ots=spVysh_DzS&dq=Connaught%20Rangers%20Brown's%20Dip&pg=PT245#v=onepage&q=Connaught%20Rangers%20Brown's%20Dip&f=false

*NB: The author, Cameron, is an unknown quantity to me, but perhaps Jeff can comment on the reliability question.

Bearing that in mind, what Cameron says is that the Australians preferred to handle their own dead, and the Irish were responsible for the Turkish dead, which they buried in an “empty saphead.”

[Jeff Pickerd]

Many thanks Michael, very useful information, and demonstrates how far behind I am with research of this topic.

I do not have a copy of Cameron’s “shadows of Anzac”, and from the google online review the reference to the quote is not available. The quoted passage is indeed very interesting, but without the reference, it is of unknown accuracy. Hopefully someone who has a copy of the book could be kind enough to give that information.

As to the works of David Cameron, his many books on the Gallipoli campaign are very well researched and referenced. He has drawn extensively from the works of other prominent authors of the campaign, but that is an area I have taken issue with in the past, ie, “the stand down myth at the charge at The Nek”, which was an example of very poor checking of sources.

Jeff

[emrezmen]

 Thank you, Michael. A very good book I somehow missed.

I enjoyed Cameron's book on Lone Pine which has almost the same part as the one in Shadows of Anzac.

[Jeff Pickerd]

Emre,

Have gone over most of books I have on Gallipoli trying to find references to the 5th Connaught Rangers, and the burials at Brown’s Dip. Surprisingly very few mention it, only two. Apart from David Cameron, the only reference I have found so far as been from the Official History of Australia in the 1st World War, C.E.W. Bean, Vol II, The Story of Anzac, pages 553 - 554.

 

Quote - “During the remainder of the fighting this task was performed during almost every lull of the battle, the 5th Connaught Rangers, who were now brought into reserve at the Pimple being employed almost continuously in dragging the bodies to Brown’s Dip for burial.”

The other reference was found in the War diary of the 2nd Inf Bn - 10/8/15 -

“0700 Start made to remove the dead.”

“0730 A platoon from the Connaught Rangers had been carrying out this work, but have now been withdrawn.”

So the quote from the 10th (Irish) Division book put up by Michaeldr seems to be the most informative.

Jeff

[michaeldr]

4 hours ago, Jeff Pickerd said:

the 10th (Irish) Division book put up by Michaeldr seems to be the most informative

Jeff & Emre,

I cannot be sure, however there may well be some more info in this book = https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/record-of-the-5th-service-battalion-the-connaught-rangers-from-19th-august-1914-to-17th-january-1916/ . Alas, at the present I do not have access to it.

regards, Michael

[emrezmen]

Thanks again, Michael. I've heard this book. I'll try to get myself a copy.

Edited 29 April , 2022 by emrezmen