f Hill Q
and looked down on the much-to-be-desired Strait, bathed in the hot
August sunshine.

The Turkish command full well realized the importance of this
position, and immediately guns from every angle were turned on the
Indian troops and the New Zealanders who were supporting them on the
left. A hurricane of shells was poured on the troops before they had
time to dig themselves in. A few seconds later a counterattack was
launched in such force against the New Zealanders that they and the
Indians were swept down the slopes of Sari Bair.

By nightfall of August 8, 1915, the few Turkish patrols in the
district had been driven off and considerable forces of the British
troops had made their way inland. Splitting into two columns, one
moved north and seized Karakol Bagh; the other and larger force
marched across the low country until it had arrived in position facing
the Anafarta Ridge, its objective.

Lying between the line of advance from Suvla Bay to the Anafarta Ridge
and Asma Dere, the base of the Australian troops operating against
Sari Bair, were a number of hills, two of which played supremely
important parts in the fighting of the next few days. They have been
called Chocolate Hill and Burnt Hill.

It was in an action against Chocolate Hill that the battle opened.
Moving in a night attack on August 8, 1915, Irish troops stormed
Chocolate Hill and came within measurable distance of connecting up
with the Australian division. Then preparations were made for an
attack upon the Anafarta Ridge.

On August 11, 1915, the right wing of the forces landed at Suvla Bay
succeeded in working along the coast and linking up with the
Australians at Asma Dere. They brought with them to the hard-hitting
Colonials the first word of the progress of the Anafarta operation,
and it was a bitter disappointment to the latter to learn that their
heroic efforts against Sari Bair had been largely made in vain because
of the failure of the Suvla Bay force to accomplish its task.

Both sides then busied themselves preparing for the new warfare in
this region. The British consolidated their positions, and on August
15, 1915, sent forward the same Irish division that had captured
Chocolate Hill in an attempt to rush Dublin Hill. After a hand-to-hand
fight with the Turkish troops, who swarmed out of their trenches to
meet the charging Irishmen, the hill was won.

The Turks, meanwhile, were strongly fortifying not only the Anafarta
Rid