“Every one of those lads was lying dead”
Dunedin-born Charles Duke was working in Australia as a journalist when World War I broke out. He signed up with the Australian Imperial Force, sailing with the 4th Battalion. By early August 1915 he had twice been wounded and evacuated from Gallipoli. Yet he returned to his unit and found himself caught up in the bloody offensive which came to be known the Battle of Lone Pine.
Duke wrote a detailed account of his war, and in this 1969 radio programme he gives a vivid description of hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches at Lone Pine.
Year:1915 [Recorded 1969]
Location:Gallipoli, Turkey
“Every one of those lads was lying dead”
Dunedin-born Charles Duke was working in Australia as a journalist when World War I broke out. He signed up with the Australian Imperial Force, sailing with the 4th Battalion. By early August 1915 he had twice been wounded and evacuated from Gallipoli. Yet he returned to his unit and found himself caught up in the bloody offensive which came to be known the Battle of Lone Pine.
Duke wrote a detailed account of his war, and in this 1969 radio programme he gives a vivid description of hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches at Lone Pine.
Year: 1915 [Recorded 1969]
Length: 14:40
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision
Catalogue Reference: 246853 An ANZAC looks back
People: Charles Robert Duke, Angus Miller
Location: Gallipoli, Turkey
Image Title: H15685
Image Source: www.awm.gov.au/collection/H15685
The Battle of Lone Pine was part of the Allies’ ill-fated August Offensive on Gallipoli. It was intended as a diversion, to distract the Ottoman forces from British reinforcements landing at Suvla Bay, and attempts by other New Zealand and Australian units to capture the high ground of Chunuk Bair.
The Australians launched their attack against well-secured Turkish positions on August 6. Initially they had some success, but when they reached the main trenches, near a lone pine tree, they found them securely roofed over with pine logs. Four days of intense hand-to-hand trench fighting followed, resulting in over 2,000 Australian casualties.
As Charles Duke describes in this excerpt, he was wounded a third time at Lone Pine and evacuated yet again from Gallipoli. He recovered and went on to fight in France, and was awarded the Military Cross.
In retirement he settled in Nelson, New Zealand and in 1969 his graphic Gallipoli recollections were broadcast on the local radio station. The 80-year-old’s words were read by WWII veteran Angus Millar, but Charles himself adds a few thoughts at the end of the programme.
Seeds from the lone pine which gave this battlefield its name were sent back to Australia by soldiers. Descendants of the tree are now found in many locations around Australia and New Zealand.