THE SUVLA LANDING
HILLS COMMANDING THE BAY
Nibrunesi Point, or Kuchuk Kemikli, rises with steep cliffs on both sides, but steeper on the north, where they fall abruptly into Suvla Bay. It is the extremity of what was once a high ridge or chain of reddish conglomerate rock, hard but friable. The chain is now marked by a series of isolated knolls—first the low knolls upon the Point itself; then the broad-based rounded hill of Lala Baba, which rises to about 150 feet; then, beyond the southern end of the Salt Lake and a stretch of marsh and bushy plain, Yilghin Burnu (better known to us as “Chocolate Hill,” from its reddish-brown colour even before it was burnt), which is a similar but larger rounded hill, like an inverted bowl, rising about 160 feet; then, beyond a brief but steepish dip or saddle, Hill 50 or “Green Hill” (so called because the thick bush covering it was not burnt), rising to nearly equal height, but not so round or definite in shape; lastly, beyond a wide and distinctive break, the formidable mass of Ismail Oglu Tepe (known to us as “W Hill” from the waving outline of its crest, but more officially called “Hill 112” from its approximate height in metres). Ismail Oglu, thus rising about 330 feet, forms the rectangular corner of the high plateau on which Anafarta Sagir (Kuchuk or Little Anafarta) stands, and from the southern face it commands the Biyuk Anafarta valley and the hills across it at the foot of Sari Bair, while from the western face it commands Green and Chocolate Hills, almost the whole of the plain north of them, the Salt Lake, and the northern shores of Suvla Bay. It is, therefore, the most vital and dominating position, unless long-range guns were placed on the much loftier height of Tekke Tepe.
But of almost equal importance in the campaign was a rounded hill which projects sharply from the Anafarta ridge or plateau north of Ismail Oglu Tepe. Down the western front of this hill, which looks over the plain to the very centre of the Salt Lake, and to Suvla Bay beyond, runs a broad yellow “blaze” of bare ground, showing a marl and soft sandstone surface (the formation of this plateau being again of the same character as the Sari Bair range). This “blaze” appears from the sea to be shaped like a Gurkha’s “kukri” or an old-fashioned Turkish scimitar, and so the hill came to be called “Scimitar Hill.” But officially it was “Hill 70” from its height in metres (say 200 feet), and commonly the soldiers called it “Burnt Hill,” which was no distinction. It was connected, apparently without much break or dip, with the plateau behind it bearing the general name of Baka Baba, on which the windmills, the white minaret, and some of the houses of Little Anafarta could be distinctly seen from the beach. The minaret, however, was destroyed by the Turks on Sept. 6, as affording a sighting point for naval fire. This description covers the southern and south-east positions to be attacked in the Suvla district.
THE SALT LAKE AND BAY
From Nibrunesi Point the coast-line curves sharply into a semicircular bay, the diameter of which is close upon two miles. The north side of the Point itself falls, as described, in steep cliffs to a narrow and rocky beach. The cliff continues till the foot of Lala Baba is passed, and then it suddenly ends in low dunes of soft and drifting sand. These in turn sink into a spit or isthmus, about 700 yards long, and some 200 yards across at its broadest part. It is all of loose sand, very tiring to walk on, though bent grass and patches of heath bind it together here and there. The shallow bay lies on the left; the large expanse of the Salt Lake on the right. The Salt Lake measures about a mile and a half at its greatest length and breadth each way, forming a kind of square with irregular sides. Its surface in summer is thinly crusted with salt deposit upon caked and fissured mud, fairly sound for walking or riding, though in places the foot sinks above the ankle, and on the south side above the knees. Consequently, the south side, thickly covered with high reeds and ending in the marshy plain, is always impassable for troops, though a track not far from the edge can be used in summer for carts and even guns.
At the end of the sandy spit is a channel, which in winter admits the sea into the lake under a strong west wind, and drains it out again. In summer, though sticky, it can be crossed on foot, but we bridged it. After crossing it, one continues upon loose and wearisome sand, the sandhills on the right combining to form a low, heathy plateau, at first mistaken for “Hill 10” (so called from its height in metres) about 1000 yards inland. The beach continues sandy, the sea shallow, and walking very tedious till nearly half-way round the northern side of the semicircle, when one strikes the rocky formation of the northern point. The coast-line then rises into rocky cliffs of no great height under a low hill called Ghazi Baba, and runs into rocky inlets or creeks. The sea becomes deeper, the land undulates and is thickly covered with heath and prickly bush. So it continues up to the final hill, where the bay ends in the jagged rocks of the extremity called by us Suvla Point, and by the Turks Biyuk Kemikli.
There the coast turns suddenly north-east, and forms the side of the Gulf of Xeros. The land rises into a steep razor-edge or whale-back of grey limestone, looking white in the sun, and bare but for shrubs and aromatic plants growing in the crannies between the rocks. This razor-edge is really continuous except for notches, knolls, and shallow scoops along the sky-line. But the Turks have given the ridge the separate names of Karakol Dagh (Coastguard Mountain) and Kiretch Tepe Sirt. This Tepe Sirt or Hill Summit rises to the height of 600 feet at the points which we afterwards called Jephson’s Post and the Pimple. Thence the ridge runs at a varying but lower level till it reaches Ejelmer Bay, where there is good anchorage and an opening into a central plain of the Peninsula. The distance from Suvla Point to Ejelmer Bay is nearly 7 miles.
HILLS NORTH AND NORTH-EAST OF BAY