Baby 700 Cemetery

Baby 700 Cemetery; The hill known as ‘Baby 700’, some 180 metres above sea level, was one of the main Australian objectives at the dawn landing on 25 April 1915. Part of the Sari Bair Range, ‘Baby 700’ connected Russell’s Top with Battleship Hill (‘Big 700’) and was reached by small parties of the 11th and 12th Battalions a couple of hours after the landing. The few Turkish soldiers, who had been defending the beach area, were withdrawing back up the range. However, despite assistance from the Auckland Infantry Battalion, later in day the Turks forced the Australians and New Zealanders back to a line near where the Nek Cemetery is today.

Baby 700 Cemetery is the most northerly of the old Anzac cemeteries. It was constructed after the war when the remains of 493 Allied soldiers were brought here from other battlefield burial sites. Only forty-three sets of remains could be identified, twenty-three of whom are Australians. Ten ‘Special Memorials’ were erected to men known to have been buried in Baby 700. The majority of the Australians, mostly from the 1st, 2nd and 11th Battalions, commemorated here died on either 25 April or 2 May 1915.

Location Information

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat - Bigali road. From this junction , travel into the main Anzac area. At 12 kms. from the junction Eceabat - Bigali, you will encounter a footpath on the right to the cemetery. Baby 700 Cemetery is located on the road to Chunuk Bair, on the ridge which runs north-east from Brighton Beach.

Visiting Information

The Cemetery is permanently open and may be visited at any time. The location or design of this site, makes wheelchair access impossible.

Historical Information

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts.

Baby 700 was the name given to a hill, part of the Sari Bair range, connecting Russell's Top, by way of the Nek, with Battleship Hill (Big 700). It was the objective of the 3rd Australian Brigade on 25 April and was occupied early in the morning by parties of the 11th and 12th Battalions. They were joined by part of the Auckland Infantry Battalion later, but in the afternoon they were driven off the hill. It was the objective of other attacks, particularly on 2 May and 7 August, but it was never again reached.

Baby 700 Cemetery was made after the Armistice.

There are now 493 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 450 of the burials are unidentified, but special memorials commemorate ten Australian soldiers believed to be buried among them.