The Nek Cemetery

The Nek Cemetery; From Quinn’s Post Cemetery the road heads north towards the Turkish 57th Regiment Memorial. Shortly after that an unmade track to the left leads to The Nek Cemetery and, at the very end of the ridge, Walker’s Ridge Cemetery overlooking North Beach and all the country to the north of Anzac towards Suvla Bay. The narrow ridge, running from the Nek Cemetery to Baby 700, was reached by Australian soldiers of the 12th Battalion early on the morning of the landing but it was not held as the Turks drove the Anzacs back to a line to the west of where The Nek Cemetery is today. Early on the morning of 7 August 1915, the men of the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade, the 8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments, in four successive waves, made a valiant but futile attempt to seize the Turkish trenches below Baby 700. This charge resulted in the virtual annihilation of these units and this story featured in Peter Weir’s famous film Gallipoli released in 1982.

Five Australians are commemorated in this cemetery by Special Memorials. Of these, four died on 7 August 1915 during the charge of the 8th Light Horse (Victoria) and 10th Light Horse (Western Australia). The only identified Australian grave here is that of Private Alexander Campbell, 12th Battalion, who died the day of the landing, 25 April 1915, as his unit fought their way along Russell’s Top towards Baby 700. Four New Zealanders of the Otago Regiment, who died in early May 1915 during the Battle of the Landing, are also buried at The Nek.

In early 1919, when official historian Charles Bean visited Gallipoli the remains of more than three hundred men who had died in the 7 August charge were found on a piece of land the size of three tennis courts. These 316 unidentified soldiers, the majority of whom were Australian Light Horsemen, lie under the grass at The Nek.

Location Information

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat - Bigali Road. From this junction you travel into the main Anzac area. After 11.8 km's, follow the metalled track to the cemetery. The Nek Cemetery is a short distance north of Quinn's Post. The Nek is the track leading along the narrow spur from Russell's Top to Baby 700, and the cemetery stands on a ridge with Pope's Hill on the south-west and Molane's Gully on the north-west.

Visiting Information

The Cemetery is permanently open and may be visited at any time. Wheelchair access is possible via the main entrance.

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.

The Nek was a narrow track leading from Russell's top to Baby 700 which was reached and passed by the 12th Australian Battalion early on 25 April, but not held. It was attacked by the New Zealand and Australian Division on 2 May, and by the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade on the morning of 7 August, but was never retaken.

The cemetery was made after the Armistice in what had been No Man's Land.

There are now 326 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 316 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five Australian soldiers believed to be buried among them.