At the time of the battle, the Gallipoli Campaign had raged on two fronts – Anzac and Helles – for three months since the Allied land invasion of 25 April 1915.

With the Anzac front locked in a tense stalemate, the Allies had attempted to carry the offensive on the Helles battlefield – at enormous cost and for little gain.

In August, the British command proposed a new operation to reinvigorate the campaign by capturing the Sari Bair ridge, the high ground that dominated the middle of the Gallipoli peninsula above the Anzac landing.

The main operation started on 6 August with a fresh landing 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Anzac at Suvla Bay in conjunction with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

The Allies mounted an attack north into the rugged country alongside the Sari Bair range with the aim of capturing the high ground and linking with the Suvla landing.

The peak was known to the British as "Hill 971" and they mistakenly applied the name for a lesser ridge to the main range, Sarı Bayır, meaning "Yellow Slope", which ended at the imposing bluff above Anzac Cove known as "The Sphinx".

His appointment was made based solely on seniority[3] but his hesitancy during the preparations for the landing should have warned Hamilton that he was not a fit choice for the command.

There had been some doubt about whether the British would abandon the campaign but this was dispelled when Winston Churchill made a careless speech in Dundee, stating that the battle would continue, whatever the sacrifices.

Back in June he had made another attempt, through Captain Fahrettin Altay, then 3rd Army chief of staff, to persuade Esad Pasha to improve the defenses further north, but achieved no result other than raising the ire of his commanding officer.

[10] To distract the Ottomans from the impending offensive, on 6 August, at 5.30 p.m., an attack was made at Lone Pine by the infantry brigades of the Australian 1st Division.

As was the case at Lone Pine, the British action at Helles did not restrain the Ottomans from sending reinforcements north to the Sari Bair range.

The most notorious was the attack of the Australian 3rd Light Horse Brigade at The Nek whose slim chance of success had depended on the New Zealanders having captured Chunuk Bair on schedule.

On 10 August the Ottomans, led from the front by Colonel Mustafa Kemal, counter-attacked and regained control of the entire Sari Bair ridge.

General Sanders was incensed at the commander of the 7th and 12th divisions, Colonel Fevzi Bey, for not taking advantage of the Allied disarray at Suvla to pounce on them before they got organised.

Turks not expecting a major landing at Suvla had to rush in the two divisions and Fevzi Bey dreaded night attacks, which were rarely successful.

The fighting concentrated around Scimitar Hill which protruded northwards from the Anafarta Spur and dominated the southern approach to the Tekke Tepe ridge.

Disease transmitted by mosquitoes and the lack of fresh water and shelter hampered the efforts of the division as the men were too weak to fight to their best ability.

[13][page needed] As the shape of the new front line firmed, General Hamilton planned one further attack to try to link the Suvla landing to Anzac.

The Battle of Hill 60 lasted for eight days and while the summit was eventually reached, the Allies were unable to completely dislodge the Ottoman defenders who fought hard to hold their positions.