Lone Pine - A Chip Off the Ol' Block Multi-Cache

This cache has been archived.

skullracing: Unfortunately this one has gone walkabout so it's time to pack it up.

Thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed it.

Cheers

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Hidden : 3/23/2011
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

The Battle of Lone Pine was a battle between Australian and Turkish forces that took place in the Gallipoli campaign from 6-10 August 1915 in the 1st World War. This cache is a tribute to the namesake of the campaign and in remembrance of the fallen.

Before we get into the history behind this cache, please be aware of the following:

1. WP1 takes you to a direct descendant of the Lone Pine Tree from Gallipolli. There is a plaque on the road side, please take a moment to check it out. For obvious reasons the numbers you require are NOT hidden on this tree so please respect it (ie. leave it alone).

2. Parking co-ordinates have been provided for ease of access to WP1. This offset cache has an initial WP where you will need to locate the last 3 digits for South and East that will lead you to GZ . At GZ you will be seeking an ammo tin. This cache has been placed to provide optimum caching coverage but please be mindful of passing foot traffic.

3. Directly across the road from WP1 is Albury's War Cemetary which is beautifully maintained and well worth a wander should time permit.
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“The Lone Pine battlefield, named for a solitary Turkish Pine that stood there at the start of the fighting, was situated about the centre of the eastern line of the ANZAC trenches on a rise known as '400 Plateau' that joined Bolton's Ridge to the south with the ridge along the east side of Monash Valley to the north. Being towards the southern end of Anzac, the Lone Pine region was comparatively gentle and the opposing trenches were separated some distance with a flat no-man's land intervening. The Battle of Lone Pine was part of a diversion to draw attention from the main assaults of 6 August against the Sari Bair peaks of Chunuk Bair and Hill 971, which became known as the August Offensive. The Australians, initially at brigade strength, managed to capture the main Turkish trench line from the battalion that was defending the position in the first few hours of the fighting, however, the fighting continued for the next three days as the Turks brought up reinforcements launched numerous counterattacks in an attempt to recapture the ground they had lost. As the counterattacks intensified the Australians brought up two fresh brigades. Finally, on 9 August the Turks called off any further attempts and by 10 August offensive action ceased, leaving the Australians in control of the position. Nevertheless, despite the Australian victory, the wider August Offensive of which the attack had been a part failed and a situation of stalemate developed which would last until the end of the campaign in December 1915.

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Seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions during the fighting at Lone Pine, including four men from the 7th Battalion, which had been rushed forward to help relieve the 1st Brigade at the height of the Turkish counterattacks.

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Casualties were estimated at 2,277 Australians and between 5,000–6,000 Turks killed or wounded.”

Excerpt from Wikipedia A more comprehensive overview can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lone_Pine The rest, shall we say, is history. Let us live and learn.

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Lone Pine! Lone Pine! Our hearts are numbly aching
For those who come no more,
Our boys who sleep the sleep that knows no waking,
Besides the Dardan’s shore.
Through all the years, with glory sad and sombre,
Their names will deathless shine;
No bugle call can wake them from their slumber:
Lone Pine! Lone Pine!
They did not quail, they did not pause or ponder,
They counted not the odds;
The order came, the foe were waiting yonder,
The rest was with the gods.
Forth from their trenches at the signal leaping,
They charged the Turkish line,
And death charged too, a royal harvest reaping,
Lone Pine! Lone Pine!
Nought could withstand that onrush, backward
driven,
The foemen broke and fled.

Edward Harrington

The last to leave

The guns were silent, and the silent hills
had bowed their grasses to a gentle breeze
I gazed upon the vales and on the rills,
And whispered, "What of these?' and "What of these?
These long forgotten dead with sunken graves,
Some crossless, with unwritten memories
Their only mourners are the moaning waves,
Their only minstrels are the singing trees
And thus I mused and sorrowed wistfully

I watched the place where they had scaled the height,
The height whereon they bled so bitterly
Throughout each day and through each blistered night
I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too
I heard the epics of a thousand trees,
A thousand waves I heard; and then I knew
The waves were very old, the trees were wise:
The dead would be remembered evermore-
The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies,
And slept in great battalions by the shore.

Written by 23-year-old Australian soldier-poet Leon Gellert, a combatant at Gallipoli, to mark the evacuation of the peninsula in 1915.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

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