Take the road opposite the Kabatepe Museum to Helles/Alcitepe. After 14.2
km's, take a right turn at the 'T' junction to Twelve Tree Copse and other
Helles cemeteries. After 14.3 km's take the left fork and the cemetery will be
found on the right after 15.4 km's. Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery is in the Helles
area, about 1 km south-west of the village of Krithia.
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 28 April, following the landings at
Helles, the first attack was mounted towards Achi Baba, the ridge which
dominates the southern part of the peninsula. Fatigue, however, brought the
assault to a halt some kilometres short of the objective, near the village of
Krithia. Turkish counter attacks followed but were repulsed and during the
period 6-8 May, the 29th and French Divisions, reinforced by the 2nd Australian
and New Zealand Infantry Brigades, carried out a renewed attack on Krithia,
making some gains but suffering heavy casualties. Between 1 May and the
beginning of June, the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade and 42nd (East Lancashire)
Division landed on the peninsula. With these reinforcements, the Allied force at
Helles pushed forward once more on 4 June, but again to little effect. A further
attack between 28 June and 5 July at Gully Ravine inflicted heavy casualties on
the Turks, but despite local gains - at one point the line was pushed forward
more than a kilometre - there was no breakthrough. By 13 July the advance at
Helles was effectively over and the position remained unchanged until the
evacuation in January 1916. TWELVE TREE COPSE CEMETERY was made after the
Armistice when graves were brought in from isolated sites and small burial
grounds on the battlefields of April - August and December 1915. The most
significant of these burial grounds were Geoghan's Bluff Cemetery, containing
925 graves associated with fighting at Gully Ravine in June - July 1915: Fir
Tree Wood Cemetery, where the 29th Division and New Zealand Infantry Brigade
fought in May 1915 and Clunes Vennel Cemetery, containing 522 graves. There are
now 3,360 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the cemetery.
2,226 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate many
casualties known or believed to be buried among them, including 142 officers and
men of the 1st Essex who died on 6 August 1915, and 47 of the 1st/7th Scottish
Rifles killed on 28 June. The cemetery also contains the TWELVE TREE COPSE (NEW
ZEALAND) MEMORIAL, one of four memorials erected to commemorate New Zealand
soldiers who fell on the Gallipoli peninsula and whose graves are not known. The
memorial relates to engagements outside the limits of Anzac in which New Zealand
soldiers took part. It bears almost 180 names.
Number of Identified Casualties: 1134
