AZMAK CEMETERY, SUVLA

UK – 562
NEWFOUNDLAND - 12
UN-NAMED - 684
Spec Mem - 56

HISTORY

Suvla is the Northernmost of the three areas into which the fighting on Gallipoli, and the cemeteries on the Peninsula, are divided. Its occupation began with the landing of the IX Corps (10th (Irish) and 11th (Northern) Divisions) and the 53rd (Welsh) and 54th (East Anglian) Divisions, on the 6th-11th August, 1915, on either side of the low, sandy shores of Suvla Bay. The captures of Karakol Dagh and Chocolate Hill had been effected by the 8th August. The attack on "W" Hill (Ismail Oglu Tepe) and the first action of Hill 60 followed on the 21st August; the Suvla force and the Anzac troops were fighting to strengthen their point of junction. The second action of Hill 60, by which the capture of the Hill was completed, was fought on the 27th August. From that day to the evacuation (on the 19th-20th December, 1915) the position at Suvla remained unchanged. Azmak Cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of isolated graves and of the small cemeteries known as Dublin (from the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers); Sulajik; 5th Norfolk (under the foothills of Tekke Tepe, where some of the 1st/5th Norfolks, who fell on the 12th August, were buried); Borderers' Ravine; Oxford Circus; Worcester (from the 4th Worcesters) ; Kidney Hill ; Irish; Azmak Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4; Jephson's Post (from Major J. N. Jephson, attd. Royal Munster Fusiliers); Essex Ravine; Hill 28; and Lone Tree Gully. With Hill 10 Cemetery, it recalls the Northern part of the Suvla operations. There are now over 1,000 Great War casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over three-fifths are unidentified and the names of 53 soldiers from the United Kingdom and three from Newfoundland, known or believed to be buried among them, are recorded on special tablets. The cemetery covers an area of 3,541 square metres.

LOCATION

Azmak Cemetery stands at the foot of the line of hills which stretches North-Eastward along the coast from Suvla Point and on the south side of Azmak Dere, a watered ravine which runs south-westward into the north side of the Salt Lake. When we visited in May 2000, we took a minor road going north-east from Hill 10 Cemetery, and parked here - we then walked the rest of the way. It is less than 1km to the cemetery.

GRAVES OF INTEREST