page_title: Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment
section_title: Hill 60
hierarchical_section_title: Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment / Gallipoli / Hill 60
caption_attribution_description: English: The accomplishment of a formidable task: Big Table Top captured by the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment during, the August operations. The dotted line shows the route taken by the Regiment.
context_page_description: The Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment from New Zealand, raised for service during the First World War. It was assigned to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
  The regiment, with an establishment of twenty-six officers, 523 other ranks and 600 horses, was formed from three squadrons belonging to pre war Territorial Force regiments; the Queen Alexandra's 2nd Mounted Rifles, the 6th Mounted Rifles and the 9th Mounted Rifles. It also included a small headquarters and, until 1916, a Maxim machine-gun section. The Maxim guns were withdrawn but the regiment's fire-power increased during the war, by the end of which each squadron had four Hotchkiss machine-guns, one per troop.
  As mounted infantry, the regiment rode into battle on their horses, but were expected to dismount for battle, and then fight on foot. The regiment fought predominantly against the forces of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. In the Gallipoli Campaign between May and December 1915, they participated in the largest battle of that theatre at Chunuk Bair, and also in the fighting for Hill 60.
context_section_description: On 21 August the regiment moved back to "Big Table Top" for the pending assault on Hill 60. The attack, at 15:30, succeeded in capturing around two hundred yards (180 m) of Turkish trenches. Two days later, at 17:15, the regiment was relieved and rejoined the brigade at Kabak Kuyu, but at 19:30, five officers and 125 other ranks had to return to the front to defend the western slopes of Hill 60. The same day, three officers and seventy-seven other ranks arrived as reinforcements for the regiment. On 25 August those men still at the front were relieved by the Canterbury Mounted Rifles and Otago Mounted Rifles, in preparation for a night assault on Hill 60 by the brigade. The assault was postponed for two days to rest the men. Although the brigade was responsible for the centre objective during the assault, it could only provide three hundred men, with another one hundred men coming from the Australian 18th Battalion. The regiment's contribution was five officers and 125 other ranks. The battle commenced with an hour-long artillery bombardment. The Auckland and Canterbury Mounted Rifles formed the first line of attack, the Wellington regiment and the Otago Mounted Rifles the second, and the Australians made up the third line. At 17:00 the attack began, and despite taking heavy casualties crossing no man's land, the first Turkish line was captured. The Wellington regiment and Otago Mounted Rifles continued on, took out a machine-gun post and captured the second Turkish trench, but sustained heavy casualties. On the other flanks the supporting assaults had failed, leaving the regiment and the Otago Mounted Rifles isolated on a narrow front. The brigade therefore consolidated the ground already captured and moved forward their machine-guns to support the defence; the forward defensive line was only forty men. The regiment's casualties during the battle were fifty dead and fifty-nine wounded. That night the remainder of the regiment moved into the front line. They fought off several counter-attacks, losing another man killed and eleven wounded. On 29 August the regiment was relieved by the 163rd (Norfolk & Suffolk) Brigade, but remained in the reserve trenches for the next three days. Even there the number of casualties continued to increase, so that by 2 September there were only six officers and ninety-nine men left in the regiment. Despite this, they still had to supply five officers and thirty-nine other ranks to occupy a trench on "Cheshire Ridge".
caption: Big Table Top; the route the regiment used to climb the cliff is shown by the dotted line.
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