7th Battalion AIF, 9 August 1915

‘So many brave deeds…’

Dunstan and Tubb's citations

Victoria Cross

TUBB,
Lieutenant Frederick Harold
7th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF

9 August 1915, at Lone Pine Trenches, Gallipoli Peninsular

CITATION: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at Lone Pine Trenches, Gallipoli Peninsular, on 9 August, 1915. In the early morning the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held by Lieutenant Tubb. They advanced up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only one foot of it standing, but Lieutenant Tubb led his men back, repulsed the enemy and rebuilt the barricade. Supported by strong bombing parties the enemy succeeded in twice again blowing in the barricades, but on each occasion Lieutenant Tubb, although wounded in the head and arm, held his ground with the greatest coolness and rebuilt it, and finally succeeded in maintaining his position under very heavy bomb fire.

( London Gazette 15 October 1915. )

DUNSTAN,
Corporal William
7th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF

9 August 1915, at Lone Pine Trenches, Gallipoli Peninsular

CITATION: For most conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine Trenches, on the 9 August, 1915. In the early morning the enemy made a determined counter-attack on the centre of the newly captured trench held by Lieutenant Tubb, Corporals Burton, Dunstan and a few men. They advanced up a sap and blew in a sandbag barricade, leaving only one foot of it standing, but Lieutenant Tubb, with the two Corporals, repulsed the enemy and rebuilt the barricade. Supported by strong bombing parties, the enemy twice again succeeded in blowing in the barricade, but on each occasion they were repulsed and the barricade rebuilt, although Lieutenant Tubb was wounded in the head and arm and Corporal Burton was killed by a bomb whilst most gallantly building up the parapet under a hail of bombs.

(London Gazette 15 October 1915.)

On Monday 10 August 1915, Lieutenant Frederick Tubb, 7th Battalion, waited at Anzac Cove to be evacuated wounded. He took the opportunity to write up his diary telling of what had happened at Lone Pine over the last two days. Tubb felt it would take a book to describe it all as he had, not surprisingly, kept no notes during the fighting. The 7th, Tubb, recorded, had gone into the Pine 670 strong and emerged with 320, the rest being dead or wounded. To him it seemed ‘miraculous’ that he was still alive and ‘able to write’:

Three different times I was blown yards away from bombs. Our trenches were filled with dead, mostly ours … We were glad to get out … I cannot write of details but many of our brave boys were blown to pieces. As fast as we put men in to fill the breaches they were out. I kept sending for reinforcements and bombs, all our bomb throwers were killed and so were those that volunteered to fill their places.

[Tubb diary, 10 August 1915, Stephen Snelling, VCs of the First World War: Gallipoli, 1995, p.155]

Tubb went on to name a number of men who had shown outstanding courage during the action such as Ellis, ‘killed whilst throwing back enemy bombs before they exploded’, and ‘Burton of Euroa’ who, in Tubb’s opinion, ‘deserved the highest award for his gallant action’. This ‘gallant action’ was one in which Tubb himself, although he does not mention it in his diary, had been intimately involved along with another soldier Corporal William Dunstan. The story of these three men at Lone Pine on 9 August 1915 remains unique in Australian military history for, acting together and within a short space of time, each of them showed that outstanding courage which alone attracts the award of a Victoria Cross. All three received the medal.

Cigarette card from Wills cigarette packet c. 1915 – VC’s for Australians. [State Library of NSW, ML Safe 21/145]

Side story: a cigarette card depiction of the action at Lone Pine

The scene presented on this cigarette card is an artist's impression of the action at Lone Pine, Gallipoli, on 9 August 1915, during which Captain Frederick Tubb and Corporals Alexander Burton and William Dunstan, 7th Battalion, AIF, held back Turkish counter-attacks. For their bravery each man was awarded the Victoria Cross, Burton posthumously.

On the back of the cigarette card, (framed by Wills’s promotional text), is a description of the scene under the heading: ‘WAR INCIDENTS: 2ND SERIES OF 50 SUBJECTS’. The text accompanying the card is slightly misleading for it suggests that five other men under Tubb's command received the VC. Although 7 VCs were awarded to members of the AIF for their bravery at Lone Pine only one other – Lieutenant William Symons – was a member of the 7th Battalion.

The description of the scene on the card reads:

V.C's FOR AUSTRALIANS.

A Turkish trench was captured by the Anzacs but the Turks blew up the barricade and recaptured it. Led by Lieut. Tubb, his men, with bombs and bayonets, repulsed the Turks again, rebuilt the barricade and held the position in the face of fearful odds. The gallant Lieutenant was wounded, but with five of his men got the coveted V.C.

On the afternoon of 9 August, Tubb was in command of a position known as Goldentstedt’s Trench, a position he took over when Lieutenant William Symons was summoned away by the commanding officer of the 7th Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Elliott, for other work. As Turkish pressure mounted, Tubb exposed himself over the parapet in order to get better aim. His men followed his example for, as one of them said, ‘With him up there you couldn’t think of getting your head down’. Gradually, the men assigned to catching and returning bombs were killed or mutilated. One of them, Corporal Frederick Wright, clutched at a bomb that burst in his face, killing him. Another, Corporal Harry Webb, described by Charles Bean as an ‘orphan from Essendon’, continued to catch until both his hands had been blown off. He walked out of the Pine and died.

Gradually, conditions became even grimmer at Goldenstsdt’s. Tubb himself was wounded and soon only two soldiers were left fighting with him – Corporals William Dunstan and Alexander Burton. A huge explosion now virtually demolished their main barricade and, as Dunstan and Burton, worked swiftly to rebuild it, Tubb covered them with his revolver. A bomb fell, killing Burton and temporarily blinding Dunstan. Men now arrived from nearby and the barricade was held and not again seriously attacked.

Colonel Elliott was in no doubt as to the courage shown by the defenders of Goldenstedt’s. He wrote to Corporal Wright’s sister:

I recommended all these boys for the VC. Tubb, Dunstan and Burton got VCs, Webb the Distinguished Service Medal [this was an error – Wright received the Distinguished Conduct Medal]. No doubt, had your brother lived, he would have got the DCM if not the VC. There are so many brave deeds that it is almost impossible to receive recognition for them.

[Elliott, quoted in Stephen Snelling, VCs of the First World War: Gallipoli, 1995, p.158]