The battalion was the main unit of infantry and had a fighting strength of about 550 men. The battalion commander, usually a lieutenant colonel (Lt Col), was responsible for training and discipline, as well as managing supplies and equipment. Most of the battalion commanders in the 1st Division had been militia officers before the war.
Of the seven battalions involved in the battle at Lone Pine, only the commander of the 7th Battalion, Colonel Harold Edward "Pompey" Elliott, had led his unit at the landing on 25 April 1915. The other commanders had been appointed during the campaign. All battalion commanders had military experience prior to the outbreak of war. Lt Col Alfred Bennett (1st) and Elliott (7th), for example, were career soldiers having seen action in the Boer War.
During the opening assault, the commanders were stationed in the Australian lines at The Pimple and Brown's Dip, moving to the newly captured Turkish trenches to establish forward command posts. This brought them close to the action and as a result commanders Lt Col Robert Scobie (2nd Bn) and Lt Col Ernest Brown (3rd Bn) were killed, while Col Charles Macnaghten (4th Bn) was severely wounded.
