Thousands turned out across Australia and New Zealand on Saturday morning for dawn services commemorating the 100th anniversary of the doomed World War One campaign at Gallipoli, an event viewed by many as the nations' foundational myth.
The battle on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula was one of the bloodiest of the Great War, as thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were cut down by machinegun and artillery fire as they struggled ashore on a narrow beach.
The fighting would eventually claim more than 130,000 lives, 87,000 of them on the Ottoman side, before the Turks finally repulsed the poorly planned Allied campaign.
The national day of remembrance began before dawn with a service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, as Able Seaman Boatswain's Mate Alan Patterson from the Royal Australian Navy playing a dirge on the Didgeridoo in the cold early darkness.
Chaplain Group Captain Peter Friend followed a hymn with a reading in remembrance of Australia's veterans.
"We who are gathered here today in this dawn vigil remember with gratitude the men and women who have given, and are still giving, in our armed and supporting services, all that is theirs to give, in order that the world may be a nobler place in which to live," he said.
"And with them, we remember those left behind to bear the sorrow of their loss."
Tens of thousands turned out on Sydney's Martin Place, as military bagpipers played just blocks from where a gunman and two of his hostages were killed last year when police stormed a cafe to end a deadly hostage siege.
In New Zealand, the Auckland Museum estimated a turnout of 30,000 people for that city's dawn services, while officials put the turnout in Canberra, Australia at 120,000, a staggering turnout for a city with a population of just 300,000.
Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove addressed the crowd in Wellington.
"It's a day full of emotion and pride and gratitude," he said.
"Of solemnity and remembrance. It's a day that will further reinforce the bond between our two peoples."
Gallipoli has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors who honour their nations' fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day every April 25.
Thousands of Australians, New Zealanders and Turks gathered there to mark the anniversary amid heightened security.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has joined his New Zealand counterpart John Key for services in Turkey.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott reads a paper poppy containing heart-felt messages at Shrapnel Valley Cemetery ahead of Anzac Day commemoration services in Turkey. Friday, April 24, 2015. (AAP Image/ Dean Lewins) Source: AAP
Mr Abbott laid a wreath at a memorial at Cape Helles, the focal point of the assaults by British troops, on Friday and visited the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.
Share
