Leaders and dignitaries from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey led thousands at dawn ceremonies on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of a World War One battle that helped shape their nations.
The Gallipoli campaign has resonated through generations, which have mourned thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) 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 side of the Ottoman Turks, who were allied with imperial Germany in World War One.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Britain's Prince Charles laid wreaths as bagpipes played at Anzac Cove, just north of where the landings occurred, in front of more than 10,000 people. Abbott told the crowd, many of whom spent a cold night in their sleeping bags to secure a place at the grounds, about the lives lost during the campaign, which helped forge Australia's identity. "Like every generation since, we are here on Gallipoli, because we believe that the ANZACs represented Australians at our best," he said. "It's the perseverance of those who scaled the cliffs under a rain of fire. It's the compassion of the nurses who attended to the wounded."
Gallipoli was the first time that soldiers from Australia and New Zealand fought under their own flags and is seared in the national consciousness as a point where their nations came of age, emerging from the shadow of the British empire. The Allied forces also included British, Irish, French, Indians, Gurkhas and Canadians. Approximately 58,000 Allied soldiers died, roughly half of them from Britain and Ireland, according to the Gallipoli Association. Only 11,000 have known graves on the Gallipoli peninsula. Others simply have their names inscribed on memorials.
The peninsula has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors from Australia and New Zealand in particular, who honour their fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day each year. This year is set to be the largest ever commemoration.
In New Zealand, the Auckland Museum estimated a turnout of 30,000 people for that city's dawn services.
The Gallipoli campaign has resonated through generations, which have mourned thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) 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 side of the Ottoman Turks, who were allied with imperial Germany in World War One.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Britain's Prince Charles laid wreaths as bagpipes played at Anzac Cove, just north of where the landings occurred, in front of more than 10,000 people. Abbott told the crowd, many of whom spent a cold night in their sleeping bags to secure a place at the grounds, about the lives lost during the campaign, which helped forge Australia's identity. "Like every generation since, we are here on Gallipoli, because we believe that the ANZACs represented Australians at our best," he said. "It's the perseverance of those who scaled the cliffs under a rain of fire. It's the compassion of the nurses who attended to the wounded."
Gallipoli was the first time that soldiers from Australia and New Zealand fought under their own flags and is seared in the national consciousness as a point where their nations came of age, emerging from the shadow of the British empire. The Allied forces also included British, Irish, French, Indians, Gurkhas and Canadians. Approximately 58,000 Allied soldiers died, roughly half of them from Britain and Ireland, according to the Gallipoli Association. Only 11,000 have known graves on the Gallipoli peninsula. Others simply have their names inscribed on memorials.
The peninsula has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors from Australia and New Zealand in particular, who honour their fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day each year. This year is set to be the largest ever commemoration.
In New Zealand, the Auckland Museum estimated a turnout of 30,000 people for that city's dawn services.