Thousands of Australians gathered in the pre-dawn gloom at Gallipoli today to mark 92 years since the ill-fated landing of troops at Anzac Cove.
In the hours before today's dawn service, crowds had gathered on the slopes around the Anzac Cove ceremonial area to watch documentaries about the battlefield which gave birth to the Anzac legend.Then, with dawn approaching, flags flew at half mast as ceremonial parties marched into the area where this morning's solemn service was conducted.
Vice Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie, read the words of Australia's official historian at Gallipoli, Charles Bean, to help recreate the fateful day.
"Under the sky it could be seen definitely for the first time since the set of the moon the dark shape of land," he read.
"Every brain in the boat was throbbing with intense anxiety of the moment... The suspense was almost unbearable."
"They were men who their countries could ill afford to lose."
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters painted a moving picture of the Anzac campaign, and urged a commitment to peace. The Anzacs, who believed they were training for deployment in France, were pitched into an-ill conceived campaign against Turkey for which few of them were prepared, he said.
"They were to learn that courage and natural ability could not compensate for failures in planning, leadership and logistics," he said in remarks broadcast live in Australia.
Under constant fire from the start, many troops were hit before even making it to shore.
"The survivors found themselves pinned down on the cruelly exposed beach, which was soon strewn with wounded and dead."
Mr. Peters urged the thousands gathered in the morning dark to remember the hardships and deprivations the soldiers endured during the eight-month campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula, from food shortages to snipers, disease and the constant barrage of artillery.
"The human cost of the campaign was enormous, with over half a million casualties including 130,000 dead," he said.
In remembering the suffering and loss on both sides, let us commit ourselves to working for a world where differences between nations can be resolved without resorting to war.
"That is the way that we can best honour the men who fought and died here."
Turkish military officers read a quotation in Turkish and English taken from a speech made in 1934 by the first president of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk had led and inspired the Turkish forces at Gallipoli.
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.
You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears.Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
