KEY POINTS:
Thousands of New Zealanders and Australians gathered in the pre-dawn darkness at Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula to mark 92 years since the ill-fated landing of troops at Anzac Cove.
In the hours before the dawn service, crowds had gathered on the slopes around the ceremonial area at the cove 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 yesterday's service was conducted.
Backpackers clad in beanies and jackets and some wrapped in sleeping bags against the cool spring morning waited in respectful silence for the service to begin.
The 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 eight-month 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 both New Zealand and Australia.
"Under constant fire from the start, many troops were hit before even making it to shore."
Many more were pinned down on the exposed beach.
"The human cost of the campaign was enormous, with over half a million casualties including 130,000 dead," Mr Peters 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 now well-known speech made by the first president of the Republic of Turkey and the man who led and inspired the Turkish forces at Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk:
"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...
"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."
The words are now mounted on a huge memorial overlooking Anzac Cove.
- NZPA
