Australians Travel To Gallipoli For Anzac Day Dawn Service
For first time in two years
A dawn service has been held in Gallipoli, Turkey for the first time after two years of cancelled services due to the Covid pandemic.
Thousands have gathered across Australia, New Zealand and Gallipoli to commemorate the 107th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings at Anzac Cove.
The Gallipoli service started with a didgeridoo performance and a song.
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Chief of Army Major General John Boswell represented the New Zealand Defence Force in his Call to Remembrance.
"At this time, 107 years ago, in ships that covered the ocean off this tiny bay, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders were preparing to land on this rugged coast," he said.
"For all but a few, this was to be their first experience of the horrors of combat. Most were convinced that, as one New Zealand soldier wrote in his diary: 'It will be the greatest days in our lives'."
Major General Boswell was followed by his Excellency Myles Armitage with a Commemorative Address.
"While the nature and focus of our remembrance of Anzac has changed over the intervening decades, our respect endures for those who fought here," he said.
"The men who landed at Arabuna on 25 April faced a daunting prospect. Sergeant Hubert Maher of the 3rd Battalion wrote that the country was precipitous, the heat tropical, and weighed down ‘with our kit, the pace was a killer'."
As thousands paid their respects in Turkey, large crowds gathered in a number of locations across Australia with Prime Minister Scott Morrison attending Anzac Day commemorations in Darwin.
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