Thousands remember Gallipoli dead
(CNN) -- Thousands of people have taken part in a somber ceremony in Turkey to remember the start of a World War I battle in which hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.
Britain's Prince Charles was among dignitaries who on Monday attended a dawn service of prayers and hymns to mark the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign. He was joined by the leaders of Australia and New Zealand.
Thousands of people from those two countries, whose forces formed the backbone of a 200,000-strong British-led army trying to capture Istanbul, visit the battlefields in northern Turkey every year on the anniversary of the start of the 1915 campaign.
The allied army met stiff resistance and more than 55,000 allied forces were killed while Turkish casualties numbered 250,000.
Australian and New Zealand forces lost more than 10,000 men and more than 20,000 were injured before the Allied forces abandoned the peninsular in defeat after eight months.
Britain and France suffered even heavier losses while the Ottoman casualties numbered in the tens of thousands.
Meanwhile on Monday, thousands of people turned out in Australia for services to mark what is known there as Anzac Day.
Record crowds attended dawn services around the country remembering the sacrifices made by Australian and New Zealand troops.
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Australia's cities to watch the annual parades paying tribute to all of their countrymen who fought for their country.
The popularity of Anzac Day services has grown in recent years after a steady decline in the 1970s and 1980s. Today many children and grandchildren march in the Anzac Day parades wearing the medals of their relatives.
Australia's oldest surviving WWI veteran, 107-year old Peter Casserly led the parade through Perth in Western Australia.
Earlier Monday, wreaths were laid at the Stone of Remembrance in the nation's capital Canberra, while war veterans and serving military personnel joined men, women, and children for prayer services around the nation.
An estimated 25,000 people attended a dawn service at the cenotaph in Sydney's Hyde Park where New South Wales Governor Marie Bashir paid tribute before laying the wreath of the Australian Legion.
"We who are gathered here think of those who went out to the battlefields of all wars but did not return," Bashir said according to a report on ABC Online.
The Gallipoli campaign was a defining event in Australia's history and was the first time Australian and New Zealand troops had fought under their newly independent nation's flags.
Lone piper
Nearly one million soldiers fought in the battle for the narrow strip of land at Gallipoli which runs into the Aegean Sea. The peninsula is 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the ancient battlefields of Hellenic Troy.
The loss of life was enormous as poor coordination between the allies naval and ground forces allowed the Turkish troops time to regroup.
Earlier in Gallipoli, as a lone piper played, Turkish warships sailed through the Dardanelle straits below the cliffs of Helles, site of a British war monument to Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives, Reuters reported.
"When I hear the piper play, the courage of those troops resonates for me today," said Bob Candler, 49, of Perth, Australia, whose grandfather survived the battle in 1914.
"They may have lost the battle, but our nation was born with their sacrifice." he told Reuters.
