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Large crowds honor ANZAC war deadBy Grant Holloway CNN, Sydney  Current service personnel and veterans march through downtown Sydney, Tuesday. SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders have gathered across the globe to commemorate their war dead in annual ANZAC Day memorial services and marches. The April 25 services mark the 91st anniversary of the ill-fated Gallipoli landing of the First World War during which more than 8,000 Australians and New Zealanders lost their lives and many thousands more were wounded. Commemorations were held in cities and towns across Australia and New Zealand, as well as at Gallipoli in Turkey and other sites of conflict including the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vietnam. Canberra's main dawn service attracted a crowd of 27,000 people, while a record 30,000 turned up in the western city of Perth. An estimated 30,000 also attended services and marches in both Sydney and Melbourne. This year's services were notable as the first at which there were no surviving Australian or New Zealand First World War active service veterans attending. In the Australian capital of Canberra, Prime Minister John Howard announced the nation's War Memorial Museum and ANZAC Parade would be included on the National Heritage list, effectively preserving them from significant alteration or destruction. In a statement released Tuesday, Howard said the listing recognized "the courage of those who served in our armed forces .... in both the field of conflict and, more recently, as part of peacekeeping missions in our region." In New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark said ANZAC Day was one of the most important dates on the national calendar. "We who have not gone to war must find ways pf recognizing the service and sacrifice of those who have," Clark said in her ANZAC Day statement. "Let us today, and every day, further honor the service of our veterans by our continued commitment to peace in the world." The popularity of ANZAC Day memorials has been growing in recent years as a broader acknowledgment of the sacrifices made by both nations' armed forces in global conflicts. And for many, the heroic, if futile, efforts of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Great War represent a defining moment in determining the countries' nationhood. Turkish patriots also consider the battle -- during which an estimated 250,000 Turks lost their lives -- as central to the creation of their national identity. Thousands of younger Australians and New Zealanders now make a pilgrimage to the Gallipoli site for the memorial service held there as a rite of passage and demonstration of national pride. Unlike previous years, the consumption of alcohol and the playing of popular music on the Turkish battlefield has been banned this year to help discourage unruly behavior. Instead war documentaries were being shown on large open-air screens. About 20,000 visitors attended last year's ceremony but organizers expected a drop this year, party due to a bird flu outbreak in Turkey and because many Australians will be traveling to Germany to watch their team compete in the soccer World Cup instead, The Associated Press reports. 
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