World Leaders Remember The Dead Of Gallipoli

Thousands of people whose relatives fought in Gallipoli, one of the First World War's bloodiest campaigns, have gathered to pay their respects to those who died.

World leaders, including Prince Charles and Prince Harry, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, joined the centenary ceremony in Turkey.

Around 58,000 Allied troops were killed in the eight-month slaughter, including 29,500 from Britain and Ireland, over 12,000 from France, 11,000 from Australia and New Zealand and 1,500 from India.

An estimated 87,000 Turks died defending their home soil.

Prince Charles said in a speech: "All those who fought at Gallipoli, whether landing on or defending its shores, hailed from so many different nations and peoples, from an almost infinite variety of backgrounds and walks of life.

"And, whilst their origins were diverse, they were all thrust into a very different world than they would have ever known or imagined before.

"Indeed, in 1915, both sides were united by challenges that neither could escape - the devastating firepower of modern warfare, the ghastly diseases that added to the death tolls, the devastating summer heat which brought plagues of insects, and in winter, just before the battle ended, the biting cold that many wrote was worse than the shelling itself."

The amphibious assault started at dawn on 25 April 1915 as wave after wave of British, Irish, French, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops attacked heavily-defended beaches on the strategically-important peninsula.

The idea to knock the Ottomans out of the war and open a sea route to Russia was Winston Churchill's, but because of hopeless planning, hostile conditions and heroic defending, eight bloody months later the operation was halted.

The anniversary is observed nationally in Australia and New Zealand but is largely overlooked in Britain even though the majority of the troops killed were British.

Some relatives said they hoped the event would help raise awareness in the UK and beyond.

Lyn Edmonds, whose grandfather Private Benjamin Hurt was a Royal Dublin Fusilier who fought at Gallipoli, has tried to increase knowledge of Britain and Ireland's contribution to the campaign.

She was moved to see the efforts today to recognise the sacrifices made.

"I still think we have a long way to go to dispel a lot of the myths," she said.

Roger Boissier, 84, from Armathwaite near Carlisle, who visited to honour his father Ernest, said: "A lot of people do not know about it so I am really glad the Gallipoli Association has brought people's attention to it."

Prince Charles and Prince Harry are due to join a dawn service to mark Anzac Day on Saturday.