SYDNEY - Australians and New Zealanders turned out in record numbers Monday for memorial day ceremonies coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli, a disastrous World War I campaign seen as forging the identity of the two young nations.
An estimated 250,000 people watched the annual Anzac Day parade in Sydney in the biggest of dozens of ceremonies and marches held in towns and cities across Australia and New Zealand to honor those countries' war dead.
Australian forces also held ceremonies and commemorative barbecues at overseas postings including in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, two troubled Pacific nations where Canberra's soldiers and police are on law-and-order missions.
The focal point of the anniversary was at Turkey's Anzac Cove, where Australian Prime Minister John Howard, New Zealand's Helen Clark and Britain's Prince Charles led thousands of their compatriots in a ceremony at the spot where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) waded ashore at dawn on April 25, 1915.
Some 8,709 Australians and 2,701 New Zealanders were killed in nine months of grueling warfare at Gallipoli that also took the lives of more than 21,000 British troops, 9,800 French soldiers and more than 1,300 Indians.
On the other side, Turkey lost some 86,000 men in the campaign -- a bid by the allies to take Istanbul but which ended with their withdrawal from the peninsula.
The battle is seen as a defining moment in the history of the young nations of Australia and New Zealand, where Anzac Day has become a memorial day for all fallen troops and both countries' biggest national holiday.
Gallipoli came only 14 years after a number of former British colonies came together to form Australia and was the first battle where Australians fought under their own flag.
This year's Anzac Day took on special importance as it coincided with the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in August 1945 and 30 years since the fall of Saigon, which ended the Vietnam War.
A record 25,000 people crowded into Sydney's Martin Place for a dawn prayer ceremony, followed a few hours later by the veterans' parade watched by 250,000 as it wound through the streets of Australia's largest city, organisers said.
No Gallipoli veterans remain alive, but one of Australia's three surviving WWI veterans was well enough to lead the parade through the streets of the Western Australia capital of Perth, where 40,000 people applauded and cheered 107-year-old Peter Casserly, a former sapper on the western front.
Large crowds also turned out in other major cities, from Darwin in the north to Hobart on the southern island state of Tasmania.
Smaller prayer ceremonies and parades were held in country towns and outback army barracks.
Thousands of New Zealanders shivered in early southern winter snow and sleet to take part in similar events on the other side of the Tasman Sea.
The huge public turnout sparked an emotional response from aging veterans.
"It surprises me that as our numbers get less, the crowd gets bigger -- that's something that's phenomenal," said Peter Barlow, 65, at a parade in Brisbane.
Bill Gaynor, head of the Western Australia veterans league, attributed Monday's record crowds in part to media coverage of ongoing conflicts.
"People have a heightened awareness of what war is all about," Gaynor told the Australian Associated Press in Perth.
"I think this in itself is causing people to support our troops and be here to acknowledge Anzac Day."
In Darwin, from where a contingent of 450 troops began heading to southern Iraq at the weekend, Monday's dawn service had particular poignancy.
"Those standing here this morning have a keen appreciation for the nature of military service," regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel Graeme Finney said.
Many attending Monday's services and parades were young people, some wearing the war medals of departed veterans.
"It makes me feel really proud to see everyone clapping and honoring everyone," said 16-year-old Lincoln Hansen, who marched in Brisbane wearing his great grandfather's WWI medals.
"It makes you feel like you're carrying on the generation."
04/25/2005 10:52 GMT