Aussies gather for historic centenary services at Gallipoli

TONY Abbott has walked among the crowds at Gallipoli, but it’s his wife who impressed particularly when one attendee lost her shoe.

24th April 2015- Ceremony at Cape Helles British Memorial to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli. Present are Australian many dignitaries minister Tony Abbott, Prince Harry, Prince Charles, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan. Turkish airforce NF-5. Pic Ella Pellegrini

TONY Abbott has walked among the crowds as they made their way up the slopes from Gallipoli’s dawn service to Lone Pine, but it’s the Prime Minister’s wife who has particularly impressed.

While the crowds were making their way out of the Anzac Commemorative Site, a woman lost her shoe and Margie Abbott quickly bent down to place it back on for her. She then asked if the woman was Cinderella. The attendee had a laugh with Mr and Mrs Abbott before they joined the crowds to walk further uphill. Allan Pianta was so impressed with the Prime Minister’s wife that he gave her some artificial flowers he had brought all the way from Australia in his backpack. He meant to lay the bunch at Lone Pine Cemetery until he met Mrs Abbott after the dawn service. “She said she would be happy to lay them at Lone Pine,” Mr Pianta, 67, of Melbourne, said. “This is my first time out of Australia and it’s been very, very moving. It’s breathtaking scenery here at Gallipoli, exquisitely picturesque, and it’s shocking to think of all the fighting.” “IT FELT LIKE THE 25TH OF APRIL ALL OVER AGAIN” The anniversary commemorations at Gallipoli have moved beyond April 25, 1915, with focus turning to the horrific battle of Lone Pine, which came 104 days later. At the midmorning service at the Lone Pine Cemetery in Turkey on Saturday, Tony Abbott delivered a stirring speech that said what happened on these battlefields went to the core of what it meant to be Australian. “Our nation is not just a place on a map, or a mass of people who happen to live somewhere. Our nation is shaped by our collective memory, by the compact between the dead, the living and the yet to be born,” the Prime Minister said. He referred to the epitaph seen on many graves in Lone Pine: “Their glory shall not be blotted out.” “A century on, we reaffirm this truth,” Mr Abbott said. “Our nation has grown from their seed. Australia thrives and prospers, nourished by their example. Here at Lone Pine, the pact between the past and the present is renewed for the future; for all who seek to understand what it means to be Australian.” Defence Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, explained the significance of this later offensive. “The land we stand on was once a battlefield, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles in Australia’s history,” he told the crowd gathered at the cemetery. “On August 6, 1915, 104 days after the Gallipoli landing, the Anzacs squared their shoulders and prepared to confront the enemy again — this time here at Lone Pine. “Those who survived those first hundred days had already endured the terrible reality of war. Tormented by fear and surrounded by death they suffered through illness, persevered through exposure and continued on — exhausted. “As the August Offensive began, some remarked that it felt like the 25th of April all over again.” A total of 2277 Australians were killed or wounded at Lone Pine. Prince Harry spoke of the continuation of a bond between the soldiers that drew people back to Gallipoli. “It is this love, the memory of these lives lost, that draws us back here now, a century later, to stand among their graves and to remember their loss and all they gave for us and for each other.” “THEY DID THEIR DUTY. NOW, LET US DO OURS” AFTER a solemn and respectful dawn service — where Tony Abbott said the Anzacs represented “Australians at their best” — the crowd of 10,500 now makes its way up the slopes of Gallipoli for the midmorning Lone Pine service. Prince Charles, Prince Harry and Prime Minister Tony Abbott led the distinguished rollcall of dignitaries there to mark 100 years since the first landings on the Gallipoli peninsula. During his speech, Mr Abbott invoked the spirit of Anzac as a high standard to which every Australian should aspire. “Beginning here, on this spot and at this hour, 100 years ago, they fought and all-too-often they died: for their mates, for our country, for their King and — ultimately — for the ideal that people and nations should be free,” he told the crowd. “Because they rose to their challenges, we believe that it’s a little easier for us to rise to ours. “Their example, we believe, helps us to be better than we would otherwise be. That’s why we’re here: to acknowledge what they have done for us — and what they still do for us. “So much has changed in 100 years, but not the things that really matter: Duty, selflessness, moral courage. Always these remain the mark of a decent human being. “They did their duty; now, let us do ours. They gave us an example; now, let us be worthy of it. They were as good as they could be in their time; now, let us be as good as we can be in ours. “Like every generation since, we are here on Gallipoli because we believe the Anzacs represented Australians at their best. “Because they rose to their challenges, we believe it is a little easier for us to rise to ours. Their example helps us to be better than we would otherwise be.” Prince Charles brought tears to the eyes of some crowd members with his strong reading of a diary entry of Company Quartermaster Sergeant Benjamin Leane, of the 10th Battalion, written to his wife on the night of the landing. “In case the worst happens and I am unable to make any more entries I will take this opportunity to bid you goodbye, dear girl,” Prince Charles read. “I trust that I will come through all right, but it is impossible to say and I must do my duty whatever it is. But if I am to die, know that I died loving you with my whole heart and soul, dearest wife that a man ever had. Kiss little Gwen and our new baby, who perhaps I may never see, and never let them forget Daddy.” Australia’s Defence Force Chief, Air Marshall Mark Binskin, was the first to address the crowd. “One hundred years ago today, the quiet stillness of dawn and the gentle sound of the waves on this beach gave way to the flash and roar of gunfire over the painful cries of the wounded,” he said. “For so many, the rising sun that day would be their last.” Now the dawn service has completed, the 8000 Australians in the crowd will take a one-hour walk up the road to the Lone Pine Cemetery, where another ceremony will be held at 6pm Australian time. Mr Abbott, Prince Charles and Prince Harry will attend an Anzac breakfast after the dawn service before heading to the Australian service at Lone Pine and the New Zealand service at Chunuk Bair. WHAT YOU’RE NOT MEANT TO SEE AT GALLIPOLI Security is tight on the Gallipoli peninsula for the 100th-anniversary Anzac Day services. Organisers are confident that there is low risk of a terrorism incident during the commemorations, but this one picture shows just how seriously they are taking security matters. This photograph shows the steep Walker’s Ridge, but a closer look reveals a Turkish soldier watching over the Anzac Commemorative Site, where 10,500 people observed the dawn service. RELATED: 100th anniversary of Gallipoli starts with dawn services across Australia The Turkish troop, who is wearing camouflage in the dense scrub, is one of 3700 Turkish police and paramilitary officers deployed to keep Anzac Day secure. Attendees have been put through a long security screening process, with six checkpoints to pass before entering the main site. Security officers can also be seen with machineguns. Turkey’s Deputy Culture Minister Ozcan Alarslan told News Corp earlier in the week that the security operation would include snipers, mobile phone jammers and armoured jeeps. Despite this show of force, Australian Gallipoli services director Tim Evans said attending the services in Gallipoli would be “one of the safest places in Turkey for Australian and New Zealand visitors”. RELATED: What happened when the Turks saw us | Backpackers booted from Gallipoli GALLIPOLI LOOKS LIKE A MUSIC FESTIVAL With stages, grandstands, lights, big screens, food stalls and exactly 438 portaloos, Gallipoli looks more like a music festival than a sacred battleground right now. The crowd has completed the journey through six security checkpoints to the Anzac Commemorative Site, a stunning beach-side location where the dawn service was held at 12.30pm AEST (5.30am Turkish time). Tim Abbott was first through the gates — almost 12 hours before the ceremony was due to begin. The 16-year-old Sydney schoolboy wore the medals of his great-grandfather, a military chaplain who buried the first Australian soldier to die in World War I. Abbott, who walked the Kokoda Track last July, said his days at Gallipoli had opened his eyes to the hardships of the Anzacs, such as the harshness of the terrain and the weather. Hundreds soon followed Tim, and the front lawn of the commemorative site was covered in sleeping bags within minutes. Gallipoli pilgrims Larra Clark and Tilly Watson, both 19, were struck by the imposing landscape that rises from the beach. “When you see this place you think, oh my gosh, my problems are so small,” Larra said. “It’s amazing,” added Tilly. “Just walking up and seeing this you see that the soldiers really didn’t stand a chance.” NIGHT FALLS, TEMPS DROP Australia’s Gallipoli pilgrims are rugged up in beanies, scarfs and sleeping bags as temperatures dropped to 8C overnight. Pass holders were kept engaged on the Anzac Commemorative Site by a program featuring music, speeches and short documentaries shown on big screens. HARRY IMPRESSES IN NAVY DRESS Prince Harry made his first official Gallipoli commemorations speech at an event south of Anzac Cove at Cape Helles, where British troops landed during the doomed campaign. Both he and his father Prince Charles are on a whirlwind visit to Turkey to take part in official centenary ceremonies, including this morning’s dawn service at the Anzac Commemorative Site and Lone Pine service. The 30-year-old prince, resplendent in ceremonial dress, read from the 1916 diary of novelist, playwright and naval officer AP Herbert, who served at Gallipoli. The British Royals were joined by Turkish president Recep Tayyp Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. VANDALS TRASH CEMETERY ON EVE OF ANZAC DAY A key Anzac cemetery in the UK has been trashed by vandals on the eve of Anzac Day. The village of Harefield, 45 minutes north of London, has a proud Anzac history since it was the scene where Gallipoli veterans were taken to be healed before being deployed to the Western Front in France and Belgium. But hours before a children’s parade and formal wreath laying ceremony at the St Mary’s churchyard, vandals sawed through a flagpole at the memorial site and peppered a smartphone information board with blue paint. “The vandalism is very upsetting,” a spokesman for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission said.

Originally published as Aussies gather for historic centenary services at Gallipoli