E ki ana ngâ tupuna
Ko nga mea nui
Te whakapono, te tûmanako
Me te aroha.

[Appropriate at this time
That we should revisit, and
Remind ourselves of what
Is important in remembrance.
Faith, hope and love.]

Thank you all for being part of this 90th anniversary commemoration of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli.

Such was the impact of that landing, and the catastrophe at Gallipoli which was to follow, that this anniversary day, April 25th, has long been our national day of remembrance for all New Zealanders who died in the service of our country overseas.

Today we have among us New Zealand veterans of wars and conflicts from World War II on. Their presence here enables us to pay tribute to them, as we do to all former servicemen and women on this day.

Earlier today we stood at ANZAC Cove as dawn rose, recalling the early hours of the Gallipoli landing.

Now we stand on high ground at a place of special significance to New Zealand.

It was here at Chunuk Bair on 8 August 1915 that the Wellington Infantry Battalion, led by Colonel Malone, stormed the ridge and could see the narrows of the Dardanelles below. Capturing the Narrows was the ultimate objective of the Gallipoli campaign, but it was never to be reached.

New Zealanders held on here at Chunuk Bair for two days, against a fierce counter-attack, and with no back-up and no supplies. In the course of this battle, ninety per cent of the soldiers of the Wellington Infantry Battalion were killed or wounded.

After the failure here, one more attempt was made to make a break-through in the campaign. That was at Hill 60, later in August. When that too failed, the whole campaign was re-thought, leading to withdrawal from the peninsula in December.

The cost of the Gallipoli campaign to New Zealand was very high. Of our 8,556 soldiers here, 2721 died and 4,752 were wounded.

In the whole campaign for the peninsula, more than 130,000 lives were lost, and there were several hundred thousand casualties.

To walk on the battlefields of Gallipoli is to walk on ground where so much blood was shed that it has become sacred soil. That is why it has been designated by Turkey as a peace park, so that all who visit will recognise the horror and the magnitude of what happened here.

For New Zealand, the human sacrifice made at Gallipoli was felt throughout the land. Few households and communities were left untouched. What had begun as a great expedition, and even an adventure, when the troops sailed from home, became a nightmare, and one which was repeated on the Western Front in France and Belgium over the subsequent three years.

What happened at Gallipoli had an ongoing impact on New Zealand. It scarred our hearts and caused immense grief to our families. Yet it also stirred within our people a new sense of national identity. It is said that the troops left home as colonial soldiers in the service of the empire, but returned as New Zealanders. We began to become more certain about our place in the world, and about what our small nation could contribute.

We do look back with awe at the incredible courage the New Zealanders displayed at Gallipoli and in the following campaigns in the Great War. Facing incredible odds, and often poorly clothed, fed, and armed, they nonetheless fought with courage and with honour – attributes which we value greatly to this day, and which have been demonstrated time and time again by New Zealand Defence Force personnel.

At Gallipoli more than two-thirds of our dead were never identified. They have no known grave to which family might come. The same is true of so many New Zealand dead in past wars.

That is why we moved to create and dedicate last year the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Wellington at the National War Memorial. It is a focus for remembrance of all those who died serving New Zealand overseas, and is an especially poignant place for those whose relatives’ last resting place is unknown.

Here at Chunuk Bair we must also pay tribute to the brave Turkish soldiers who gave their all for the defence of their homeland. They won the battle here, and the whole campaign, but at a terrible price. That could have been the basis for long-term bitterness towards those who invaded their homeland. Instead, under the leadership of Ataturk, Turkey offered reconciliation to its former adversaries. In Ataturk’s famous words to the families of the fallen, he said, “You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are at peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.”

Those truly were the words of a great man.

To understand what happened here at Gallipoli is to understand something of what shaped the young nation of New Zealand.

Of our population of about one million at the time, about ten per cent served overseas in World War One. Many never came home, and of those who did many were severely injured and traumatised.

Then 21 years later New Zealand was at war again in Europe and then the Pacific, fighting fascism and militarism. The 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s also saw New Zealanders deployed to conflicts offshore. Deployments continue to this day, although more usually to peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions. But these too have their perils, and we have suffered fatalities and serious injuries in recent years.

Everyone attending this service today has come for their own reasons. Some may have family members lying here; some may want to see for themselves the battlefields where our people fell. But we are also drawn to these services, as people are drawn to ANZAC Day services throughout New Zealand, by a simple sense of solidarity with those brave New Zealanders who served their country and never came home, and with their families who grieved for them.

ANZAC Day is never a day for celebration. It is a day for reflection and remembrance. It is also a day for committing ourselves to working for a world where differences between nations can be resolved without resort to war. In this way we can best honour and pay tribute to the fallen and to all those who served.