New Zealand nationals honour war dead on Gallipoli

Australian and New Zealand officials took part in a small Anzac Day memorial ceremony in Canakkale in Turkey on Sunday.

The event at the Anzac Cove memorial marked the 106th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign of World War I.

Officials and visitors left wreathes on memorials and waved their countries' flags at the coast.

New Zealanders Matthew Henry and Tom Letty were also there to pay their respects to the memorials and graves on the Anzac Coast, despite not being able to take part in the official memorial ceremonies.

Henry, the grandson of a World War 2 veteran, recounted his feelings while they were playing the "Last Post Bugle" at the Last Pine Cemetery to honor the fallen, "It was a pretty heartfelt experience. Actually standing there in the cemetery and thinking about what these guys must have gone through over a hundred years ago."

Tom Letty added that the ceremonies on Sunday were very different than the ones they had seen in 2019, where the grass were full of people.

Letty described the mood as somber because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 25 April, 1915, Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and other Allied troops waded ashore on the peninsula.

Their aim was to take control of the peninsula in order to weaken the Ottoman Empire.

The landings marked the start of a fierce battle that lasted for eight months and left around 44,000 Allied troops and 86,000 Ottoman soldiers dead.

Sunday's sombre memorial was kept small due to the COVID-19 pandemic.