GALLIPOLI, Turkey (AP) — As dawn broke, families of soldiers, leaders and visitors gathered near former battlefields, honoring thousands of Australians and New Zealanders who fought in the Gallipoli campaign of World War I on the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated British-led invasion.

Britain's Prince Charles and the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand spoke of the soldiers' heroism on Saturday, in an emotional early ceremony marking exactly 100 years since the dawn landings by Australian, New Zealand and other Allied troops on this peninsula.

The landings at Gallipoli marked the start of a fierce battle that lasted for eight months. Around 44,000 Allied troops and 86,000 Ottoman soldiers died. Australians and New Zealanders mark the anniversary of the landings every year as important national days of remembrance.

"For so many, the rising sun that day would be their last," Australia's Chief of Defence, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin told the crowd of thousands gathered at Anzac Cove near the landing site.

Many of the attendees, who made the long pilgrimage from the southern hemisphere, had slept at the commemoration site in sleeping bags. Most had won the coveted tickets in national lotteries.

The tragic fate of troops from Australia and New Zealand is said to have inspired an identity distinct from Britain. The anniversary of the start of the land campaign on April 25, known as ANZAC Day, after the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, is marked as a coming of age for both nations.

"In volunteering to serve, they became more than soldiers. They became the founding heroes of modern Australia," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at the dawn service.

The doomed offensive aimed to secure a naval route from the Mediterranean to Istanbul through the Dardanelles, and take the Ottomans out of the war. It resulted in more than 130,000 deaths and came to be seen as a folly of British war planning.

The decision to launch the attack nearly ended the career of Winston Churchill, who as First Lord of the Admiralty came up with the plan he thought would help bring an early end to the war.

Prince Charles spoke about soldiers who were "tormented by the thought of their comrades being left behind" and that their graves would remain unvisited.

He appeared to be moved as he read from passages written by Lt. Ken Miller of the 2nd Battalion and Benjamin Leane of the 10th Battalion. Leane had addressed his wife and children from Gallipoli, saying that he was not afraid of death or what comes after. He later died in France, never to see them again.

Turkish officials and soldiers also took part in the dawn remembrance, part of two days of ceremonies at the site of the battle. Gallipoli was also important in the emergence of modern Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk used his prominence as a commander at Gallipoli, known as Canakkale to the Turks, to vault into prominence, lead Turkey's War of Independence and ultimately found the Turkish Republic.

In the Turkish capital Ankara, the mausoleum of Ataturk was left open throughout the night allowing thousands of visitors to pay their respects to their "Gazi" — Ataturk's honorary title as a victorious Turkish warrior.

A century after the smoke cleared from the beaches at Gallipoli, officials from the countries representing both sides of the battles at Gallipoli spoke of their respect for the former enemies.

New Zealand's prime minister John Key noted that when the ANZAC forces landed, Ottoman Turks were defending their homeland.

"We have coastlines similar to this at home. If the situation were reversed we know that New Zealand soldiers would have been willing to lay down their lives to defend their country," he said.

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Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

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