Australia and New Zealand honor their war dead with dawn services on Anzac Day

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of peole have gathered under a full moon across Australia and New Zealand for dawn services to commemorate their war dead on Anzac Day. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon attended a service in his country’s largest city Auckland on Thursday while Australian Prime Minister Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saw the sun rise at a World War II memorial in the wilds of Australia’s nearest neighbor, Papua New Guinea. April 25 is the date in 1915 when the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the beaches of Gallipoli in Turkey in an ill-fated campaign that was the soldiers’ first combat of World War I.