Anderton at Gallipoli for ANZAC day

Jim Anderton will be present at Gallipoli for the dawn of ANZAC Day on behalf of the New Zealand government. The Governor General will also be representing New Zealand at the ceremonies.

"It will be moving to attend a ceremony which commemorates the valour and heroism of New Zealand, Australian and Turkish soldiers," said Jim Anderton.

"The ANZAC campaigns in Turkey and Greece in two world wars were defining moments for New Zealand and New Zealanders."

"The memorials here remind us again of the horrors of war and the tragic loss of young lives which was the price of fighting here," Jim Anderton said.

Jim Anderton will speak at the ceremony of the recorded thoughts of a young soldier as he approached the shore for the landing on the first Anzac Day, and will hear the music "Behold the Narrow Hills" composed by Army musician Sergeant Dwayne Bloomfield, which will be played before the official commencement of the ANZAC Day dawn services.

The music by Bloomfield, who is based at Canterbury Military Camp, Burnham, follows the journey of the soldiers enlisting in the New Zealand Infantry Brigade, their training in Egypt, and their involvement in the fierce battle for Chunuk Bair. It ends on an elegiac note as a veteran visits the battlefield.

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