More than 8700 of their Australian cousins also died and the Anzac phenomenon was born.
More than 130,000 young men died in total on the slopes of that peninsula, Turks and Allied armies. At least 87,000 Ottoman soldiers died fighting for their homeland.
Gallipoli has, ever since, marked our history. We lost, the Turks won. We abandoned Gallipoli and in time ended up on the Western Front in Belgium where New Zealand was to pay another huge price in blood alongside their Aussie cobbers.
Between the end of 1915 and war's end in November 1918 another 12,500 New Zealand boys died in or near Flanders Fields.
New Zealand's population at that time was 1.1 million, with nearly 10 per cent of that population serving overseas. Of that 10 per cent serving, 60 per cent were killed or wounded, proportionally more than any other British Empire country.
In 2017 Professor Jay Winter of Yale University provided a chilling comparison: "To put that extraordinary loss into a modern context, if today's New Zealand population participated in World War I, we'd send half a million Kiwi soldiers to fight, of whom 90,000 would be killed, 200,000 would be wounded [losing arms, legs or their eyesight, etc.]"
New Zealanders won 11 Victoria Crosses and distinguished themselves as one of the best Allied armies but at a huge cost in death and injury.
The world did it all again 21 years later, dealing with a megalomaniac psychopath Adolf Hitler, a fascist thug Mussolini and a Japanese Emperor with serious expansion issues.
In that war another generation, the sons and nephews of the original Diggers, paid another huge price - 11,900 deaths. This time New Zealand women also served in significant numbers, about 10,000. Some paid the ultimate price. This does not include the Women's Land Army and the thousands of women who stepped into industry during the war.
War has marked our country forever and it seems it will continue to do so sadly.
Anzac Day is a day of remembrance, a day we remember those young New Zealand people who gave their lives or whose lives were severely shortened by injury in the cause of freedom from oppression. Freedom, a topical but very misunderstood word for some just now.
I have never attended Dawn Parade.
Families did not do this when I was small. Dad would arise in the dark, put his suit and tie on, pin his medals to his breast and shuffle off quietly leaving us all slumbering. In my town just about every home had a parent, some two, who served in World War II and grandparents and uncles who served in WWI.
So the Dawn Parade in those days was all adults, maybe with some cadets, guides and scouts attending as well. After the parade the traditional rum and coffee would be served in town halls or RSAs all over New Zealand.
Dad would arrive home about 9am for breakfast and head off again to spend the day at our local RSA with his old comrades sharing memories and libations. They would also visit other RSAs in our city, driving of course, too far to walk.
As the day wore on the medals would begin to sag and the ties loosen. Tired dads would be home for tea and off to bed early for work the next day. Another sad day for men who, when young, were trained to kill other young men.
Anzac Day was a quiet solemn day back then. Shops and pubs were shut until 1pm. It was most definitely not a family day. It was like Sundays back then, families tended to stay around home out of respect.
The world is back on the cusp of madness yet again as you read this. One hundred and seven years later and powerful old men are still using young men for their own selfish needs and ambitions.
It is beyond comprehension that young New Zealanders will again go to Europe to fight for the sake of freedom but in life stranger things have happened.
When we see the madness in Ukraine we must never forget what involvement in such folly has cost us as a very small country, the disproportionate cost we paid in two world wars.
