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Gallipoli centenary: Drone footage captures beauty of peninsula 100 years after ill-fated WWI campaign

World leaders will attend ceremony later today remembering the 144,000 men who perished

Rose Troup Buchanan

Friday 24 April 2015 21:41 BST

The Helles Cape memorial where leaders will gather later today (Getty )

As commemorations for the thousands of men who died in the infamous First World War Gallipoli campaign begin around the world, drone footage has captured the beauty of the peninsula today.

The beautiful footage, recorded by the BBC, belies the tragedy that saw 144,000 Allied and Turkish soldiers perish in one of the bloodiest theatres of WWI from 1915 to 1916.

The ill-fated – and ultimately unsuccessful – campaign took 35,000 British lives, 10,000 French, 1,500 Indians and 10,000 Australian and New Zealand men.

Eventually, as Allied losses mounted, the decision was taken to evacuate the peninsula and abandon the campaign.

Turkish losses were even more severe, with an estimated 86,000 dying as they defended the coastline.

In the footage, a drone flies over the contested beachheads and higher ground so successfully defended by the Turkish soldiers.

It takes in Shell Green Cemetery, Beach Cemetery and Cape Helles which commemorates all the dead of the now infamous Gallipoli campaign.

In pictures: First World War

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Victoria station, London

1914: A soldier saying goodbye to a loved one in the rain at Victoria station, London, as he leaves for the front

In pictures: First World War

Trafalgar Square, London

1914: In Trafalgar Square, London street urchins dressed as soldiers with paper hats and canes as guns stand to attention watched by a small crowd. Behind them is a notice declaring ' The Need for Fighting Men is Urgent'

In pictures: First World War

Marylebone Grammar School, London

1914: Two men conscripted to the British Army undergoing a medical check-up at Marylebone Grammar School, London

In pictures: First World War

Victoria station, London

1914: Two soldiers on the concourse at Victoria station, London, about to leave for the front line. They are carrying parcels full of food and other provisions

In pictures: First World War

British Army

1914: A group of new recruits in training for service in the British Army during World War I

In pictures: First World War

Aisne, France

1914: A lone soldier with a bicycle stands amid the remains of a German motor convoy which lines a country lane after an attack by French field guns in the battle of the Aisne in France

Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

In pictures: First World War

Aisne River, France

1914: German sharpshooters move to a position near the front line, during the fighting near the Aisne River

In pictures: First World War

German naval zeppelin

1914: The L2, a German naval zeppelin during World War I

In pictures: First World War

France

1914: French officers dining in style in a trench near the front line

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Anzac Cove in the Dardanelles

1915: Troops landing at Anzac Cove in the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War

Getty Images

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London

1915: Soldiers arriving at a station in London to travel home for Christmas

In pictures: First World War

German Army

1915: A wounded German soldier

In pictures: First World War

British Army

1915: A wounded British soldier is stretchered back to camp past a carnage-strewn trench, during the World War I

In pictures: First World War

Brighton Pavilion

1915: Injured Indian soldiers of the British Army at the Brighton Pavilion, converted into a military hospital

In pictures: First World War

Fort Vaux, France

1916: A German rifleman beside the corpse of a French soldier in a trench at Fort Vaux, France

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England

1916: Private F.E Henningham leaves for service in the British Army during World War I

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England

1916: The British soldier, Drummer Bent, wearing his Victoria Cross

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Somme, France

1916: Gas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun during the first battle of the Somme

In pictures: First World War

British Army

1916: British soldiers sitting around a lamp in their trench

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Austrian Army

1916: Austrian soldiers in the trenches demonstrating their gas masks

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German Army

1916: Three German soldiers display rats killed in their trench the previous night

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German Army

1916: A German officer leads his men through a cloud of phosphene gas set off by themselves for cover, as they run toward the British trenches

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Austria

1916: A dog finds a wounded soldier lying under a tree in Austria during World War I

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Royal Air Force

1916: Pilots from the Royal Air Force ready to drop bombs by hand over Germany from their aeroplane, a development as in the first stages of the war planes were thought of only as reconnaissance machines

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WWI aircraft

1916: A group of World War I aircraft flying in formation

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French and British troops

1916: French and British troops in a trench on the Western Front during World War I

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Cross Farm, Shackleton, Surrey

1917: Women war workers, at Cross Farm, Shackleton, Surrey

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American Army in London

1918: American soldiers sightseeing in London from the top of an open-decked omnibus at the end of WW I

In pictures: First World War

American Army

1918: A US Army cinematographer filming a US Nieuport 28 biplane taking off during the summer counter-offensive

In pictures: First World War

American Army

1918: An American cinematographer sets up his camera in a water-filled trench

The Prince of Wales and Prince Harry are due to join world leaders later today at the memorial for a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the landings.

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