Rare footage of World War I Gallipoli battle unearthed

The Australian War Memorial has unearthed what it believes is the only footage of Anzac Cove during the Gallipoli battle of World War I, an iconic event in Australian history which is commemorated each year on Anzac Day.

The one-minute grainy black and white film, which shows the shoreline at Anzac Cove and British soldiers massing at Suvla Bay, was shot in 1915 during the pioneering era of film.

The footage pans across Anzac Cove from a position on the southern headland, showing a clutter of jetties and stores being unloaded.

"Because we have so little authentic footage, everything we can add to this counts as a major discovery, a new possibility for study," Stephanie Boyle, film and sound curator at the war memorial, told reporters.

Australia and New Zealand Corp (ANZAC) forces landed at Gallipoli in April 1915 as part of a British-led allied force, including French and Indian units who were trying to open up a sea route for World War I ally Russia.

The eight-month campaign was a disaster. Allied and Turkish forces suffered more than 300,000 casualties. Anzac Day, April 25, has become the day Australia commemorates its war dead.

The Anzac Cove footage is believed to have been shot by British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, whose report of the Gallipoli landings was the first to reach Australia.

Ms Ashmead-Bartlett produced a 20-minute film With the Dardanelles Expedition: Heroes of Gallipoli - the only known movie footage shot on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 and shows the first genuine vision of troops in action in trenches.

In 1938, the Australian War Memorial bought a documentary film, a compilation of newsreel material, patriotic recruiting films plus some of Ms Ashmead-Bartlett's Heroes of Gallipoli.

The film material was archived and forgotten until 2006 when curators decided to inspect the material and discovered the footage of Anzac Cove.