On this day, at this hour, exactly 90 years ago, the finest examples of a generation of Australia's young men were creeping silently towards the burning wreckage of the French town of Villers-Bretonneux.

They were struck with fear.

But as the shooting started, the hope of an omen steeled their resolve; just after midnight, the men smiled to each other as the call was passed on: "It's Anzac Day."

Twelve bloody hours later, these same men who took heart from the already legendary story of the ultimately doomed beach landings at Gallipoli just three years earlier had achieved a feat soon recognised as perhaps the greatest individual one of that Great War.

Five generations and six deadly wars since that bloody conflict that was supposed to end them all, Australians will again this morning creep through the darkness – as they have every year since, to dawn services. And as they make their way along the streets of cities those original Diggers would recognise only by name they will share the same refrain; again, it's Anzac Day.

Later, (from 10am in Brisbane) their numbers will swell as Australians of all ages pay their respects to those original Diggers and the ones that went after them at marches that get bigger every year.

Despite the ranks of the old Diggers dwindling, their proud descendants marching in their place have in recent times joined the veterans of new wars to ensure the event remains relevant.

The day will be marked in the same way in even the smallest towns across Australia and New Zealand – where the cenotaph honouring the memory of the Diggers is still often the central feature – and in more than 60 countries around the world.

We will gather, not to glorify the war, but the sacrifice; to celebrate the peace that every one of the more than 1.5 million Australians to have served in war has fought for.

From Thailand to Papua New Guinea, Korea to Vietnam, the Last Post will echo across the world.

It will be sounded this year at Sandakan in Malaysia by a young bugler from the Darwin-based 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment.

He will play for the hundreds expected there to pay tribute to the 2434 allied prisoners of war – including 1793 Australians – forced on three death marches by their Japanese captors. All but six of the prisoners died.

In Israel's city of Beer-Sheva (formerly Beersheba), the ceremonies will this year take on extra significance, with a new memorial to be dedicated early next week to the famous Australian Light Horse charge there in 1917 – the last great cavalry charge of warfare.

Anzac Day will be marked, too, at the William Farr Church of England School in Lincolnshire, situated on the site of World War II air base Dunholme Lodge.

Since last year, a plaque has been installed there to honour the Australians who flew Lancaster bombers from the base – men who flew into the night knowing that one in three of them would never again see Australia.

Also, in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 2500 men and women continue to carry the Anzac legend into the War on Terror will stop to remember.

Theirs will also be a very personal tribute as they honour those comrades whose names have been added since last Anzac Day to the ranks of more than 102,000 Australians to have died serving overseas: Ashley Baker (East Timor), Matthew Locke (Afghanistan), David Pearce (Afghanistan), and Luke Worsley (Afghanistan).

Services will also be held in the other theatres where another almost-1000 Australians are deployed overseas: East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Israel, Sudan and Sinai.