Souda Bay War Cemetery
Souda Bay War Cemetery (officially: Suda Bay War Cemetery ) is a war cemetery that was established by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in Souda near the bay of the same name on the Greek island of Crete .
location
The war cemetery is in Odos Mavridaki in Souda on the land bridge to the Akrotiri peninsula .
history
The Allied military cemetery was established after the Second World War by the 21st and 22nd Australian War Graves Units (Australian war graves units) and also relocated fallen soldiers from cemeteries near Chania, Iraklion, Rethymnon and Galatas who had been buried there by the German occupation forces . This was also followed by the reburial of soldiers from the graves of civil cemeteries and remote places.
Occupancy
Most of the soldiers buried here were members of the land forces who died in the airborne battle for Crete in May 1941 during the Second World War .
In addition to the 1527 Commonwealth soldiers, 776 of whom could not be identified , 19 graves date back to World War I and were reburied at the Suda Bay Consular Cemetery, including one unidentified. There are also 7 graves of other nationalities and 37 of civilians. After nationalities of the Commonwealth broken down is at the identified fallen to 343 New Zealanders, 248 British, 140 Australian, nine South Africans, five Canadians, one Indian.
The British archaeologist John Pendlebury , who was curator for the British School in Athens in Knossos and who continued the excavations during the Second World War, is also buried in this cemetery .
There are also two German graves in the military cemetery, by mistake. Following an agreement between the CWGC and the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge , it was decided not to transfer the remains of the two German civilians Carl Wagner and Johann Troyer from Souda Bay to the German military cemetery in Maleme .
layout
The design regulations and drafts of the military cemeteries by the CWGC provide that every soldier should be given the same honor regardless of origin or rank group . This resulted in evenly arranged structural elements in Souda (compare the article Commonwealth War Graves Commission ).
Line of sight
There is a cross in the middle of the visual axis . At the entrance there is also the hall of honor, in it a war diary and the death register are kept. The military cemetery is surrounded by large eucalyptus trees.
Tombstones
Each grave has a single-storey headstone made of English sandstone on which the name, rank , age, religious affiliation and date of death are carved. The emblem of the unit to which the fallen man belonged is also engraved.
planting
The entire area of the cemetery is a continuous lawn .
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 30 ′ 0 ″ N , 24 ° 3 ′ 40 ″ E