The island of Crete is a popular destination for tourists, offering not only golden beaches and blue seas but a long and fascinating history and numerous myths associated with the island. Alongside the reminders of the more recent conflicts of the Second World War are ancient ruins and exquisite works of art, giving a glimpse of Europe’s first great civilisation, the Minoans, who built the palace at Knossos, reputedly the home of the mythical King Minos and the Minotaur. There are also the ruins of a Dorian city state, the mighty walls of Venetian fortresses and the towering minarets of Ottoman mosques.
In September 1945, representatives of the New Zealand Division returned to the island to pay their respects and commemorate the battle. On 29 September 1945, 100 officers and men from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force under their commander, Major General Bernard Freyberg attended a memorial service on Crete and spent three days on the island, having been given a fantastic welcome by the local population. By then, the site of the Allied war cemetery had already been chosen (June 1945) and it lies in the north-west corner of Souda Bay, around three miles east of Hania and sheltered to the north by the Akrotíri Peninsula. The cemetery is enclosed with trees and shrubs, has a neatly tended lawn and slopes gently down to the water. It is carefully looked after by three gardeners. The vast majority of those buried here (1,509) were killed in the fighting on Crete, with 19 First World War and 37 other graves having been transferred from the Souda Bay consular cemetery in 1963. Many of the latter graves are not identified as a result of the occupying forces having moved many of the remains from their graves in the fighting areas to four large burial grounds, which they called British military cemeteries. In doing so, the identities of many of the remains were lost. The four burial grounds were at Hania, Heraklion, Rethymnon and Galatos. Commonwealth troops, whose graves are not identified, are commemorated at the Phaleron war cemetery in Athens.
An aerial view of the damage visited on Maleme airfield, in a photograph taken during a bombing raid by the RAF. A number of Ju-52s can be seen as having been wrecked and lay scattered about the area. There is also evidence of shell impact craters just to the right of centre. (Alexander Turnbull Library, DA-02059)
The Souda Bay war cemetery was designed by Louis de Soissons (1890–1962), who designed Welwyn Garden City before the Second World War and was the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s architect for all their Second World War cemeteries in Italy, Greece and Austria. The forecourt is paved in marble and limestone, while pebbles are set in decorative patterns all around. A shelter, containing the register box and historical notice, sits on the left side of the cemetery and is made out of limestone, with a red tile roof. The cemetery is laid out symmetrically in 16 plots, with the memorial in the centre.
A copy of Crete News, of which three editions were produced. The newspaper was edited by 2nd Lieutenant G. Cox who was a journalist in civilian life. It was an attempt by Freyberg to halt the spread of wild rumours. Cox managed to be evacuated on board the cruiser HMS Perth. (Alexander Turnbull Library, DA-06845)
The German war cemetery is located near to Maleme, on Hill 107, where a large number of Germans were killed, with a memorial to the Fallschirmjäger just to the west of Hania on the coast road to Maleme. The cemetery was inaugurated on 6 October 1974 and contains the graves of 4,465 soldiers. The cemetery is divided into four areas associated with the main battlefields of Hania, Maleme, Rethymnon and Heraklion. Olive groves slope gently down to the west and the River Tavronitis. A set of steps leads up to the cemetery, which also has a number of benches, usually located in shady areas where one can sit and contemplate. Through an open hall, with a book containing the names of the dead, a path leads upwards to the graves, which are enclosed by walls. Each stone tablet contains the names of two servicemen, while in the centre of the cemetery lies a memorial square and the names of some 300 soldiers who were killed in the battle but whose remains could not be found. Many survivors helped with the work on the cemetery, and it is to the credit of the local population that they maintain the cemetery to the same high standard as the Allied cemetery in Souda Bay. Indeed, one of the first cemetery keepers was George Psychoundakis, a famous member of the Cretan resistance and the author of The Cretan Runner, a book translated by Patrick Leigh-Fermor. Many years after the war ended, he buried the remains of General Bruno Bräuer, which had been transferred to the German war cemetery from Athens at the request of the Association of German Airborne Troops. Both Bräuer and Müller had been sent back to Greece in 1946, to stand trial for war crimes that had allegedly been committed while they were in command in Crete, Müller being the most notorious for his brutality, Bräuer the least guilty of all. Both were sentenced to death. The date of the executions was distastefully delayed until the sixth anniversary of the invasion, 20 May 1947. Bräuer’s death so shocked international opinion that Andrae and the other senior officers escaped with prison sentences.
Many other memorials to the fallen are scattered across the island at such places as Sphakion, Heraklion and Galatos. They include the RAF Memorial at Maleme, the Royal Artillery Memorial on the Akrotíri Peninsula, the Stavremenos Memorial to the Cretan resistance, and the Prevelli Monastery plaque that reads:
This region after the battle of Crete became the rallying point for hundreds of British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers, in defiance of ferocious German reprisals suffered by the monks and native population. They fed, protected and helped these soldiers to avoid capture and guided them to the beachhead where they escaped to the free world by British submarines.