Souda Bay WWII Cemetery

The Commonwealth War cemetery lies 5 km to the east of Chania, by the old village of Souda, hosting 1527 graves of British, Australian and New Zealanders soldiers and officers. The ground was donated from the Greek state to that very end and is maintained by the cemetery maintenance committee of the British Commonwealth. The relics of the deceased troopers were gathered from four different cemeteries which were built by the occupation forces in the respective Cretan towns. Amongst the British who lie here John D Pedlebury, the British archaeologist who was assigned in 1929 to be the commissioner in the archaeological site of Knossos by Arthur Evans and played an important part in counter-intelligence in WWII. He was disconcealed and executioned in 1941 by the Axis occupation forces in Crete.

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