Tag: WWII

Greece Is The Word

Published on by kiwisdofly25 Comments

Sitting here at Athens airport waiting on the flight to Rome, I am filled with conflicting emotion. We have really fallen for Greece, both the islands of Leros and Crete, our two wonderful islands in the sun with the most friendly people. But we can’t be too sad because we are off to another adventure, with new people, food and paces to explore.

Crete has been a lot of fun! We have to remember that it is winter here so it can be a bit slower than it is in the summer months, though the weather is still very agreeable. We had sunshine most days and the island looked so wonderful and bright, temps got up to 19° C so very pleasant indeed.

We flew into Chania and stayed for 5 nights. We had a room right on the water-front, the location was amazing with a little deck looking out to sea. The evenings were a bit cool to sit out there for long, but we did our best!

Chania has an old Venetian port and a walled city. The old town was so cute with its narrow streets and wonky buildings. But the most amazing thing we found was the mountains behind. We met a lovely lady in Leros who said, don’t forget to look behind you when you are in Chania, the mountains are amazing. She didn’t tell us that they would be covered in snow and be quite so spectacular, she wanted that to be a surprise, and a surprise it was! You could be forgiven to think you were somewhere like Switzerland, the sight caught our breath every time we looked behind us! You felt like you could almost reach out and touch them!

Chania

We did a lot of walking in Chania, but that is easy, everything is in walking distance. And if it is not then the bus system is very efficient. Though we did always seem to be the last people on the bus! Again, a lot of English is spoken so that makes a huge difference.

We took a bus out to Souda Bay one afternoon and then walked the 2 km to the war graves cemetery. During the battle of Crete in 1941, 1000’s of brave New Zealand, Australian and British soldiers were killed. It was a very emotional place, we both felt bewildered when we saw the shear number of silver fern gravestones. Of the 1527 graves, 446 were New Zealanders, that is almost a third. This is the biggest war cemetery we have seen. We were there until twilight, it was very moving.

Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery

Leaving the cemetery we found a small local restaurant, not so much English here! We were shown the food which had been cooked and chose what we wanted, delicious beef with tomato sauce. Such friendly, hospitable people. That is a big part of what we love about Greece, the people!! Just amazing.


We took a trip out to Maleme which was the location of a huge battle during the war. The air strip there was a target to control and the battle went for days. We walked through the olive groves and came to the German war cemetery, we were glad to pay respect to these fallen soldiers too, they also had heavy losses.

German War Graves Cemetery

A trip out to Galatas, Where New Zealand soldiers made a stand and held the Germans off while the Allies could escape. So well the kiwis were thought of, that the locals named a street after them! We have read so many stories of bravery by our boys. It is so important to remember the sacrifices these family’s made for us to live in the world we live today.

Street in Galatas

One particular story really touched me, of a soldier from the Maori Battalion. After 7 days of fighting near Souda Bay, they were exhausted and hungry, the Germans were approaching from the west. As they made contact, Private Aupouri ran out from his defence position wielding a Bren gun like a Taiaha (Traditional Maori spear) And did the Haka! (Traditional Maori war dance) at this they all rose up, NZ and Australian, yelling defiantly and charged as one. The Germans fled, overwhelmed by the ferocity of the attack! For 1000m they pushed them back through the olive grove to open ground then withdrew back to their defence position at “42nd street” This temporarily delayed the advance and allowed 1000’s of Allies more time to get across the White mountain range to the evacuation point on the south of the island. Very sad to note that Aupouri survived the charge but was later killed in Egypt.

I am certain there are many many more stories of tremendous bravery, on all sides, stories that will never be told, very sad.

Did you know …. The Greeks have been Mariners for around 6000 years! Unbelievable!

Heraklion was a great surprise, what a lovely city! Big modern city but very much still village like. Many narrow streets with cobble paths but also lots of open spaces, squares and parks. There is a great atmosphere, so many cafes and restaurants and lots of people socialising, and believe it or not, usually drinking coffee day and night! They love iced coffee or frappe as they call it. Heraklion also has a Venetian harbour with a harbour wall which stretches out 2.5kms, which we did walk one afternoon. There are many monuments and historical buildings.

There doesn’t seem to be as many buildings in bad repair as in Chania, maybe just more re-building done. There are a lot of derelict buildings in Chania. We also noticed that in Leros and read that a lot of the houses that were destroyed during the war were never re-built.

The archaeological museum in Heraklion and the Knossos palace are worth a visit. The Minoan people of around 2500 – 1600BC were believed to be the first great civilisation of Europe, a really advanced race and it is not really known what happened to them. They have found so much evidence of their existence which is fascinating. Mythology and history do overlap a bit and in the museum there is a family tree of the God Zeus. The ruins of Knossos Palace is incredible, the work that has been done from the late 1800’s through to today, to uncover all the artifices and foundations of this amazing settlement is incredible. There is a theory that around 1600BC, a massive earthquake shook the island of Santorini which caused a tsunami which was large enough to wipe out all the Minoan cities throughout the region, but this is not proven. It is even suggested that this civilisation was in fact Plato’s Atlantis……

227 of the 6000 Greek islands are inhabited! Google says “a truly unique phenomenon!”
We have been to two!


We found Greece to be The land of wonderful clear air, beautiful friendly people and deliciously fresh food! We look forward to coming back!

Its a War Zone!

Published on by kiwisdofly2Leave a comment

It literally is! or at least was – Leros was heavily attacked and defended during WWII.  This is a fact that neither of us knew until we arrived here. The Battle of Leros in 1943 was one of great significance in the war and there is so much evidence right in front of our eyes. Chris is really good at all the details, and spends a lot of time researching. What he is finding is there are details of battles and fortifications, but they talk about locations which must have been locally named at the time as it is almost impossible to find the places on our modern day maps. Everywhere you go though, there is something. There is hardly anywhere on this island that is untouched. This is the second most bombed island of the Greek Islands after Crete.

The Battle of Leros was a bit of a disaster, just like Crete. The Italians occupied Leros from 1912 and surrendered in September 1943 to the British. Between September – November, 190 German air raids took place and caused major destruction. The British and Italian defended but had no air support so were bombed to smithereens. Between our place at Gourna Bay and Alinda, in the small gap of 1.5km, is where, we believe, the German paratroopers landed, and with their sea support, effectively cut the island in half. Six days later the British surrender.

Up in the North there is a site where you can easily see the trenches as well as the bunkers. It is so rocky and harsh, I try to imagine what it was like back then when they were under attack. Its hard going walking over the rough ground and I imagine the soldiers, fully kitted up, diving for cover. This area probably looked the same back then and I feel that what I see, they must have seen, its very airy. But now, you can see the bomb craters, evidence of how it was, it must have been so terrifying.

On the West past Lakki there are many many tunnels still accessible. A lot are shelters for the goats now. They all link up and are part of a huge bunker system. There are still ruins of barracks and warehouses. Up there is the remains of one the last 2 parabolic listening walls in Europe.

Right in the middle of the island there is a site with abandoned buildings and you can clearly see the mess room, bunk rooms with lockers. There are basketball courts and social areas. We think it was occupied by Italians, it must have been like a whole town up there!

On every high point there are more bunkers and gun emplacements/batteries. If the concrete housing has gone, you can still see the circle of bolts which held the gun down. Some are completely smashed up and others are very well preserved. Even in the towns, just along the normal everyday road, there are bunkers. We are always amazed when we see another one, we have lost count of how many we have seen!

Lakki harbour is the deepest in southern Europe and this is where Mussolini set up the Italian Royal Navy base. The harbour was heavily fortified with double booms across the narrow entrance and batteries defending it on each side. I have read about submarine nets around too. The sea all around the island is littered with wrecks of ships and airplanes, it really is a living museum. So many lost their lives here. We believe there were over 80 Kiwi special forces deployed here but only half have been accounted for. We have been to the war graves cemetery but no sign of our brave Kiwi boys.

We spend a lot of time wandering around these sites. The Italians were building these bunkers for many years before the war even started, they had occupied Leros for 30 years and knew that someone would be along at some point to try to take it off them – and they did. Quite often there will be a chapel built near where bunkers are, it is nice to be able to go in and light a candle for the fallen soldiers. There are many war relics still to be found all over this island. We are  finding various pieces of metal and wonder what they are from, most likely shrapnel. Chris is doing a bit of snorkelling and comes up with bits a pieces most dives. A lot of bullets, some have been fired, some not. The whole of Leros was bombed to bits. Its fascinating and very tragic.

Leros has a very long and complicated history, an incredibly interesting place. Nowadays she is a sleepy, peaceful island with beautiful people. Today, 8000 permanent residents, 1943 there were 25000 people on the island, it’s hard to imagine what it was like. 

Did you know

The story of the famous novel “Guns of Navarone” is based on the Battle of Leros, and Leros island’s coastal artillery guns — among the largest naval artillery guns used during World War II — that were built and used by the Italians until Italy capitulated in 1943 and subsequently used by the Germans until their defeat.