Crete ANZAC Commemoration Trip, May 2013
We arrived back in London on Saturday evening from a fabulous trip to Crete, from the 4th to the 11th of May. If only it had been longer! To give an account of what we did each day, at this stage, I am going to post what Ian Frazer (one of the trip organisers and New Zealand historian) has sent out in summary in an email to everyone who took part - he sums it up well!! Then planning on updating with a few more photos and more personal stories & moments that Ben & I experienced on Crete.
To Friends of Tripiti
The Tripiti Commemoration Group disbanded this week-end after a momentous week on the south coast of Crete. We fulfilled our primary mission of commemorating the last evacuation, and erecting what we hope will be a permanent memorial to the evacuees and to the people of Western Crete who so steadfastly looked after them and ensured their safe return to Egypt.
Before the week began, we were able to enjoy the rites and practices associated with Greek Easter. In Sougia itself, at midnight on Easter Saturday, they closed the streets and turned on a huge feast for villagers and visitors alike. What a welcome for the group!
There was more feasting on Sunday, when we took everyone across to Paleohora. [Although in fact we didn't make this trip; I actually slept for the ENTIRE day on Sunday - recovery from minimal sleep and frantic essay writing all last week!! Ben was at loose ends but went for a swim and checked out Sougia].
On Monday, after an energetic morning walking down Ag Irini Gorge...
[Ben & I ran down, then at the end of the gorge we realised everyone was at least an hour behind so we ran back into town. Decent 13km!]
...we started the commemorations with an evening meeting in Sougia Museum, combining talks (from Toula Nanathaki-Papatheros and Corinne Falagaris) and a presentation of historical video clips. The Mayor and Vice-Mayor of Kandanos-Selinou came over from Paleohora, and gave us an effusive welcome. As part of the video presentation there were two messages of support from Australia; one from Farleigh James, an Australian veteran of Tripiti, and the other from Hal Corbould.
Tuesday, 7 May, was the big day at Tripiti. Fortunately the weather was perfect. Captain George and his son started their ferry service to the gorge at 9 and by 11 most of us were down there.
The Australians and New Zealanders who made up the main party were joined by a small group from Britain (Tim and Bridget Todd, Chris and Pete White). We also had a priest from Ay Roumeli (Papa Evyenios), the Vice-Mayor from Paleohora, a full turn-out from Seliniotika Nea, Costa Paterakis, and many other Cretans from the Selino area. Captain George also brought his pet kri-kri, Romeo! Among our group there were six families (2 x Aust and 4 x NZ) with direct connections to soldiers in the 1943 evacuation. There was also one Cretan with a close connection to the evacuation group: Marcos Polychronakis, the nephew of Eleftheria Robinson, one of two Cretan women on the boat. She had married a British soldier, Sidney Robinson, in Crete, and left with him on the night of 7– 8 May.
We will describe the service in full and distribute all the photos later on. When the formalities had finished, the Tzatzimakis family from Ay Roumeli kindly served us with roast goat, specially baked bread and as much raki and wine as we dared drink. After much eating, talking and drinking we started the ferry shuttle service back to Sougia, where we continued to share stories and celebrate a highly successful day.
On Wednesday we all went up to Koustoyerako for a service (rescheduled from Monday) to acknowledge the vital role played by the village in the build-up to the final evacuation. The Mayor and Vice-Mayor came across from Paleohora, most of the village turned out, and many others came up from Sougia, and further afield. We started our service at the Three Villages Memorial at the entrance to the village...
...then adjourned to the former school/now village museum just up from the memorial, for speeches, congratulatory messages, exchange of gifts and light refreshments. One of the gifts for Koustoyerako was a painting by Ruth Riordan for the village. We also had a lovely message from Ruth.
From the school we were taken to a kafeneion/taverna in the village for a fantastic outdoor lunch. There were around 40 of us altogether, filling the veranda of the taverna, eating salads and pies, several servings of meat, pilafi, roast vegetables, and as much wine and raki as we could drink. The hospitality was overwhelming as Koustoyerako is renown for.
On Thursday, we drove across to Azogires for a day, hosted by Eftihis (Lucky) Koukoutsakis. Even though we arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm, Lucky kept us entertained for an hour until the weather cleared and we were able to visit the two village museums in the old monastery.
Lucky and his family turned on a magnificent lunch, with a selection of Cretan pies, and different salads, and again much wine and raki. In the afternoon we visited other parts of the village, including fugitive caves...
...and Arthur Pauling’s ‘back shed’ behind the original Kriari/now Paterakis home.
On Friday [...] The first minibus returned to Hania Friday evening.
[After packing our bags, Ben & I went for a run to the church above Sougia in the morning>>This is the view from the Church!
...then had a relaxing lunch on the waterfront before heading north in the minivan to Hania.
We stopped at small towns on the way which all had monuments to the families executed during the German occupation for harbouring ANZACs and/or Greek resistance (Freedom) fighters.
Once back through the White Mountains and on the North coast we visited Maleme aerodrome (site of the main German airborne attack named "Mercury" of paratroopers), Hill 107 (where the Allied forces essentially lost the Battle of Crete) and the town of Galatas (where NZers are infamous for leading a counter-attack charge up the main street and many stories of heroism were made here -ref photo).
This evening had dinner with the others who had come to Hania that day with us - finished the evening with Hania Hangovers shots (greek yoghurt & raki)>>>
...under a tarpaulen due to a sudden torrential downpour of rain!! We left for the airport on Saturday morning.]
A lot has been left out of this quick review of the week’s activities but there will be a much fuller account later on. We had a lot of publicity through the week from Cretan and NZ newspapers, RNZ and others. We will try and send the links as we sort them out. We also distributed a commemoration booklet through the week which everyone appreciated.
We all feel here that this has gone way beyond our expectations. There is no doubt now that Tripit is on the map among all the other memorial sites commemorating the Crete Campaign and its aftermath. The escaper/evader story will never be fully complete, but with this memorial it is much more complete than it was before. We have a de facto custodian of the site in Yiorgo Gentikakis (Captain George). With other regular visitors to the gorge (like the Tzatzimakis family), he is already planning further enhancements to the memorial, starting off with a stone wall surround in keeping with the wall that is around the church. There are other ideas too which we will advise you about later.
We have another service at Tripiti on the 20th, being conducted by the Municipality of Sfakia. In the meantime, all the different organisers will catch up on much needed sleep and, for the rest of their time in Crete, return to a quieter life. There is a large list of people who we need to acknowledge for helping make this week the success that it was. We have listed them in our commemoration booklet so I won’t repeat them all here. We do appreciate all the assistance that was given to us in Crete, Australia and New Zealand. There will be photos, video and a much fuller report to come to acknowledge your support.
Thanks again.
Ian
Signing off... from Ben & Rach