Brian and Andrew

Yesterday we held the annual service of Remembrance at the Souda Bay War Cemetary

This year was the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of WW1

The Piper led in the procession

The flags were flying and the sea was still and calm, very different to the war when this area saw some savage fighting

Wreaths were laid on behalf of different regiments and arms of the armed forces

We had two Veterans of the Cretan conflict of WW2 with us.

 There were representatives of the Regional Governor of Crete, the Municipality of Hania and an MP   ( Mr Virvidakis) from Hania

The mayor of Apokoronas Mr Koukianakis and his wife

Thank you to everyone who made the occasion possible and especially to those we were remembering

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs 

And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots 

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, 

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; 

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . 

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, 

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 

Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest 

To children ardent for some desperate glory, 

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 

Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Thought to have been written between 8 October 1917 and March, 1918