Country: Israel
Historical
Information: Gaza was bombarded by French warships in April 1915. At
the end of March 1917, it was attacked and surrounded by the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force in the First Battle of Gaza, but the attack was
broken off when Turkish reinforcements appeared. The Second Battle of
Gaza, 17-19 April, left the Turks in possession and the Third Battle of
Gaza, begun on 27 October, ended with the capture of the ruined and
deserted city on 7 November 1917. Casualty Clearing Stations arrived
later that month and General and Stationary hospitals in 1918. Some of
the earliest burials were made by the troops that captured the city.
About two-thirds of the total were brought into the cemetery from the
battlefields after the Armistice. The remainder were made by medical
units after the Third Battle of Gaza, or, in some cases, represent
reburials from the battlefields by the troops who captured the city. Of
the British Soldiers, the great majority belong to the 52nd (Lowland),
the 53rd (Welsh), the 54th (East Anglian) and the 74th (Yeomanry)
Divisions. During the Second World War, Gaza was an Australian hospital
base, and the AIF Headquarters were posted there. Among the military
hospitals in Gaza were 2/1st Australian General Hospital, 2/6th
Australian General Hospital, 8th Australian Special Hospital, and from
July 1943 until May 1945, 91 British General Hospital. There was a Royal
Air Force aerodrome at Gaza, which was considerably developed from 1941
onwards. Gaza War Cemetery contains 3,217 Commonwealth burials of the
First World War, 781 of them unidentified. Second World War burials
number 210. There are also 30 post war burials and 234 war graves of
other nationalities
ATHENS MEMORIAL
Country: Greece
Historical
Information: The ATHENS MEMORIAL stands within Phaleron War Cemetery
and commemorates nearly 3,000 members of the land forces of the
Commonwealth who lost their lives during the campaigns in Greece and
Crete in 1941 and 1944-1945, in the Dodecanese Islands in 1943-1945 and
in Yugoslavia in 1943-1945, and who have no known grave. The site of
what is now PHALERON WAR CEMETERY was chosen originally by the 4th
Division as a burial ground for Commonwealth casualties of the Greek
Civil War (December 1944-February 1945). Subsequently, the military
authorities, in conjunction with the Greek Government and the Army
Graves Service, decided that it would be the most suitable site for a
Second World War cemetery for the whole mainland of Greece. The 23rd and
24th Graves Registration Units and the 21st and 22nd Australian War
Graves Units worked together to bring in graves of the 1941 campaign
from the battlefields, temporary military cemeteries and from various
civil cemeteries. There are now 2,028 Commonwealth servicemen of the
Second World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 596 of the
burials are unidentified. Special memorials commemorate casualties known
to have been interred in certain groups of graves in the cemetery, but
whose individual graves cannot be precisely located within these groups.
Other special memorials commemorate casualties re-buried in the
cemetery from original graves which, owing to the destruction of local
records, could not be identified. Also within the cemetery is the
PHALERON CREMATION MEMORIAL, commemorating 74 men of the army of
undivided India who died during the campaigns in Greece and Crete during
the Second World War and who were accorded the last rite required by
their religion - committal to fire. In the north-east corner of the
cemetery, a plot contains the graves of servicemen and civilians who
after serving in the Crimean War, died in Greece, and were buried in the
Anglo-French Crimean Cemetery, New Phaleron. The graves were moved in
1966 when that cemetery could no longer be maintained.
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