Suda Bay – War Cemetery

This afternoon whilst driving around the magical island of Crete I came across the Suda Bay War Cemetery. Nestled on the outskirts of Chania, which saw fierce fighting when German Paratroopers launched their wicked assault on the entrenched Allied Forces in May 1941, the bay now serves as a ferry port welcoming passengers from the mainland and perhaps more disconcertingly as a NATO stronghold with naval bases, airfields and missile firing instillations. With our world currently on a knife-edge and catastrophic events unfolding daily in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, there really is an early 1939 vibe hanging ominously in the air.

Suda Bay

Presently it would be vastly more reassuring if the globe was replete with impressive leaders, however the opposite rings true. At a time when calm heads are required, we’ve got a barely lucid Biden, a poisonous Putin and a calculating China. Here in Britain we continue to follow our brothers across the pond in a ceaseless quest of misadventure and murder. Our repulsive political class should take a look closer to home. Public services are in ruins, homelessness abounds, wages are as stagnant as the sewage infested seawater that we are forced to endure and yet we continue to arm warring nations, causing a ceaseless trail of misery and destruction.

I’m far from naive enough to think that all can be rosy in the world, history itself shows us that that has always been the exception to the rule, but compassion and good sense must prevail. Now there are of course ‘noble’ causes and times when a stand must be taken, bullies should never be allowed to prosper. Brave Ukrainian forces have withstood Russian barbarism for more than two years thanks to help from our countries armed forces and the weapons that we have provided but surely the end game must be peace and not constant unnecessary death and war mongering. On the opposite hand we continue to arm an Israeli regime that seems intent in wiping Palestine off the map. Hamas’ sickening attack on Israeli troops and civilians last October was always likely to provoke a response from the Jewish State and rightly so, but the heinous bloodletting unleashed by Netanyahu and his followers has been nothing short of sickening. Kids in refugee camps blown to pieces, families torn apart and cities, villages and towns obliterated are the harrowing and pointless legacy of the last eight months. If Britain and it’s leadership had any remaining shred of respectability it would be doing it’s upmost to bring to a peaceful close to these evil wars, not prolonging them.

In a week were one half of Westminster are basing their already defeated manifesto on reinstating National Service, it would be wise for them to remember this. No longer will Britain’s young lads and lasses jump to defend a country that has crumbled in front of their very eyes, whilst those in control make millions from misery. On the perfectly trimmed lawns of Suda Bay, lie over 1500 young men from each corner of Britain’s commonwealth. Flicking through the list of names earlier today something caught my eye, Gunner Walter Pollitt, Royal Artillery, 27th May 1941, Age 29, son of Earnest and Sophia Pollitt, of Burnley, Lancashire. Eighty three years ago yesterday, this poor Lancastrian lad laid down his life. Being a fellow Burnley’er and the same age as Walter when he perished, I spent a while at his grave and had a silent moment. Walter and his pals fought Hitler’s fanatics until the bitter end and we should honour their memory by always striving to build a better world than the one they left behind. One were equality, opportunity, laughter and love reign supreme.

The grave of Walter Pollitt