Battlefield Relic museum from Crete

[yorgi]

From what I understand, this gentleman's father was a true militaria and gun-nut hoarder... Started collecting every sort of battlefield relic from southern Crete in 1946 and tracked down other people's finds for decads later. His son has now converted this warehouse into a private military museum and gives private tours.

In the first 3 minutes, he describes how the Germans overtook the Australian, NZ, and Canadian troops and forced them to retreat to southern end of the island.
Most of the collection, he states, are abandoned weapons and other material left from the retreat, most are British-made items.

Very interesting too see everything just laid out bare and rusted, same way as it was found. When he points to the SMLE wall he states that "some are made in Canada"...

Sorry, the complete video is in Greek. The show-and-tell starts at the 3:10 mark with a Bren carrier track.

 

[x westie]

Actually Canadian troops were not involved in the battle for Crete , it was a mixture of Brits , Australians , New Zealanders , Greeks and Creteans , also Crete civilians played a role too, attacking the German paratroopers , as they were landing , with any weapons they could lay their hands on , axes , scythes , knives , clubs

 

[student of history]

Ευχαριστώ for posting this! I chuckled when the interviewer asked him if he had a family and he responds with “only five kids” haha! It’s nice to know that his son will maintain the museum when he retires. I guess I’ve got to add Crete to my bucket list.

 

[QM 8687]

A cased Reilly Revolver left behind at garrison. Must have been a senior Brit officer's .
Good video.

 

[grabbers]

Actually Canadian troops were not involved in the battle for Crete , it was a mixture of Brits , Australians , New Zealanders , Greeks and Creteans , also Crete civilians played a role too, attacking the German paratroopers , as they were landing , with any weapons they could lay their hands on , axes , scythes , knives , clubs

There are Canadians burried at the CMWGS site in Chania.

 

[fingers284]

My father in law was raised on Crete during the second war. The stories he told us about the Nazi occupation/cruelty or I should characterize it as the "German occupation" as I don't buy that "I was in the war but I wasn't a Nazi" bs...if they participated, they were Nazi's...period, would turn your stomach.

I visited Kalavrita when we were there in 89, very sobering site where the Germans massacred a whole town's population... every man, woman and child, children...no, babies as young as 6 months old listed on the cenotaph.

 

[yorgi]

My father in law was raised on Crete during the second war. The stories he told us about the Nazi occupation/cruelty or I should characterize it as the "German occupation" as I don't buy that "I was in the war but I wasn't a Nazi" bs...if they participated, they were Nazi's...period, would turn your stomach.

I visited Kalavrita when we were there in 89, very sobering site where the Germans massacred a whole town's population... every man, woman and child, children...no, babies as young as 6 months old listed on the cenotaph.

My mother's hometown had 49 of the villagers executed in just one day -around 10% of all it's inhabitants- in the same cleanup operation. Two of my great-aunts had their husbands executed and had to personally retrieve their bodies, the next day... in late July... nuff said...

Been to Kalavryta as well, like you said, very sombering. As best as I can remember however, every male over the age of 16 was rounded-up and executed by machine-gun fire, around 700 in total. The women and children were herded into a school which was set on fire... Thankfully, an Austrian officer saw the insanity of the operation and personally broke down a back door saving almost everyone inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Kalavryta

 

[x westie]

There are Canadians burried at the CMWGS site in Chania.

Yes , I checked the Commonwealth War Graves online and there are Canadians buried on Crete , all are Airforce, died in 1942 , 44 , 45 , I could not find any Canadians killed in the fighting in May 1941 , as there were no Canadians in the ground forces involved

 

[student of history]

My family is from Kalavrita and my grandfather was actually in the surrounding area as the massacre unfolded. A number of my family members were killed that day, including my great great uncle who was the priest of the local church. He was executed for attempting to free the women and children from the burning school house.

Attached are a few photos I took with my grandfather in Kalavrita during the summer of 2018. He is currently 95 and was hoping to travel back this year but it's not looking like that will be possible. Finally, I have attached a photo of him that was taken in 1945 (sporting a newly acquired USGI M1A1 Thompson). I suspect that the war had just ended.

Cheers,
SoH

 

[fingers284]

Wow ^^^those photo's brought back some memories, besides the sobering thoughts while there, the wild train ride that is the only access to the village ( at east there were no automobile roads when I was there) and the small mausoleum that is centered on one of the photos ( the building with the black door & black cross on it) that contains a coal oil lantern from every home that had someone killed. On the anniversary they light every lantern in the place.