Phaleron War Cemetery, the Athens Memorial
The Phaleron War Cemetery, the Athens Memorial, is the cemetery of 2.067 fallen Commonwealth soldiers since the conquest of Greece by the Germans in 1941 and 1944.
The Faliro War Cemetery is located in Paleo Faliro, on the border with Kalamaki / Alimos, near the outskirts of the stream of Pikrodaphni, facing the beach of Poseidonos Avenue. Opposite the cemetery, on the side of the sea is the Alimos marina.
Initially, the site served as a cemetery for the Commonwealth soldiers who fell during the 1944-1945 Civil War. Then the Greek state with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission decided to turn into a cemetery for all Commonwealth soldiers who fell during the Second World War and carried their bones there from battlefields, military cemeteries, as well as common cemeteries all over Greece. The architect of the cemetery was Louis de Soissons, a French Canadian, who designed many more cemeteries for World War II dead.
At the memorial of the cemetery, the Athens Memorial, there are about 2,882 soldiers not found, from the operations in Greece and Crete in 1941 and 1944-1945, from the Dodecanese and Yugoslavia between 1943 and 1945.
Part of the cemetery is also the cremated monument, which mentions 74 Indian soldiers who were incinerated.
On the northeast side of the cemetery there is a section of graves of soldiers and citizens who died in Greece after being wounded in the Crimean War and initially buried in the Anglo-French Cemetery of Faliro in Neo Faliro, where they were until 1966, when the cemetery was moved to the Faliro War Cemetery, at the request of Greece. In this section, where there is a bilingual inscription titled "Franco British Cemetery - Crimean War" and "Cimetiere Franco Britannique - Guerre de Crimée", there are 23 tombs, obelisk - a common monument for French and British soldiers and six other tombstones.
Sleepers and Mentions
Faliro War Cemetery Monument of Athens Monument of incinerated
United Kingdom 1,443 2,015
Canada 9
Australia 255 329
South Africa 38 2
India 66 56 74
Others 5
Total 2.067 2.882 74
Additional bibliography
«Phaleron War Cemetery, Athens, The Phaleron Cremation Memorial and Minor Cemeteries in Greece and Albania» Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Great Britain, 1995
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