More than 60 years after they laid down their lives in World War II, a bugler sounded the 'Last Post' for soldiers from India as President APJ Abdul Kalam paid tribute to them at a cemetery near here.
ATHENS: More than 60 years after they laid down their lives in World War II, a bugler sounded the 'Last Post' for soldiers from India as President APJ Abdul Kalam paid tribute to them at a cemetery near here.
Though other Indian leaders have visited the Greek capital, none of them paid tribute to the unsung soldiers who fought for the British, far away from their homes.
Soldiers from formations like the Punjab Regiment, Madras Sappers and Miners, Corps of Royal Indian Engineers and Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners took active part in campaigns under the Commonwealth flag and breathed their last miles away from their dear ones.
The soldiers from undivided India were killed during 1941-44 and laid to rest with troops from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Poland at Phaleron War Cemetery, a few kilometres southeast of Athens.
The mood was sober as the President, the supreme commander of India's armed forces, arrived at the cemetery last evening.
Silently, the 75-year-old Kalam walked up to a pillar erected in memory of the troops.
As Kalam placed a wreath, a Greek soldier sounded the 'Last Post', signifying the end of the troops' journey in life.
A two-minute silence was observed in their memory after which Kalam took a look at the names of 56 Indians whose graves or bodies were never found.
After this, he visited another part of the cemetery where 74 Hindu soldiers were cremated and another 66 were buried.
One of the graves was that of Mian Khan, a 17-year-old personnel of the Indian Electrical and Mechnical Engineering who died in action on December one, 1944.
As Kalam made his way between the graves, the Greek soldier played 'The Rouse' on his bugle, signaling the end of mourning and a time to wake up again.
The scientist-turned-president later wrote in the visitors' book at the cemetery, "I salute all these soldiers."
The Indians were killed while participating in the Allied campaign in Italy, notably the battles of Monte Cassino, Central Italy and the Gothic Line. Indian troops were later sent to Greece to help stabilise the country and to prevent communists from seizing power after the Germans withdrew.
Commonwealth troops who died on Crete and whose graves were not identified are commemorated on the Athens Memorial in the Phaleron cemetery.
The cemetery was designed by Louis de Soissons, a Canadian by birth who designed Welwyn Garden City before World War II and was the architect for all war cemeteries and memorials in Italy, Greece and Australia.
The Phaleron cemetery is laid out symmetrically in 16 plots, with the Cross of Sacrifice in the centre.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of troops from Commonwealth nations who died in the two world wars, for building and maintaining memorials to the dead whose graves are unknown and for providing records and registers of these burials and commemorations, totaling 1.7 million and found in most countries across the world.
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