November 29, 2005
Forty-Five White Headstones (revisited)
Earlier this year I visited Tirana, Albania. While there, I made a surprising discovery: a WWII gravesite full of British soldiers.
[The headstones] mark the British war dead of 1940-45. Albania wasn't a major theater of action, but apparently things were happening, because forty-five British soldiers got killed. (I counted the stones.)It was very moving. The stones were simple white limestone. Each had a regimental crest -- "South Lancashire Fusiliers," and such -- a name, age, dates, and a short line. Sometimes these were obviously dictated by the family ("Your wife and mother will cherish your memory"); more often, they were lines of poetry or Bible verses. The youngest soldier I saw was 22; the oldest, 37.
The whole enclosure wasn't more than twenty feet by thirty, tops. It sat at a wide spot in the path, overlooking the little lake. There was a small stela with some withered poppy-flower wreaths, presumably laid by the local British community.
I did notice one odd thing about the site: the headstones seemed much older than the graveyard itself.
...the enclosure and stela were obviously new, not more than a few years old. But the headstones looked older, possibly old enough to date back to the war. The obvious conclusion would be that there was an original cemetery set up by the British just after the war, but that the Communist government shut it down after relations soured. (But then, why keep the headstones? Or did they simply move the whole thing to some isolated spot in the mountains for 45 years?)
That post got a number of interesting comments.
First, the little graveyard turned out to be a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Site.
"Following the end of the war in Europe, an Army Graves Registration Unit entered Albania with the task of concentrating the remains of Commonwealth Servicemen, lost in the struggle to secure Albania freedom, into a site chosen in the capital, Tirana. However, due to the political situation in the country, this task could not be completed, though 52 sets of remains were recovered in the short time available. Eventually, in 1955, after repeated requests to enter the country were refused, the Commission took the decision to commemorate the 38 identified casualties on special memorials erected in Phaleron War Cemetery in Greece. This situation remained thus until 1994, when a change in the political situation in Albania allowed a Commission representative access for the first time. He discovered that the original individual burials had been moved by the Communist authorities to an unmarked collective grave located under a path near the university buildings in Tirana."
An unmarked collective grave. Gotta love Enver Hoxha. After nearly 50 years, I wonder how they found them?
Anyway, that explains why the gravestones looked old, though the graveyard was obviously new:
"At the beginning of 1995, the 38 special memorials were removed from Phaleron and re-erected as close as possible to the site of the mass grave, in an area designated the Tirana Park Memorial Cemetery. In 1998, following a study of the Graves Registration unit files, it was possible for the Commission's records staff to confirm the identities of a further seven casualties previously buried in Tirana War Cemetery as unknowns."
The same site also has a nice photograph of the graveyard, and capsule biographies of the dead soldiers.
I mention this because, in the comments to the original post, I cited one of the capsule bios:
Lot of Special Ops fellows, which makes sense. A couple of air crews. Several Australians, too. Two NCOs who were just 19 years old.And one Chaplain 4th class -- the Reverend Gareth Bernard, age 32, son of the Revd. Edgar Banting and Charlotte Emily Banting, of Plumtree Rectory, Nottingham. M.A. (Cantab.).
A Cambridge man, who came a long way from Plumtree Rectory.
Months later, I got this e-mail:
I was pleased to find a reference at last to Revd. Gareth Banting. My father-in-law in named after this gentleman, who was a close friend of his father's at Cambridge.I was looking for any further details of Revd Banting's death. The story told in my father-in-law's family is shocking and hard to credit in its original form.
The story was that he died in North Africa. He is said to have come across a British sergeant about to drive a party of German prisoners across a minefield. Unable to countermand him, Revd. Banting undertook to accompany the Germans, and was killed.
Such an atrocity would be difficult for any British person to accept, especially in North Africa where the war was generally fought with chivalry - one of the German commanders called his memoirs 'Krieg Ohne Hass' - War Without Hate...
Knowing however that Revd Banting died in Albania, the incident becomes more credible. I couldn't comment on the attitude of British Special Forces (he was attached to 2 Commando)to taking prisoners in general, but in a partisan war - especially this partisan war - the killing of prisoners would be much more common. The partisan war in the Balkans was as I understand fought with brutality and atrocity on all sides, especially against civilians and prisoners.
Personally I attribute the destruction of Yugoslavia in the 1990's substantially to the grief and hatred the Germans left behind - every bit as bad as in Poland and Russia.
I wanted to revisit this because I strongly agree with that last point. Much of the recent bloody history of the Balkans gets attributed to "ancient tribal hatreds". That's nonsense. A slightly more sophisticated analysis ascribes it to the fissures left by the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. That's a bit better, but it's still missing a huge piece.
The Second World War is the elephant in the kitchen of Balkan history. Many if not most of the region's problems -- especially its problems with violence -- date back to that war and its aftermath. In Southeast Europe, World War Two was very bloody and very bitter, and it left festering scars that have not entirely healed today. Every country in the region was drawn into the war, and every country in the region took heavy casualties.
So, for instance, Kosovo. World War Two rolled over it with blood and fire, just like the rest of the Balkans. It was annexed to Italian Albania, then taken over by the Germans two years later. Tito's Communists and the Serbian Royalist Cetniks both were active all over the province, shooting at the Germans and at each other. The Albanians tended to support the Axis, and some joined the "Skanderbeg" Waffen SS division. (A few went the other way and joined the Communists. None went with the Cetniks.)
So, between Communists, Cetniks, Germans and Albanians (Nazi and non), Kosovo was a free-fire zone through much of 1944. And even after the Germans left, the killing kept on. The province wasn't really quiet until 1949, and Tito's new government had to kill a lot of Albanians first. So, much of the bitterness in the 1980s stemmed not from "ancient" hatreds, but from mutual accusations of atrocities, massacre and ethnic cleansing in the years between 1941 and 1949.
Anyway. God rest the late Reverend Gareth B. Banting. And may it be a long time before any other Cambridge men have to come to the Balkans to die.
Doug,
Thank's for this interesting story. I think you're right when you write that WWII was a more important factor in the wars during the 1990s than any 'historical' hatreds.
Of course, the breakup of the Ottoman empire led to WWI which led to WWII which led to Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. But still, if things had been cleard up properly after WWII instead of being pasted over, things MIGHT have turned out differently.
Question is if the current solutions (independence for the former Yugoslav republics and, soon, Kosovo) will provide enough closure to the heal the wounds from WWII and the new ones from the 1990s.
Posted by: Oskar L. at November 29, 2005 04:38 PMThanks for a timely tale. In any war there are acts of heroism, men of greatness; atrocities and men of petty shallow vengence and cruelty. Sometimes the atrocities are even committed by otherwise great men and sometimes the heroics are accomplished by petty cruel men. It takes a long time to sort out the truth -- and that's a job seldom suited to journalists with no background the military or foreign cultures writing on a short deadline for a sensation-hungry public. ("Professionals" of which discipline lately can't seem to distinguish between phosphorous and phosgene ... but I digress.)
The US military's Graves Registration unit seems to me to be a rather under-honored part of the process of truth sifting and justice seeking. Grant we may never see a "Tomb of an Unknown Solider" occupied this century.
Posted by: Pouncer at November 29, 2005 06:09 PMI have also been in contact with the gentleman whose in-laws were acquainted with Rev Gareth Banting after mentioning the cemetery on my blog. I have been doing some research on his behalf and taking more photographs of the site for him and though you migh b interested in the following which is as much as I have so far managed to discover about the circumstances in which Rev Banging met his death:
"Regarding the circumstances of Rev Banting’s death there is not much I can tell you. The standard history of the war in Albania is that of Berndt Fisher - /Albania// at War 1939-1945/. He deals only briefly with the events of October 1944. However, putting his material together with information form the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the British Embassy in Albania – together with the information on the headstones themselves I have come up with the following.
The British landing took place at the southern Albanian city of Saranda. This is just across from the Greek island of Corfu and it seems that the puropse of the landing was to prevent German soldiers escaping from Corfu as the allies advanced.
The raid was carried out by elements of 2 Commando Brigade. 2 Commando Brigade consisted of Nos 2 and 9 Commando, and Nos 40 and 43 Royal Marine Commando. The Brigade was active throughout the war in North Africa, Greece, Yugoslavia and Italy.
The landing at Saranda appears to have been carried out by 2 and 40 Commando and, according to Fisher, took place on 9 October 1944. This ties in with the list of those commemorated at the cemetery. Of the 45 men named, 13 died on either the 9^th of October or the following day. Of those 13, seven were Marines from 40 Commando. The remaining six, including Rev Banting, were attached to 2 Commando.
According to Fisher once again, the British worked with local resistance fighters under the leadership of Islam Radovicka, but did not actually inform Hoxha and his partisans of the forthcoming raid. As a result Hoxha was furious and the raid created tensions between the British and the partisans. The suggestion that elements of Greek resistance movements may also have been involved exacerbated the issue since the Greeks had always had their eye on Southern Albania where there was a significant Greek community. Shortly after the raid, with the city under Albanian control, the British forces withdrew leaving behind some elements of the Long Range Desert Group who continued to work with the partisans.
After the war, the new regime under Hoxha told a different story regarding the liberation of Saranda. In one version they claimed that they had liberated Saranda long before the British arrived. In another they claimed that it was the partisans who had done most of the fighting during the raid and that the British had left after Hoxha gave them some kind of an ultimatum.
This is as much as I have been able to find out about the events of those days, and I’m afraid it does not answer your questions about the circumstances of Rev Banting’s death. However, the British Embassy website here in Albania does have a report of a visit to Saranda and to the cemetery in Tirana made by former members of 40 Royal Marine Commando who took part in the raid. The visit took place in 2003, so it seems that at least some of those involved were still alive at that stage. You can find the story at this web address: http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1067967492405"
I also received a fascinating comment from another blogger who pointed me to an article written by Enver Hoxha's daughter in which she claims that the red marble memorial stone was taken from Hoxha's grave after his reburial. I'm trying to find out the truth of the story and I'm hoping it is true. There would be a delightful justice in knowing that the man who tried to pretend these men never existed has now been moved to a position of obscurity while his memorial stone now memorialises them.
Posted by: Alwyn Thomson at December 19, 2005 11:26 PMI was with the Veterans of 40 Royal Marine Commando when they visited Albania in 2003. My late grandfather served with the Unit. We were told by the Albanian interpreters, assigned to us via the British Embassy, that the memorial stone was indeed from Hoxha's grave.
We were well looked after by the Albanians. We met the President and Defence Secretary and were taken to the Albanian Commando Brigade's camp, Zallher, to see training and hear about the Brigade's organisation.
I was with the Veterans of 40 Royal Marine Commando when they visited Albania in 2003. My late grandfather served with the Unit. We were told by the Albanian interpreters, assigned to us via the British Embassy, that the memorial stone was indeed from Hoxha's grave.
We were well looked after by the Albanians. We met the President and Defence Secretary and were taken to the Albanian Commando Brigade's camp, Zallher, to see training and hear about the Brigade's organisation.
I was with the 40 Royal Marine Commando Veterans who visited Albania in 2003. The Albanian interpreters, assigned to us via the British Embassy, told us that the memorial stone in Tirana park did indeed come from Hoxha's grave.
As well as visiting the Cemetery, we met the President and the Defence Secretary; we were taken to Zallher, home of the Albanian Commando Regiment, where we saw training and heard about the organisation and deployment of the Regiment. It was a remarkable visit.
In Sarande, the secretary of 40 RM Commando (1942-46) Association, himself a veteran of the Albanian operations of 1944, told the mayor "Last time we were here we blew the town up!"
I was with the 40 Royal Marine Commando Veterans who visited Albania in 2003. The Albanian interpreters, assigned to us via the British Embassy, told us that the memorial stone in Tirana park did indeed come from Hoxha's grave.
As well as visiting the Cemetery, we met the President and the Defence Secretary; we were taken to Zallher, home of the Albanian Commando Regiment, where we saw training and heard about the organisation and deployment of the Regiment. It was a remarkable visit.
In Sarande, the secretary of 40 RM Commando (1942-46) Association, himself a veteran of the Albanian operations of 1944, told the mayor "Last time we were here we blew the town up!"
Doug, great story. One of the units in that operation you wrote about - we portray in our organization: 43 (Royal Marine) Commando, which served alongside other Commando units, British Army infantry Regiments as well as the specialists of the SBS and even the OSS in the hellfire that was the hit-and-run of the Aegean Sea battles. I have attached our URL - please visit us - we are just up on the net and hope to have our pics up soon. All the best. Regards, Michael W (Mick) Stewart, Project Director, U.S. Veterans Remembrance Association (USVRA). ProjectRemembrance@yahoo.com
Posted by: Michael W. (Mick) Stewart at June 27, 2006 08:03 AM