A WOODEN CROSS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 178, 10 November 1941, Page 2

A WOODEN CROSS

LONELY GRAVE DISCOVERED

AN UN-KNOWN SEAMAN

A lone grave found on the shores of the Mediterranean at a New Zealand Ciamp serves as a reminder oi the silent though heroic part played in the 1 war by the men of the mercantile marine service. The grave has been discovered by members of a New Zealand mechanised regiment who: recently moved into that area. A pathetic sight in its loneliness the grave now appears as a mound on which a few rou'gh rocks from the nearby beach are resting. A simple wooden cross stands at the head of the grave and bears the simple inscription: "Unknown Br sxxin. —M 3.5.41." How great a story could so few words tell. This man belonged to an unsung service and his epitaph is an unostentatious as was his service. But it has profoundly impressed these New Zealand soldiers. The body was apparently washed up on the shore and buried there by soldiers camped in the vicinity at the time. When he probably lost his life members of the N.Z.E.F. were engaged in one of the fiercest conflicts of the Avar, and it is not unlikely that this unknown seaman was part of the crew of a ship bringing aid in some form to our cause. This solitary sepulchre in the sand, with its crude cross and simple epitaph must remind the New Zealanders camped there of the campaigns of Grecce and Crete, and of the unfailing devotion to stern duty shown by members' of the Royal Navy and the merchant service.