Enfidha and Takrouna - Lest We Forget

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"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them."

11 November is a date which will always remain special to those who have served in the Armed Forces and to those associated through family and friends. Wherever we are, we try to attend a remembrance service and this year we travelled down to the small town of Enfidha, an hour or so South of Tunis, where the British Embassy had organised a ceremony at the British Commonwealth Cemetery. The sun shone for us too, which is apparently quite different to last year.

Enfidha has a very large cemetery, much bigger than the ones we saw last year at Ras Rajel and Beja. There are 1551 graves there so it is quite a moving and sombre place. Busloads of tourists joined the ex-pats and embassy staff for the service conducted by Rt Rev Dr Bill Musk from St George's Anglican Church in Tunis. The British Ambassador read a moving lesson: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

For all members of the armed forces who are in danger this day,
Remembering family, friends and all who pray for their safe return.

Tunisian soldiers provided a ceremonial guard. They also provided two buglers who tried hard to play The Last Post with the same emotion we are used to at the end of a two-minute silence. We thought they did their country proud.

After the ceremony we bought a book. Cemeteries and Memories is wonderfully put together and worth buying if you are at all interested in the North African campaigns of World War II.

From Enfidha we drove up to Takrouna a few miles away. There we visited the French military cemetery. Many people died defending the strategic hill. It's not hard to see why it was such a valuable place to hold and why so many sacrifices were made. Beneath the hilltop village many Tunisian soldiers are buried near their French counterparts. We were moved to leave our poppies on two of the graves.

Lest we forget.

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Photos

Takrouna
A very strategic position