Souda Bay

Near the mouth of Souda bay, between the Akrotiri and the town of Kalives, there is a group of small islands with Venetian fortifications.

The Venetians fortified Souda Island between 1570 and 1573, in order to protect the area from Ottoman raiders and pirates.

The Venetians managed to hold on to the strategic islands within Souda Bay until 1715, over thirty years after the fall of Crete to the Ottomans.

[2] During World War II British and Commonwealth troops withdrew from mainland Greece in April 1941 and 25,000 men, mainly from New Zealand and Australia, disembarked at Souda Bay.

In May 1941, during the German attack named "Operation Merkur", Allied troops retreated from the Souda area to Sfakia in the south of the island.

Souda Bay is the location of three major military installations: the Hellenic Navy's Crete Naval Station,[3] which also houses the NATO Maritime Interidiction Operational Training Centre; the Hellenic Air Force's Souda Air Base on Akrotiri Peninsula, base of the 115th Combat Wing;[4] and the NATO Missile Firing Installation.

[8] A special local stamp depicting Souda Island was issued on November 15, 1913, to commemorate the union with Greece and was sold only by Cretan post offices.

This stamp, printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company in the United Kingdom, is commonly called the "Souda Issue".

Souda Bay inlet, with the Izzeddin Fortress in the foreground
View of Souda bay by Jan Peeters , 1690
French nautical chart of Souda Bay in the 18th century.
The arrival of the first High Commissioner in 1898
Illustration of units of the International Squadron arriving at Suda Bay, on 21 December 1898. The French protected cruiser Bugeaud , carrying the High Commissioner, leads the column. She is followed (right to left) by the Russian Gerzog Edinburgski , the British battleship HMS Revenge , and the Francesco Morosini .
The Souda Bay Allied War Cemetery
"Souda" stamp (1913)