The text reads: "Kandanos was destroyed in retaliation for the bestial ambush murder of a paratrooper platoon and a half-platoon of military engineers by armed men and women."
The Razing of Kandanos (Greek: Καταστροφή της Καντάνου) refers to the complete destruction of the village of Kandanos in Western Crete (Greece) and the killing of about 180 of its inhabitants on 3 June 1941 by German occupying forces during World War II.[1][2]
It was ordered by Generaloberst Kurt Student in reprisal for the participation of the local population in the Battle of Crete that had held advancing German soldiers for two days. The destruction constituted one of the most atrocious war crimes committed during the occupation of Crete by Axis forces in World War II.
- ^ MacDonald, Callum. The Lost Battle: Crete 1941, The Free Press, 1993, ISBN 0029196256.
- ^ Mosier, John. Cross of Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German War Machine, NY: Henry Holt & Co., 2006; ISBN 0805083219.