June 3, 1941 marks an especially dark day for Greece during the years of the Nazi occupation, as the Cretan village of Kandanos was burned to the ground and all its 180 residents were massacred by German troops.
The Battle of Crete began on May 20, 1941, with Germany employing 750 glider-borne troops, 10,000 paratroopers, 5,000 airlifted mountain soldiers and 7,000 seaborne troops. It was the first occasion where German parachutists were used en masse, and the first mainly airborne invasion in military history.
It was also the very first time German soldiers had encountered mass resistance from a civilian population, and they suffered unexpectedly large casualties.
The outnumbered Greek soldiers, along with the Allied forces based on the island, fought bravely, but were vastly outnumbered. Cretan civilians joined the battle with whatever weapons were at hand — mostly kitchen knives, but rakes, clubs, and even walking sticks were used as well in the hand-to-hand, desperate combat for their homeland.
German parachutists were often knifed or clubbed to death as they landed on fields. In one recorded incident, an elderly Cretan man clubbed a paratrooper to death with his walking cane, before the German could even disentangle himself from his parachute.
In another incident, a local priest and his son broke into a village museum and took two rifles from the Balkan War era and sniped at German paratroops as they landed. The Cretans also began to use small arms from captured German soldiers as the battle went on.
But this valor came at a terrible cost, as the Germans retaliated as soon as they managed to gain control of the island. The temporary German commander of the island, Kurt Student, ordered a series of brutal reprisals against the local population immediately after the surrender of Crete on May 31, 1941.
Every last resident of Kandanos, amounting to 180 men, women and children, were brutally massacred, and their ancient village was burned to the ground.
Below is the order of the German commander:
“It is certain that the civilian population including women and boys have taken part in the fighting, committed sabotage, mutilated and killed wounded soldiers. It is therefore high time to combat all cases of this kind, to undertake reprisals and punitive expeditions which must be carried through with exemplary terror. The harshest measures must indeed be taken and I order the following: shooting for all cases of proven cruelty, and I wish this to be done by the same units who have suffered such atrocities. The following reprisals will be taken:
1. Shooting
2. Fines
3. Total destruction of villages by burning
4. Extermination of the male population of the territory in question
My authority will be necessary for measures under 3 and 4. All these measures must, however, be taken rapidly and omitting all formalities. In view of the circumstances the troops have a right to this and there is no need for military tribunals to judge beasts and assassins.”
We remember the selfless sacrifices of the brave Cretan people on the anniversary of this terrible day in their history.