During the German invasion of Crete , the Allied forces and Cretan irregulars inflicted heavy losses on the Wehrmacht . A reprisal was ordered to send a message to the Cretan population to not resist German occupation of the island . A select group of Fallschirmjäger were chosen to carry out the civilian reprisal which was composed of four trucks full of German paratroopers from the III Battalion of Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1 commanded by Oberleutnant Horst Trebes . On 2 June 1941 , the paratroopers arrived at the village of Kondomari and rounded up the male villagers and chose their victims . Between twenty-three to sixty men were killed in a firing squad while the women and children of the village watched as witnesses to the mass murder which came to be known as the Massacre of Kondomari . As a further reprisal against the Cretans the following day , the 1st Air Landing Assault Regiment of the Fallschirmjäger killed one hundred eighty inhabitants in the village of Kandanos and razed the village to the ground
Massacre of Kondomari
Massacre of Kondomari
Fallschirmjäger (World War II)