Approximately five thousand of the nine thousand surviving Italian soldiers were executed in reprisal by the German forces . The book '' Corelli 's Mandolin '' , by Louis de Bernieres ( which was later made into the film ' Captain Corelli 's Mandolin ' ) , is based on this story . While the war ended in central Europe in 1945 , Cephalonia remained in a state of conflict due to the Greek Civil War . Peace returned to Greece and the island in 1949 . Cephalonia lies just to the east of a major tectonic fault , where the European plate meets the Aegean plate at a slip boundary . This is similar to the more famous San Andreas Fault . There are regular earthquakes along this fault
nine thousand surviving Italian soldiers were executed
Massacre of the Acqui Division
Cephalonia