Editing Crete (section)

===Second World War===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-0864, Kreta, Landung von Fallschirmjägern.jpg|thumb|250px|German paratroopers landing on Crete during the [[Battle of Crete]]]]
[[File:Kandanos Mahnmal.jpg|thumb|250px|War memorial in [[Kandanos]]]]
{{Main|Battle of Crete|Cretan resistance}}

During World War II, the island was the scene of the [[Battle of Crete]] in May 1941. The initial 11-day battle was bloody and left more than 11,000 soldiers and civilians killed or wounded. As a result of the fierce resistance from both Allied forces and civilian Cretan locals, the invasion force suffered heavy casualties, and [[Adolf Hitler]] forbade further large-scale [[paratroop]] operations for the rest of the war.

During the initial and subsequent occupation, German firing squads routinely executed male civilians in reprisal for the death of German soldiers; civilians were rounded up randomly in local villages for the mass killings, such as at the [[Massacre of Kondomari]] and the [[Viannos massacres]]. Two German generals were later tried and executed for their roles in the killing of 3,000 of the island's inhabitants.<ref>[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/warcrimgenrls.htm "Some Noteworthy War Criminals"]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401143013/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/warcrimgenrls.htm |date=1 April 2012 }}, Source: ''History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Development of the Laws of War'', United Nations War Crimes Commission. London: HMSO, 1948, p. 526, updated 29 January 2007 by Stuart Stein (University of the West of England), accessed 22 January 2010</ref>

Following the collapse of fronts elsewhere in Europe, German forces evacuated most of Crete in October 1944 leaving an area including Chania under occupation. The following year the day after [[VE Day]] the remaining Germans under Generalmajor [[Hans-Georg Benthack]] surrendered at [[Knossos]] to British Major-General [[Colin Callander]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Crete: The Battle and the Resistance |first=Antony |last=Beevor |author-link=Antony Beevor |page=176 |publisher=John Murray |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7195-6831-2}}</ref>