The two German army officers who raised the German flag on Crete paid a heavy price for their provocative action. They were dismissed from the German army in speedy procedures, in less than a week after the unprecedented incident.
last Sunday, April 14, the two -23-year-old German army officers took down the took down the Greek flag and hoisted the German one in Stavros area of Akrotiri in Chania Prefecture.
They were immediately arrested and taken to court the following day, where each one received a 10-month suspended sentence. They were sent back to Germany immediately.
They were serving at the 115th Wing Battalion of the NATO.
According to local media on Crete, a German senior officer said that back in Germany the two officers were referred to competent military authorities in order to give account for their action and to be punished exemplary so as not to have such an serious incident occurring again.
The act put the German government in difficult position and the German ambassador to Athens had to apologize to the Greek side, flashnews.gr reports.
The two German officers took down the Greek flag and replaced it with a German one. They put the Greek flag under a stone.
They told the Court on Crete that they had no intention to insult the Greek flag but they did not convince the judges.
It should be reminded that the incident took place just a month before the 78th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, a very tragic chapter in the history of the island. The airborne occupation of Crete by the Nazis during the WWII started on 20. May 1941 and ended with more than 5,000 casualties for he Allied Forces and the Nazis. Among the dead were also them 426 local civilians.