Germans built the memorial as a tribute to the parachutists who fell during the Battle of Crete in World War II. Nazis won this battle but suffered heavy losses and lifted the monument with the eagle on top about 3 kilometers west of Chania on the road to Agii Apostoli. The German name Fallschirmjäger memorial is obviously harder to pronounce than the local alias - Germaniko pouli (German Bird). Cretan people called it also Kako pouli (Evil Bird) but besides the swastika that cemented everything else from the memorial stood for decades after the war.