Meligalas is a small town of Upper Messinia and is the largest commercial and agricultural center of the region, built on the hill of Prophet Elias, on the left bank of Pamisos, in a fertile valley.
According to the 1940 census, Meligalas had a population of about 3,000 inhabitants. During the occupation it was used as the base of an Italian carabinieri and after the Italian capitulation in September 1943 it became the headquarters of a division of the German Wehrmacht. It was a position of particular importance for the Germans, as it allowed them to control the Kalamata-Tripoli road and the entire region to the south. In the spring of 1944 it became the headquarters of the Kalamata Battalion (Meligala), one of the five Security Battalions that were organized. In April ELAS insulted Meligala, making its first attack on a town defended by a strong German garrison, but its attack was repulsed.
The Germans abandoned Meligala on 4 September 1944 and Kalamata the following day. ELAS laid siege to the village, where men of the Security Battalions had barricaded themselves and captured it after a three-day siege. This was followed by the execution of many prisoners in one of the most controversial incidents before the start of the Civil War. A monument outside the village bears 787 names from 61 towns and villages.
