Salminger's death prompted General Hubert Lanz, commander of the 1st Mountain Division, to order reprisals within a 20 km radius of the ambush. Lingiades, a tiny mountain village 13 kilometres northwest of Ioannina, overlooks Ioannina Lake and Ioannina from an elevation about 940 m above. The village could not be linked to resistance activity by German intelligence. It may have been chosen as a target due to its visibility from Ioannina. Its nearby destruction would likely spread terror among the local populace.Meyer, 2009, p. 483
