As the Ottomans gained control of St Elmo the Knights and two priest's who stayed behind to confess them made their last stand in the Chapel of St Anne. Once the knights where defeated they were decapitated and their headless bodies were nailed to crosses and floated off to their comrades in fort St Angelo. On being informed of this horror the Grand master ordered that the Ottoman prisoners be decapitated and their heads fired back to the Turks this was total war.