Today many of the Greek islands of the Dodecanese are popular tourist resorts. However in 1943 they were the scene of the last successful German invasion of the Second World War. The islands had been occupied by the Italians since 1912 but this was to change with the Italian Armistice of September 1943. With the downfall of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, Winston Churchill seized the opportunity to open a new front in the eastern Mediterranean, thereby adding to the pressure being applied against Germany by the Soviets and at the same time providing encouragement for Turkey to join the Alliance. Rejected by the Americans, it was a proposal fraught with difficulties and, ultimately, one that was doomed to failure. Spearheaded by the Long Range Desert Group and Special Boat Squadron, British garrison troops occupied territory with the assistance of naval forces, but with little or no air cover. They were opposed by some of Germany's finest, including units of the esteemed Division Brandenburg, with ample air and sea support. Men and materiel were sacrificed in three months of operations which ended in a British defeat and with the Aegean under German occupation until the end of the war. The author has drawn on British, German, and Italian sources and uses graphic eyewitness accounts to provide a detailed retelling of the struggle for possession of the Dodecanese and the battles for Kos and Leros in particular. His work is illustrated with more than fifty photographs, including many rare images reproduced here for the first time.
