Dodecanese campaign

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Dodecanese campaign
Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II

Location of the Dodecanese Islands (in red) in relation to Greece
Date8 September – 22 November 1943
Location
Result German victory
Territorial
changes
German occupation of the Dodecanese
Belligerents
 Italy
 United Kingdom
Naval Support:
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
Kingdom of Italy Inigo Campioni (POW)
Kingdom of Italy Luigi Mascherpa (POW)
Kingdom of Italy Felice Leggio Executed
United Kingdom Robert Tilney (POW)
United Kingdom L.R.F. Kenyon (POW)
Nazi Germany Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
Nazi Germany Ulrich Kleemann
Strength
55,000 Italians[1]
5,300 British[1][2]
7,500 Germans[3]
Casualties and losses
Italian:
5,350 killed and wounded[2]
44,391 captured[1]
British:
4,800 casualties[2]
113 aircraft destroyed
1 cruiser crippled
3 cruisers damaged
6 destroyers sunk
4 destroyers damaged
3 submarines sunk
4 submarines damaged
10 minesweepers and coastal defence ships sunk[4][5]
1,184 casualties[2]
15 landing craft destroyed

The Dodecanese campaign of

Armistice with Italy in September 1943, and use them as bases against the German-controlled Balkans. Operating without air cover, the Allied effort was a costly failure, the whole of the Dodecanese falling to the Germans within two months.[6] The Dodecanese campaign, lasting from 8 September to 22 November 1943, resulted in one of the last major German victories in the war.[7]

Background

The

British commandos
.

After the

Arctic convoys."[8] In the Casablanca Conference, the go-ahead was given and Churchill ordered his commanders to have plans ready for 27 January 1943.[9]

Italian campaign. They refused to support it, warning the British that they would have to go it alone.[10]

As an Italian surrender became increasingly possible, in August 1943 the British prepared to take advantage of a possible Italian-German split, in the form of a smaller version of Accolade. A force based on the

Quebec Conference and the US refusal to assent to British plans, the forces and ships earmarked for Accolade were diverted barely a week before the surrender of Italy in the Armistice of Cassibile on 8 September.[11]

Prelude

Fall of Rhodes

The Dodecanese Islands

On the announcement of the armistice, the Italian garrisons on most of the

General Alexander Löhr. The most important German force in the Dodecanese was the 7,500-strong Sturm-Division Rhodos (Assault Division Rhodes), commanded by Generalleutnant (Lieutenant-General) Ulrich Kleemann
. This division was formed during the summer on the island of Rhodes, which was the administrative center of the Dodecanese Islands and had three military airfields. Because of this, Rhodes was the principal military objective for both sides.

On 8 September 1943, the Italian garrison on the island of

Kastelorizo surrendered to a British detachment, which was reinforced during the following days by ships of the Allied navies. The next day, a British delegation, headed by George Jellicoe, was dropped by parachute on Rhodes, to persuade the Italian commander, Ammiraglio Inigo Campioni, to join the Allies. Swift action by the German forces forestalled the Allies; Kleemann attacked the 40,000-strong Italian garrison on 9 September and forced it to surrender by 11 September. The loss of Rhodes dealt a critical blow to Allied hopes.[12]
Many Italian soldiers in the Aegean were tired of the war and had become opposed to Mussolini. Italian Fascist loyalists remained allied to Germany in the Greek campaign. German forces in Greece convinced 10,000 Italians in the Aegean to continue to support their war effort.

Despite this setback, the British pressed ahead with the occupation of the other islands, especially the three larger ones of

Samos, and Leros. The Germans were known to be overstretched in the Aegean, while the Allies enjoyed superiority at sea and the air cover provided by 7 Squadron, SAAF and 74 Squadron, RAF (Supermarine Spitfires) at Kos was deemed sufficient.[13] It was hoped that from these islands, with Italian cooperation, an assault against Rhodes could be eventually launched.[14]

From 10 to 17 September, the

22nd Infantry Division under Generalleutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, which was garrisoning Fortress Crete, was ordered to take Kos and Leros.[16]

Battle

Battle of Kos

Having identified the vital role of the Allies' only airfield at Kos, Fliegerkorps X bombed it and the Allied positions of the island, from 18 September. Reinforcements gave the Germans 362 operational aircraft in the Aegean by 1 October.

50th Infantry Division Regina. On 3 October, the Germans effected amphibious and airborne landings known as Unternehmen Eisbär (Operation Polar Bear) and reached the outskirts of Kos town later that day. The British withdrew under cover of night and surrendered the next day. The fall of Kos was a major blow to the Allies, since it deprived them of air cover.[18] The Germans captured 1388 British and 3145 Italian prisoners.[19] On 4 October, German troops committed the Massacre of Kos, killing the captured Italian commander of the island, Colonnello Felice Leggio, and nearly 100 of his officers.[20]

Battle of Leros

After the fall of Kos, the Italian garrison of Kalymnos surrendered, providing the Germans with a valuable base for operations against Leros. Unternehmen Leopard (Operation Leopard) was originally scheduled for 9 October but on 7 October, the Royal Navy intercepted and destroyed the German convoy headed for Kos. Several hundred men and most of the few German heavy landing craft were lost; replacements were transported by rail and it was not until 5 November that the Germans had assembled a fleet of 24 light infantry landing craft. To avoid interception by the Allied navies, they were dispersed among several Aegean islands and camouflaged. Despite Allied efforts to locate and sink the invasion fleet, as well as repeated shelling of the ports of German-held islands, the Germans suffered few losses and were able to assemble their invasion force, under Generalleutnant Müller, for Unternehmen Taifun (Operation Typhoon) on 12 November.

The German invasion force consisted of personnel from all branches of the Wehrmacht, including veterans from the 22nd Infantry Division, a

The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) and the 2nd Company, 2nd Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (Brigadier Robert Tilney), who assumed command on 5 November. There were also c. 8,500 Italians, mostly naval personnel, under Ammiraglio Luigi Mascherpa
.

Leros had been subjected to air attack by the Luftwaffe beginning on 26 September which caused significant casualties and damage to the defenders of the island and supporting naval forces. In the early hours of 12 November, the invasion force in two groups approached the island from east and west. Despite failures in some areas, the Germans established a bridgehead, while airborne forces landed on Mt. Rachi, in the middle of the island. After repulsing Allied counter-attacks and being reinforced the following night, the Germans quickly cut the island in two and the Allies surrendered on 16 November. The Germans suffered 520 casualties and captured 3,200 British and 5,350 Italian soldiers.[21]

Naval operations

Since the operational theater was dominated by a multitude of islands and the Allies and Germans had to rely on naval vessels for reinforcements and supplies, the naval component of the campaign was especially pronounced. Initially, naval presence on both sides was low, most of the Allied shipping and warships having been transferred to the central Mediterranean in support of the operations in Italy, while the Germans did not have a large naval force in the Aegean. The Germans had air superiority, which caused the Allies many losses in ships. Vice Admiral

Gaetano Donizetti, which had 1,576 Italian captives on board.[12] Another disaster occurred a month later, when USAAF B-25 Mitchells and RAF Beaufighters sank the cargo ship Sinfra, which had 2,389 Italian POWs, 71 Greek POWs and 204 German guards on board, of whom only 539 were saved.[19]

On 14 September, the first Allied loss occurred, when the Greek submarine

RHN Themistoklis prevented them from intercepting the German invasion convoy headed for Kos.[19] Further losses on both sides followed; after the loss of Kos and friendly air cover, the Allied navies concentrated on supply missions to the threatened islands of Leros and Samos, mostly under the cover of night. From 22 to 24 October, HMS Hurworth and Eclipse sank in a German minefield east of Kalymnos, while RHN Adrias lost its prow. Adrias escaped to the Turkish coast and after makeshift repairs, sailed to Alexandria.[19]

On the night of 10/11 November, destroyers HMS Petard, HMS Rockwood and ORP Krakowiak bombarded Kalymnos and HMS Faulknor bombarded Kos, where German forces were assembling for the attack on Leros. The German convoy reached Leros on 12 November, escorted by over 25 ships, mostly submarine chasers, torpedo boats and minesweepers. During the subsequent nights, Allied destroyers failed to find and destroy the German vessels, limiting themselves to bombarding the German positions on Leros. With the fall of Leros on 16 November, the Allied ships were withdrawn, evacuating the remaining British garrisons.[21] By that time, the Germans had also used Dornier Do 217s of Kampfgeschwader 100 (KG 100), with their novel Henschel Hs 293 radio-controlled missile, scoring two hits. One caused severe damage to HMS Rockwood on 11 November and another sank HMS Dulverton two days later.[21] The Allies lost six destroyers sunk and two cruisers and two destroyers damaged between 7 September and 28 November 1943.[6]

Aftermath

After the fall of Leros, Samos and the other smaller islands were evacuated. The Germans bombed Samos with

Gallipoli
-like disaster and laid the blame at Churchill's door; perhaps unfairly so, since he had pushed for these efforts to be made far sooner, before the Germans were prepared.

The British failure to capture the Dodecanese sealed the fate of

Jews living there. Although Italy had passed the anti-Jewish law of the Manifesto of Race in 1938, Jews living on the Dodecanese islands (and Italian-occupied Greece) experienced much less antisemitism than in the German and Bulgarian occupied zones of Greece, which culminated in March 1943 with deportations to the death camps in occupied Poland. The Italian surrender, the German takeover and the failure of the Allied offensive meant that the haven disappeared. Most of the Dodecanese Jews were murdered by the Germans; 1,700 members of the ancient Jewish community of Rhodes (of a population of about 2,000) were rounded up by the Gestapo in July 1944 and only some 160 of them survived the camps.[23][24][25][26] Out of 6,000 Ladino-speaking Jews in the Dodecanese, about 1,200 people survived by escaping to the nearby coast of Turkey.[citation needed
]

Italian prisoners of war were transferred to the mainland by the Germans in overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels, which led to several accidents, of which the sinking of the

Italy, and ensured several months of Spanish tungsten exports for German war industry.[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Levi, Aldo. Avvenimenti in Egeo dopo l´armistizio (PDF). Ufficio storico della Marina Militare. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  2. ^ . Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  3. ^ "8 Settembre 1943 La Resistenza". Archived from the original on 2009-09-22. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  4. ^ "Warandgamemsw.com". Warandgamemsw.com. Archived from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  5. ^ Forsyth, Rob (2011-12-16). "THE BATTLE FOR LEROS – TED JOHNSON AND BILL MINNEAR" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-06. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  6. ^ a b Cunningham Pg 582
  7. ^ Irving, David (1990). Hitler's war. Viking press, p.584
  8. ^ Antony Beevor, Crete, The Battle and the Resistance
  9. ^ Anthony Rogers (2007), p. 49.
  10. ^ Anthony Rogers (2007), pp. 51–52.
  11. ^ Anthony Rogers (2007), pp. 54–56.
  12. ^ a b "Seekrieg 1943, September". Wlb-stuttgart.de. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  13. ^ "rapidttp Resources and Information". rapidttp.com. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  14. ^ Anthony Rogers (2007), pp. 66–67.
  15. ^ "Caithness Commandos:Special Service Overseas:Part 3 by David Bews/Steven Cashmore:Highland Archives". Iprom.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2009-05-04. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  16. ^ Anthony Rogers (2007), p. 87.
  17. ^ Anthony Rogers (2007), pp. 78–84.
  18. ^ "Leros Churchill's folly". Dodecaneso.org. Archived from the original on 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  19. ^ a b c d "Seekrieg 1943, Oktober". Wlb-stuttgart.de. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  20. .
  21. ^ a b c "Seekrieg 1943, November". Wlb-stuttgart.de. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  22. S2CID 154220013
    .
  23. ^ "The Jews in Greece— Introduction". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  24. ^ "Greece Virtual Jewish Tour". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  25. ^ "Holocaust". Rhodesjewishmuseum.org. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  26. ^ "The Holocaust in Greece" (PDF). Ushmm.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-27. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  27. .

Sources

External links