Dodecanese campaign
| Dodecanese campaign | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II | |||||||||
Location of the Dodecanese islands (in red) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Germany |
Italy United Kingdom Naval Support: | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller Ulrich Kleemann |
Inigo Campioni Luigi Mascherpa Felice Leggio Robert Tilney L.R.F. Kenyon | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 7,500 |
Italy: 55,000 Britain: 5,300 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
1,184 killed, wounded and missing 15 landing craft destroyed |
Italy: 5,350 killed and wounded 44,391 captured 1 destroyer sunk 10 minesweepers and coastal defence ships sunk Britain: 4,800 killed, wounded, captured and missing 115 aircraft destroyed 4 destroyers sunk 2 submarines sunk Greece: 1 destroyer sunk 1 submarine sunk | ||||||||
The Dodecanese campaign was the capture and occupation of the Dodecanese islands by German forces during World War II. Following the signing of the Armistice of Cassibile on 3 September 1943, Italy switched sides and joined the Allies. As a result, the Germans made plans to seize control of the Dodecanese, which were under Italian control. The Allies planned to use the islands as bases to strike against German targets in the Balkans, which the Germans aimed to forestall.
Beginning in early September 1943, invading German troops defeated both the Italian garrison in the Dodecanese and British forces sent to support them, aided by the fact that Allied units were operating without sufficient air cover. Most of the Dodecanese islands fell to German forces within two months, resulting in one of Germany's last major victories during the conflict. The Germans continued to occupy the Dodecanese islands they had captured until the end of the war in 1945, when they surrendered to British forces.