Italian colonists in the Dodecanese Italian colonists in the Dodecanese Italian colonists were settled in the Dodecanese Islands of the Aegean Sea in the 1930s by the Fascist Italian government of Benito Mussolini, Italy having been in occupation of the Islands since the Italian-Turkish War of 1911. By 1940, the number of Italians settled in the Dodecanese was almost 8,000, concentrated mainly in Rhodes. In 1947, after the Second World War, the islands came into the possession of Greece: as a consequence most of the Italians were forced to emigrate and all of the Italian schools were closed. However, their architectural legacy is still evident,
Dodecanese Regiment out, the LSSAH had entered Kleidi Pass and 2/8 on the right was under extreme pressure. From 14:00 the Dodecanese Regiment on the right of the Australian 2/8 was under increasingly heavier artillery fire, signifying the preparation for the second Kampfgruppe’s attack, and at 15:40 the regiment received the order to withdraw immediately. According to the initial plan, after the withdrawal (the precise time of which was Mackay’s responsibility) the Greek GHQ counted on the Dodecanese Regiment to hold the Kleisoura Pass, the last one before Germans could reach the rear of the Greek Army on the Albanian Front. Unfortunately