Dodecanese campaign lies in the south-eastern Aegean Sea, and had been under Italian control since the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. During Italian rule, the strategically well-placed islands became a focus of Italian colonial ambitions in the Eastern Mediterranean. Rhodes, the largest of the islands, was a major military and aerial base. The island of Leros, with its excellent deep-water port of Lakki (Portolago), was transformed into a heavily fortified aeronautical base, "the Corregidor of the Mediterranean", as Benito Mussolini, the Italian leader, boasted. An early British attempt to contest Italian control of the Dodecanese, codenamed Operation Abstention, was thwarted in February 1941,
Dodecanese Regiment the Dodecanese Islands. Led by the Dodecanesian Youth organization, the community organized impressive rallies in Athens and at the same time pressed the Greek Government to allow Dodecanesian volunteers with Italian citizenship to enlist in the Hellenic Army. The request was accepted, and on November 13, 1940, the general headquarters issued the order for the formation of the "Dodecanese Regiment". The true reason for this order was that the Albanian Front had absorbed all the reserves, and the GHQ was in a desperate need for additional forces that would counter the impending German offensive from the Bulgarian border. More than