Italian colonists in the Dodecanese especially in Rhodes and Leros. The Kingdom of Italy occupied the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean sea during the Italian-Turkish war of 1911. In the 1919 Venizelos-Tittoni Agreement, Italy promised to cede the overwhelmingly Greek-inhabited islands, except Rhodes, to Greece, but this treaty was never implemented due to the Greek catastrophe in Asia Minor. With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the Dodecanese was formally annexed by Italy, as the "Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo". In the 1930s, Mussolini embarked on a program of Italianization, hoping to make the island of Rhodes a modern transportation hub that would serve as a focal
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