Dodecanese of Italianization, hoping to make Rhodes a modern transportation hub that would serve as a focal point for the spread of Italian culture in the Levant. The islands were overwhelmingly Greek-speaking, with a Turkish-speaking minority and an even smaller Ladino-speaking Jewish minority. Immigrant Italian speakers were a marginal language community. The Fascist program, in its many attempts to modernize the islands, eradicated malaria, and constructed hospitals, aqueducts, a power plant to provide Rhodes' capital with electric lighting, and established the Dodecanese Cadastre. The main castle of the Knights of St. John was also rebuilt. The concrete-dominated Fascist architectural style detracted
Dodecanese Regiment the Greek liaison at Mackay’s HQ ordered the Dodecanese Battalions I and III to march to Kleisoura Pass and Battalion II to be brought by British vehicles to Vlasti Pass. This order made also clear that the withdrawal had to be completed by 18:00 and that the Allied Command would bear no responsibility if the Greeks failed to withdraw in time. Due to the lack of transportation, the mounting German pressure and the order’s strict timeframe, the regiment ordered the field battery to destroy their guns on the spot and the battalions had to destroy all materiel unable to be