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,
The Island Def Jam Music Group of labels and merged them with the Seagram owned MCA Music Entertainment family of labels, forming what is now known as Universal Music. Following the formation of Universal Music Group was the creation of The Island Def Jam Music Group, a company founded through the integration of more than 14 record labels, including former PolyGram flagship labels: Island Records, Mercury Records, and Def Jam Recordings. Despite being a new organization, Island Def Jam quickly made a name for itself in the music industry. The label gained notoriety for its untraditional and innovative approach when it came to breaking new artists,