Interesting & Fairly Complete Story of the German Campaign in 1943 against the Dodecanese Islands
This book covers an almost unknown (to American readers) campaign by the Germans to conquer the Dodecanese Island chain in the autuum of 1943. They were opposed by the British Royal Navy and Army with help from Italian units that had gone over to the Allies and Greek partisans. To make the story short, the Germans completely defeated the British and their allies. How and why this happened is the story of this book.
It is universally accepted that German paratroopers made no combat assaults by parachute after their great losses on Crete in 1941. Well, that is incorrect. They made another assault in 1943 against the island of Leros and were once again successful. Read it here!
Probably the most startling aspect of the Aegean campaign is that the Germans were victorious in the Fall of 1943, well after the invasion of Italy or the Battle of Kursk, and at a time where the Germans were in retreat on all fronts. Except here. The Wehrmacht was still dangerous and capable of defeating ill-conceived actions by the Allies.
The authors spend a good deal of time explaining the British and American political positions concerning a campaign in the Eastern Mediterranean. Essentially, the Americans wanted nothing to detract from an assault on Western Europe and Germany whereas Churchill and the British wanted to nibble around the edges while the Soviet Union did the heavy lifting. Churchill was not to be dissuaded from wasting his assets in the Aegean, and this disaster was the result. Of course, the Germans also wasted attention on this meaningless theater, and the victorious troops in this campaign were eventually left stranded on the islands after Russia forced the Germans to retreat from Greece.
This campaign makes for fascinating reading, and shows how the British were better in defense than attack. Their strategy and generalship left much to be desired, but nonetheless it was the superior fighting qualities of the German troops that ultimately tipped the scales. The Germans simply were more tenacious and outlasted the British.
This book was originally published in 1974 by its British authors, and supposedly was revised somewhat in this 2008 edition. Interestingly, the authors tend to blame the US for not supporting the British in this debacle, but one needs to remember that the US high command had made their position known more than once. Once again the squabble between the British and American leadership in World War II rears its ugly head. Americans said "No", the British said "Yes", and when the British went ahead and were defeated, it was the US's fault for not saving the situation. Sound familiar?
At any rate, this book is very well done and an excellent read. Since Americans interested in World War II are likely to be totally unfamiliar with this campaign, I recommend this book to round out their libraries. Frankly, it is the only work that I know which covers this campaign with more than a passing comment. I gave it four stars since there needed to be more coverage of the German side to enable the reader to come away with a comprehensive understanding of the campaign.
