The Italian island of Kasteloryzo on the Turkish coast at some distance of the other Dodecanese islands must have been vulnerable to British attacks. What happened on Kasteloryzo in World War Two?
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Kastellorizo was first engaged directly with the war when its ​population enthusiastically welcomed English commandos who landed on the island at dawn on February 24, 1941. However, the Allies left and the Italians returned. On September 13, 1943, the Greek destroyer “Admiral Koundouriotis”, taking advantage of the Italian capitulation, sailed to the port and Kastellorizo ​​was the first piece of Greek land to be liberated. Castellorizo ​​was fortified and transformed by the British into a supply center for the Allied fleet. From October and November 1943, German Stukas began air battles with the Allies, demolishing all the houses that had been left standing and forcing the few inhabitants to leave the island either to the opposite Turkish shores or in the Gaza refugee camp of Nuseirat. Only one woman, Despina Achladioti, known as “The Lady of Ro”, remained on the rocky islet of the same name to raise the Greek flag every morning, as she used to do for forty years.
Nevertheless, the Germans failed to take Kastellorizo.
After the end of the war, hundreds of British soldiers arrived on the uninhabited, now, island, and as soon as they found out that the houses were unprotected, they looted them. When the old residents demanded the return of the most prosperous area of ​​the island, the Allies set the area on fire, in order to cover up the looting. The fire destroyed 1,400 homes.
In 1945, the people of Kastellorizo returned to their homeland in three groups. The latter suffered heavy casualties after a fire broke out on the ship “Empire Patrol”, on September 1945, the ship on which they were aboard, as a result of which 33 people drowned and several were burnt alive, including 14 children.
Finally, the island remained under allied military control until March 7, 1948, when Kastellorizo, along with the entire Dodecanese islands, was united with Greece.
Italians in Kastellorizo, 1941
Refugees from Kastellorizo in Nuzeirat, Gaza.
Survivors from the “Empire Patrol” disaster
The “SS Empire Patrol” after the disaster
November 1943, British anti-aircraft crew
Kastelorizo in 1945
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