When Italy surrendered on September 8, 1943, the Germans surroun­ded Rome and a considerable number of patrols were set up at all major intersections of the city. At this point all Italian prisoner-of-war camps were left unguarded, and a considerable number of Allied prisoners escaped. A number of them tried to reach the Vatican City, and when the Germans got to know about this, they surrounded the Vatican territory with guards.

A large committee was set up at the Vatican to help Allied prisoners-of-war to escape. This operation was led by an Irish clergyman, Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty. From his Vatican office, and with the co-operation of Pope Pius XII, Mgr O’Flaherty operated an escape operation for Jews and Allied escapees. He saved more than 6,500 people during the war.

From 1943, he began to offer shelter to Allied servicemen seeking sanctuary in the Vatican. Using fake documents and a clandestine com­munications network, O’Flaherty defied the Gestapo’s commander of Rome, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler, and evaded capture through the German occupation of Rome.

O’Flaherty hid British and American soldiers and Jews in safe houses around the city. Kappler had a white line drawn around the boundary of the Vatican and offered a bounty on O’Flaherty’s head.

Several others, including priests, nuns and lay people, worked in secret with O’Flaherty, and even hid refugees in their own private homes around Rome. Among these were Augustinian Maltese, Fr Egidio Galea, Fr Aurelio Borg, Fr Ugolino Gatt and Brother Robert Pace of the Brothers of Christian Schools. Another person who contributed significantly to this operation was the Maltese-born widow Chetta Chevalier.

The Maltese escape committee succeeded in finding 16 billets and apartment blocks in Rome. The prisoners to a convent but did not remain there. Ms Chevalier had a large house in Rome where she hid the prisoners brought from the convent. The Germans made several checks at her house but they never found any prisoners.

When the Germans started suspecting someone of the undercover escape committee he or she would disappeared for some time. No one from the Maltese escape committee was captured by the Germans. The operation lasted from September 1943 to June 4, 1944, when the Allies liberated Rome.

In the meantime, in Malta, some weeks after the Italian surrender in September 1943, an Italian pioneer regiment was brought to Malta to perform military works. Their camp was at Fort Delimara.

No one from the Maltese escape committee was captured by the Germans. The operation lasted from September 1943 to June 4, 1944, when the Allies liberated Rome

Due to the shifting of allegiance from the Fascist side to the Allied side, these Italians were not considered as normal prisoners-of-war. They could leave camp, walk freely down to Marsaxlokk and move around within a certain distance, although they could not frequent towns and villages. They could speak to anybody they wanted to and their camp was not guarded.

Many Maltese soldiers who were stationed nearby frequented the Italians by visiting their camp. Many had no difficulty because they could speak Italian. When they visited the Italian pioneers, they took cigarettes and bars of chocolate from their canteen and, sometimes, even a few bottles of beer. They also took some wine that had been importing from recently liberated Sicily.

It is interesting to note that in this area, a football ground was constructed by Italian sailors who had been interned after the surrender of the Italian naval fleet at Marsaxlokk Bay, on September 10, 1943.

On Sundays, after Mass and breakfast, football matches used to be played in this ground between the Italian pioneers themselves or against teams from other British services stationed in Marsaxlokk area. Whenever one of these games was played, the tension was as high as in any international cup match.

As an Italian surrender became increasingly possible in August 1943, the British started preparations to quickly take advantage of a possible Italian-German split, in the form of a scaled-down Operation Accolade. A force based on 8th Indian Division started to be assembled, and American assistance in the form of Lockheed P-38 Lightning long-range fighter squadrons was requested.

On the announcement of the armistice, the Italian garrisons on most of the Dodecanese Islands either wanted to change sides and fight with the Allies or just return to their homes. However, in anticipation of the Italian surrender, German forces, based largely in mainland Greece, had been rushed to many of the islands to gain control.

The most important German force in the Dodecanese was the Rhodes Assault Division, commanded by Lieutenant-General Ulrich Kleemann. This division had been formed during the summer on the island of Rhodes, which was the administrative centre of the Dodecanese Islands and possessed three military airfields. Because of this, Rhodes was the principal military objective for both the Allies and the Germans.

On September 8, 1943, the Italian garrison on the island of Kastelorizo surrendered to a British detachment, which was reinforced during the following days by ships of the Allied navies. The next day, a British delegation, headed by Lord George Jellicoe (who later became Lieutenant-Colonel), was dropped by parachute on Rhodes in order to persuade the Italian commander, Admiral Inigo Campioni, to join the Allies.

The swift action of the German forces, however, pre-empted the Allies. Without waiting for the Italians to decide, Kleemann attacked the 40,000-strong Italian garrison on September 9, 1943, and forced it to surrender by September 11. The loss of Rhodes dealt a heavy and critical blow to Allied hopes.

Despite this setback, however, the British High Command pressed ahead with the occupation of the other islands, especially the three larger ones, Kos, Samos and Leros. The Germans were known to be overstretched in the Aegean, while the Allies enjoyed definite superiority at sea and the air cover provided by two Spitfire squadrons (No. 7th Squadron, South African Air Force (SAAF) and No.74th Squadron, RAF at Kos was deemed sufficient. It was hoped that from these islands, with Italian cooperation, an effective assault against Rhodes could be eventually launched.

Thus, from September 10 to 17, 1943, the British 234th Infantry Brigade under Major General F. G. R. Brittorous, coming from Malta (formerly the 4th Malta Infantry Brigade), together with 160 men from the SBS, 130 men from the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), A Company, 11th Battalion, Parachute Regiment and Greek Sacred Band detachments had secured the islands of Kos, Kalymnos, Samos, Leros, Symi, and Astypalaia, supported by ships of the British and Greek navies.

The Germans quickly mobilised in response. By September 19, Karpathos, Kasos and the Italian-occupied islands of the Sporades and the Cyclades were in German hands. On September 23, Lieutenant-General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, commander of the 22nd Infantry Division, garrisoning Fortress Crete, was ordered to take Kos and Leros. It is interesting to note that the Italian garrison unit in Crete before the surrender of Italy was the 51st Siena Infantry Division, which surrendered to the Germans after the Italian armistice of 1943.

Having identified the vital role of the Allies’ only airfield at Kos,the German 10th Air Corps started carrying out bombing raids on it and the Allied positions of the island as from September 18. At the same time, reinforcements in aircraft started arriving, giving the Germans 362 operational aircraft in the area of the Aegean by October 1.

The British forces on Kos numbered about 1,500 men, 680 of whom were from the 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, the rest being mainly RAF personnel, and about 3,500 Italians of the 50th Infantry Division ‘Regina’ 10th Regiment.

On October 3, the Germans launched amphibious and airborne landings, Operation Polar Bear, reaching the outskirts of the island’s capital later that day. The British withdrew under cover of night, and surrendered the next day.

The Italian and British forces had ceased organised resistance by 6am on October 4. A German communiqué of October 5 reporting the cessation of hostilities on Kos gave the number of prisoners taken as 600 British and 2,500 Italians, with more Italians coming in.

Around 1,388 British and 3,145 Italians were taken prisoners, while the captured Italian commander of the island, Colonello Felice Leggio, together with his officers, were shot by the Germans, in accordance with Hitler’s September 11, 1943, order to execute captured Italian officers who had taken up arms against Germany.

A number of the British force escaped to neighbouring islands and were rescued by the Special Boat Service operating at night. The fall of Kos was a major blow to the Allies, since it deprived them of vital air cover.

In the aftermath of the fall of Kos, the Italian garrison of Kalymnos surrendered, providing the Germans with a valuable base for operations against their next target, Leros. The operation, codenamed Operation Leopard, was originally scheduled for October 9, but on October 7, the Royal Navy intercepted and destroyed the German convoy headed for Kos. Aside from the loss of several hundred men, the Germans also lost most of their few heavy landing craft.

Meanwhile, in Malta, nearly two weeks after the surrender of Kos, Major-General W.H. Oxley handed over on October 22, 1943, at Castile Square, the first Italian field gun captured in Sicily by the 51st Highland Division in July 1943 during the invasion of that island. The General Officer Commanding Troops Malta told the crowd:

“I have the very pleasant duty today of handing over to the citizens of Valletta the gun which you see before you. This weapon was the first one captured by the 51st Highland Division when it landed on the beaches of Sicily.

“The General Officer Commanding of this famous division sent it to Malta with the request that it should be presented to the people of Valletta, to commemorate the stay of the division on this island preparatory to the invasion of Sicily.

The fall of Kos was a major blow to the Allies, since it deprived them of vital air cover

“Although these troops were only here a few days, they received from everyone such a friendly and kindly welcome that the General Officer Commanding wished to make this presentation as a mark of esteem in which the units of his division held the Maltese people.”

The gun, a Cannone da 75 Mod 1911 (Vickers Terni 1917), was receiv­ed on behalf of the people by Regional Protection Officer Salvino Galea.

Relevant artefacts and information can be seen in the National War Museum in Valletta.

(To be concluded)

Charles Debono is curator of the National War Museum.