Dogfight the Germans from the Dodecanese and from Crete By mid-October some 4,000 British commandos were spread over eight small islands, though none landed on Rhodes Elements of the German 22nd Infantry Division from Crete crossed to Kos on October to eliminate the only British airfield in the Dodecanese They forced the isolated British garrison of under 1,400 men to surrender, took an additional 4,000 Italian prisoners, and summarily executed over 100 Italian officers Churchill’s advisers recommended withdrawal from the Dodecanese, but the Prime Minister pressed ahead with the campaign, essentially reinforcing failure In his defense, he hoped to provoke Turkey into the war against Germany He also saw the island campaign as a preliminary to a larger and long-cherished Balkan campaign, a proposal repeatedly rejected by American military and political leaders The Germans assaulted Leros (Operation LEOPARD) on November 12, overrunning the British garrison of 3,000 men and taking prisoner another 8,500 Italian soldiers and sailors The campaign was over by November 22 Elements of the British and Greek navies took serious losses, mostly from Luftwaffe bombing but also strikes by new radio-controlled missiles used by the Germans for the first time Suggested Reading: Jeffrey Holland, The Aegean Mission (1988) DOGFIGHT Aerial combat between or among opposing fighters; so termed for its twisting, snarling action DOGS Dogs were used by every army in World War II, as indeed they have been by nearly every army that has ever gone to war They served a variety of purposes, some noble and others savage The most common use was to guard prisoner of war camps, concentration camps, or key installations Dogs also served morale purposes as unit mascots Well-trained dogs could act as couriers and, in exceptional circumstances or terrain, as pack or draft animals They were used to sniff out booby traps, caches of explosives, or to locate wounded men or civilians buried in rubble The Red Army trained dogs in packs to search out wounded and drag them to safety on their own, with one or two harnessed to sledges and the rest scouting and pulling wounded men onto a travois-style litter or sledge Dog teams recovered corpses in the same manner They could also locate concealed enemy troops or escaped prisoners and were adept at detecting mines The Soviets also experimented with training dogs to deliver explosives Literal “dogs of war” were harnessed with mines and deployed against German units in several areas of western Russia during heavy fighting in 1941 Some were trained to crawl under vehicles while wearing bombs that trailed wires back to their master’s position, where the wires connected to manual detonators Other dogs were harnessed with bombs equipped with contact detonators rising above their back or head In almost all cases these bomb dogs were shot by the Germans before any damage was done, though some accounts credit Soviet dogs with destroying several dozen Panzers Others blew up Soviet tanks instead, or their handlers U.S Army dogs were trained to locate and attack snipers and did so with real success in Italy and France U.S Marines used dogs extensively in the Pacific to locate hidden Japanese positions British dogs were 316