Operation Accolade

The Italian-held Dodecanese Islands, a scatter of more than a hundred islands between Greece and Turkey, are suddenly un-garrisoned in any reliable sense, and British forces move to occupy them before Germany can.

The plan, codenamed Operation Accolade, is meant to tie down German forces in the eastern Mediterranean and, with luck, draw Turkey into the war on the Allied side.

It is also, from the start, under-resourced.

The Americans see the whole operation as a distraction from the campaign in Italy and decline to commit aircraft or troops.