103 Officers Of The Italian Army

Within the grounds of the Catholic Church there is a small cemetery, here you will find a memorial stone dedicated to 103 Italian Officers. In 1912 Kos came under Italian control, this was supposed to be a temporary measure, but when Mussolini came to power all hope of Kos being reunited with Greece faded. Italy's attitude to the Dodecanese hardened when Greeks defeated the Italians on the Albanian front in 1940. On 3 October 1943 Germany invaded Kos. On 13 October 1943 Italy changed sides and joined the Allies. Three and a half thousand Italian solders and officers were arrested and taken to Kos Castle. 110 officers were invited to serve in the German army, seven accepted; the other 103 were transferred to the small port of Tigaki in tiny groups where, they were told, they would leave for prisoner of war camps on the continent. Instead, a few kilometres away, they were shot by a machine gun hidden in the bushes. A year later 66 bodies were found in 8 mass graves in “Campo delle Fosse” Linopoti. There was no trace of the remaining 37. Germany remained in occupation of Kos until the end of the war. On 9 May 1945 the British took over, and on 31 March 1947 Kos was officially handed over to Greece. The location of the memorial to the 103 Italian Officers is easy to find; close by is the Roman Amphitheatre, the Acropolis, and the Altar des Dionysus.