Lot 20436 – 1943 (Sept) Mail from Italian military personnel in Leros carried by British submarine

1943 (Sept) Cover from an Italian military soldier in Leros to Corato, a locality in the South of Italy, showing Leros censorship with « Il Capo Centro Documentale/Ten. Col. Raffaele Garofalo » on front, placed on board a submarine heading for Egypt, censorships on front and back applied in Cairo and treated as it was mail from P.O.W.’s before onward transmission to destination. A very rare and fascinating mail. Cert. Marchese (1994).

Note: The British presence in the Dodecanese commenced in Leros -and surprisingly already in 1943- where they disembarked on 16.9.43 to support the Italians in view of an imminent German attack. There was only one dispatch of Italian correspondence which was carried by a British submarine which left Leros on 28.9.43, and evidently the mail to Italy could only be delivered to the area under control of the Allies, in the south of the country. Later, on 12 November, the Germans will attack the Island and will capture 3,200 British.