The Italian authorities in Rome had been negotiating the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies and the Germans had been manoeuvring to launch a coup in Italy and Italian-garrisoned areas in southern Europe, at the first sign of treachery to the Axis.

When the Armistice of Cassibile was announced, on 8 September 1943, Admiral Inigo Campioni was the governor of the Italian Dodecanese, the Cyclades and the Northern Sporades; his seat was in Rhodes.

The Gadurra air base, near Kalathos, had no aircraft, as its torpedo bombers had been transferred to Italy some months earlier, and the Kattavia Airfield had been abandoned in early 1943 and rendered unusable.

Around 20:30, shortly after news of the armistice arrived, Campioni held a meeting at the Palace of the Grand Master; as there were no orders about how to act, no decisions were taken.

Campioni only had the Badoglio Proclamation, which had been broadcast to the other Dodecanese islands, highlighting the last sentence, which ordered Italian forces to react "to eventual attacks from any other source [than the Allies]".

At midnight, Kleeman, now upset, asked Forgiero for permission to freely move his forces to be able to quickly oppose a possible British landing but received a strong refusal.

A British aircraft over Rhodes dropped thousands of leaflets signed by General Henry Maitland Wilson, head of the Middle East Command, ordering the Italians to take control of the German positions and to move their ships and aircraft to British bases; Campioni did not comply, in part because the origin of the leaflets was dubious.

The German steamer Taganrog, loaded with ammunition, was moored in the harbour and her captain asked for permission to unload and leave the island.

Daviso proposed sending the destroyer Euro, which was at Leros, to bombard the air base but the suggestion was rejected; Briganti obtained permission from Campioni to use the artillery.

On the night of 9/10 September, British Majors Julian Dolbey (who spoke Italian and acted as interpreter) and George Jellicoe and a sergeant with a portable radio parachuted onto Rhodes; they were brought to the Palace of the Grand Master, where they met with Campioni.

Campioni suggested air raids and landings in the southern part of the island to divert German attention from the city of Rhodes but Dolbey replied that they lacked the means to meet these requests.

At 13:00 Dolbey, who had been injured in landing with his parachute, was given a letter from Campioni to Wilson asking for assistance and was evacuated to Symi on a motor torpedo boat.

As units from the inland part of the island were already reinforcing the garrison of the city of Rhodes, Euro was sent back to Kos with its troops.

A British colonel arrived and immediately met Campioni, who once more asked for diversionary actions and for fighters to oppose the Luftwaffe.

The colonel asked if he believed that a German attack on the city of Rhodes was imminent and how long the Italian garrison would be able to resist; then he was accompanied to the harbour and sent to Kastelorizo.

One of the German officers added that the final conditions would be arranged with Kleemann and that Campioni had half an hour to decide, after which the city of Rhodes would be bombed.

False reports circulated that German tanks had entered the city and some ships left the harbour on their own initiative, followed by others, believing they were carrying out orders that could not be received.

It was decided that Campioni would retain his position as governor; the Italian units would not be disbanded but would be disarmed, except for officers, who would be allowed to keep their weapons.

[4] Many cried, said that Rhodes had been "sold out" or that their commanders had "become crazy", accused Campioni of being pro-German and shattered the butts of their rifles before throwing them in the heaps.

[5] The Italian surrender confronted the Germans with the problem of how to handle such a large number of prisoners, with no ships available for their immediate removal.

The navy and air force contingents were disarmed first, as they were determined not to co-operate and potentially more dangerous than the army, some of whose officers were showing signs of friendship towards the Germans.

Most of them had died in the sinking of the ships that carried them to Greece, some others starved to death in German prison camps on the island (the famine severely affected also the civilian population of Rhodes between 1944 and 1945).

[6] Campioni was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland and was later handed over to RSI authorities, tried and executed for having defended Rhodes against the German invasion.

[7] Sporadic resistance continued against the German occupation by Greek civilians and some Italians who had escaped capture; sergeant Pietro Carboni of the Regia Marina, helped by an Italian civilian and by a carabiniere, hid in the interior of the island and committed several acts of sabotage against the German forces, until he was discovered and killed on 20 December 1944 (he was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor).