Operation Abstention

Operation Abstention
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II
Italian destroyer Crispi
Date 25–28 February 1941 Location Island of Kastelorizo, eastern Aegean Sea Result Italian victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Australia	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Andrew Cunningham E. de F. Renouf H. J. Egerton	Luigi Biancheri Francesco Mimbelli
Strength
1 light cruiser 1 anti-aircraft cruiser 7 destroyers 1 gunboat 1 submarine 1 armed yacht 200 commandos 200 soldiers and marines	2 destroyers 2 torpedo boats 2 MAS boats SM.79 bombers SM.81 bombers 280 soldiers 88 marines
Casualties and losses
5 killed 10 wounded 20 captured or interned 7 missing 1 destroyer damaged 1 gunboat damaged	14 killed 12 captured

Operation Abstention was a code name given to the British invasion of the Italian island of Kastelorizo, off Greece, during the Second World War, in late February 1941. The goal was to establish a base to challenge the Italian naval and air supremacy on the Greek Dodecanese islands.

After the attack on Taranto and the success of Operation Compass, an offensive in Cyrenaica, Libya from December 1940 – February 1941, the British conducted operations to neutralize Italian forces in the Dodecanese islands. Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet planned an occupation of Kastelorizo, the easternmost Greek island in the chain just off the Turkish coast. The island was some 80 mi (70 nmi; 130 km) from Rhodes and it was intended to establish a motor torpedo boat base. The operation was intended as a first step towards the control of the Aegean Sea. Despite isolation, Italian naval and air forces in the area were still capable of carrying out hit-and-run attacks on Allied shipping between Egypt and Greece.

About 200 commandos, transported by the destroyers HMS Decoy and Hereward, and a 24-man detachment of Royal Marines on the gunboat HMS Ladybird, sailed from Suda Bay on 24 February. The plan was to establish a beachhead in the island, before the arrival 24-hours later of a Sherwood Foresters company to consolidate the British position. The second force was to sail from Cyprus on board the armed yacht HMS Rosaura, escorted by the light cruisers HMAS Perth and HMS Bonaventure. Before dawn, the commandos landed from ten whaleboats on Cape Nifti, south of the settlement, while the Royal Marines occupied the harbor. Previously, the submarine HMS Parthian had made a reconnaissance of the landing point.

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