The Guns of Navarone is a 1957 novel about the
Second World War by Scottish writer
Alistair MacLean that was made into the film
The Guns of Navarone in 1961. The Greek island of Navarone does not exist and the plot is fictitious; however, the story takes place within the real historical context of the
Dodecanese Campaign, the Allies' campaign to capture the German-held Greek islands in the
Aegean Sea in 1943. The story is based on the
Battle of Leros, and
Leros island's
coastal artillery guns — among the largest naval artillery guns used during
World War II — that were built and used by the Italians until Italy capitulated in 1943 and subsequently used by the Germans until their defeat.