Aegean Adventure - Leros Action - Day 1

The Leros defenders had just woken from sleep when they heard the drone of German aircraft first it was bombers who eliminated a 25pdr and some blackshirts on the "west" of the island

then Ju52's swept over the island disgorging paratroops

The paratroops were landed directly to the inland side of the port with the obvious intent of taking the harbour.

Simultaneously German Brandenberger units landed, here on the "north" end of the island

and in greater strength on the "west" side, where they rapidly cleared the small numbers of blackshirts and a coastal gun covering the beach.

To the north the Brandenbergers swept up into the coastal gun positions, but a lone blackshirt fought on tossing the German grenades back but then faced a charge by the Brandenbergers company commander. He went down fighting taking three Germans with him including the German CO.

I now have quite a gap in the photographic record as playing seemed to take up all my time. My Italian Marines were pushed out of two of the inland buildings by the harbour by the Fallschirmjaeger who hunkered down for the long run till relieved. My infantry were then diverted in two directions from their covering positions on the main beach, most were sent to counter attack the FJ while a detachment was sent to backup the blackshirts and coastal guns. In the west the Brandenbergers were held and then pushed back by the British. Throughout the day there were sporadic attacks by the Luftwaffe.

By the evening of the first day a strong counter attack was poised to go in on the FJ, who then unexpectedly decided to surrender. The small numbers of Branderbergers in the north dug in around the captured coastal gun positions and awaited relief. In the west they were now restricted to a small enclave around the cove.