Word: aegean
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Lifted Eyebrows. "Jumbo" Wilson's appointment to the job late in December had caused some eyebrow-lifting in British military circles. His most recent campaign as Middle East commander, the attack on the Aegean Islands of Cos, Samos and Leros had been a fiasco. Troops had been pushed within easy reach of German land-based air power; communications were so badly organized that landing parties had trouble contacting headquarters at Cairo 500 miles away; equipment was rusty and inadequate. Some wit rose to the occasion by dubbing Jumbo "The Wizard of Cos." Another commented that the Russians shoot generals...
...ready. In cold, intelligent self-interest, Turkey held out through most of 1943 for assurances that Britain and the U.S. could 1) protect her against Germany during the war; 2) protect her against Russian claims and dominance after the war. Britain's feckless failure to hold three Aegean islands just off Turkey's shores did not help matters this fall...
...fifth day, said the Leros radio, with a British upper lip. At 5 p.m. it went off the air. Leros had fallen. The defenders were captured or escaped to Samos, where the Germans shortly announced fresh attacks to root out the last British force in the Aegean. This week they claimed its capture...
...Somehow," said Sir Henry, "it seems to be my fortune to have to bolster up lost causes." This reference to the disastrous Greek campaign of 1941 did not ease the British feeling that the Aegean operation had been lamely conceived, wretchedly supported...
Lost Chance. Since the Allies never really held the invaded islands, the loss was serious only because the abortive sorties had caused the Germans to look to their Balkan outworks. One possible effect was hardly mentioned: the effect on neutral Turkey. The Aegean fiasco might well slow the Turks' recent drift toward active collaboration with the Allies...