Word: aegean
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Balkans. The Germans retook most of the Dalmatian coast from Yugoslav guerrillas. The Germans also regained Leros (and claimed Samos) from luckless, ill-supported British soldiers who attacked Hitler's Aegean outworks last month, never had a chance to keep them...
...British on Leros were desperate. Hemmed in by Germans landing from the sea, bombed and strafed by Germans commanding the air, the British defended their lonely little island in the eastern Aegean until they were slow with exhaustion. Their Italian co-belligerents fought with nontraditional bravery. A few audacious British naval craft helped a little. Long-range R.A.F. fighters helped but not enough, from their too-distant bases...
...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...