Ever since they were first taken by German troops in 1941, British staffs had planned to re-take various Greek Islands in the Aegean, first and foremost, Rhodes, which is the largest of these islands and has airfields which make it the key to the entire archipelago. While the battle in the desert was raging, there were never any troops spare to launch an attack in this subsidiary theatre, and when the Allies pushed the Axis first out of Tunisia, then out of Sicily, then almost up to Rome itself, the British staffs once again prepared an invasion of the Aegean, but to do so they had to have enough assault transport for a full infantry division and, even though the position in Italy was secure, and Overlord six months distant, General Eisenhower and President Roosevelt refused to grant the necassary assault ships. Despite this, the British proceeded with part of their plan and successfully liberated Samos, Cos, with a small airbase, and Leros, with strong coastal defences. But without Rhodes the position was untenable, and the Germans quickly re-took Cos, easily overcoming the lone battalion garrisoning it, and then prepared 4000 alpine troops and a small airborne contingent to re-take Leros as well. It was at this crucial point that the long range fighters, based in North Africa, were withdrawn to Italy, leaving the Germans, for one last time, with air dominance and a chance to use it.

Early on the 12th of November 1943 the German alpine troops landed in the extreme North-East of Leros, and in the bay to the South-East of Leros town. They tried but failed to take the town, but in the evening 600 German paratroopers dropped to the north of Leros town and cut the North of the island off from the rest, and all attempts to retake the isthmus failed. The garrison of Samos was sent to aid the defence, but was crushed by the Luftwaffe. The British troops fought on against crushing air strength until November the 16th, when they could fight no more. The British lost their foothold in the Aegean, which they could have held so easily if they had only had the resources, but the cost in men was equally high for the Germans as it was for them.

The Allies have only ONE supply point: Leros town. Do not let the Germans take it.

The island of Leros is dominated by the bays which divide it into three. The Germans used this to full effect in reality, cutting off the northernmost battalion.

The Italian and Greek troops are *very* poor quality.

The Germans only have air transport from the third turn onwards (afternoon of 12th November)

The island of Leros is too small to represent acurately on 2.5km scale (it would be about 4 hexes long) and as such the map scale in the scenario is actually 2.5km/hex but the time scale is still six hours to reflect the difficulty of movement. The map scale is in miles because the only map of Leros I have is measured soley in miles.