Evening star., 1943-10-24
Br Herman K. Allen.

The British soldiers who have been
making tentative jabs in the Aegean area
are poking their fingers into one of the
most deadly mouse traps in military his
tory
The Germans have gone to great
lengths to make this 270X425 mile sea a
theoretically impossible barrier to the
port city of Salonika. door to the Vardar
River Valley, which is the only adequate
route northWard into the Balkans
Chains of islands have been organized
as a defense in depth, to attack an am
! phibious expedition moving up the
| Aegean Sea toward Salonika.
Mainstay of the first defense is Crete,
| largest of the Aegean islands and third
largest island in the Mediterranean area
SARDINIA and Sicily are larger. Crete
is heavily defended by German troops
and always has been since it was occu-
pied in May, l94l. Some other islands in
the area were garrisoned for a while by
Italians, but the Germans made sure of
Crete themselves.
Crete must be knocked out before any
deeper penetration of the Aegean is at
tempted on large scale This will be a
tough job. for it is protected by numerous
airfeds and naval vessels and the lay of
the land is favorable for defensive fight
| ing.
Rhodes Less Difficult.
Rhodes, the other main island of the
outer defense belt, presents less diff
Guilty to an attacker. Landings can be
made at any of the several beaches,
whereas landing areas are restricted
pretty much to a stretch of the north
side of Crete.
Both Crete and Rhodes could depend
on air support from other island bases
or from the Greek mainland-so short
are the distances. The NaZis method of
defense probably would be to throw
heavy air and sea support into the outer
defense zone if it is attacked, then fall
back to other islands if overwhelmed,
and continue thus in the expectation
that the invading force would eventually
wear itself out.
Euboea, midway between Crete and
Salonlka, is too mountainous for the
Germans to keep any adequate defense
force there. but it is so close to the MAIN
land connecting with it by bridge at
KhalkiS) that it is easily defended by
planes from the many fields dotting
Greece, particularly in the Athens area.
Chios has been heavily fortified by the
Germans and supports a number of air.
fields. Its port of Kastron is suitable
for a base.
Mytilene also is we'll defended and has
good port named kastron, near the city
Of Mitilini, on the southeast coast. CThe
word Kastron is Greek for port and is
used as the name for many ports in this
area. To make things more confusing at
this point, Mytilene also has a city called
Mitylini, at the head of the big bay
which divides it in tWo)
Guard Nazi Flank.
1t is fortunate for the Germans that
Mytilene, Chios and Rhodes are all
capable of maintaining large military
installations. They thus help defend the
eastern flank of the route up the Aegean,
and could be used to combat Allied air
power based on Leros and Samos, re-
Gently taken by the British. This leaves
the western flank to be protected handily
by planes and surface vessels operating
from Greece proper.
Mytilene and Lemnos are the two
bases placing the Nazi defenders on the
flank of an expedition making the upper
reaches of the Aegean. They would also
have to be knocked out if Turkey came
into the war with the Allies and our
forces tried to attack the Bulgarian Black
Sea coast via the Dardanelles.
If Turkey were in the war on our side,
however, we would have land bases our
selves from which to attack the islands,
some of which are less than 10 miles
from Turkey In that case the whole
German defense setup in the Aegean
would surely have to be abandoned in
short order