Leros, Greece.

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On Tuesday May 9 afternoon we dropped anchor in the large protected bay of Lakki port in Leros island, Greece. But look again at the photo………does that look like another cute Greek town?

Hospital building.

The pompous buildings and wide boulevards are built by somebody who wants to prove something and yes indeed. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini wanted to transfer Portolago, which is renamed Lakki, into the centre of Italy’s naval power in WWII.

The historic fate of the island follows that of the Dodecanese islands as explained in earlier posts. The island became particularly important after the Italians occupied all of the Dodecanese islands in 1912 during the Italo – Türkish war.

During the 31 years that the Italians remained in Leros, they set up a great plan to build and fortify the island, since its strategic position and its large natural harbours (the largest of which is Lakki), made it an ideal naval base. 

The SE corner of the bay was transformed into the auronautical base "Gianni Rossetti" where the seaplanes "CANT Z 501" and "Savoia-Marchetti S.55" were assembled and maintained.
Only one of two cranes is standing today as a tourist attraction. The hangers were disassembled and re-erected on mainland Greece in 1949. The part of the base further West for ships and submarines is still in use by the Greek naval force and therefor classified.
We wanted to see a few relevant WWII locations, starting with the war museum located in tunnels.

The Italians had heavily fortified Leros and constructed 75+ anti-ship and anti-aircraft gun stations all over the island. To store ammunition, supplies and to provide shelter they built extensive networks of tunnels as well.

You can find the war museum in the Merikia tunnels.
Inside the tunnels of the museum.
A set of .5" machine guns. Frits has shot a few rounds with these guns when he was in the military. You had to hang on with your full body weight to keep the guns under control.

We continued Westwards along the North shore of the bay towards Cape Katsouni where gun battery PL 227 and PL 250 were located. It was a dual purpose battery (naval and anti-aircraft) and was equipped with 4 guns.

One of the guns before the Battle of Leros.
The gun after the battle.
The gun-station today. Frits is pointing at a second foundation. The British dismantled the guns after the war and threw them into the sea below.
Entrance to the underground dormitory. The structure to the right is the roof of the kitchen and the mess.
The large caliber naval guns inspired Alistair MacLean to write the novel “Guns of Navarone” (1957), which became an award-winning film of the same name by J. Lee Thompson in 1961. The film was largely shot in Rhodes.

Walking further North to mount Patella we find the partly restored parabolic acoustic mirrors. This is a concrete structure, built by the Italians, that reflects, concentrates and hence amplifies incoming sound to one or more “listeners”. The structure was used to detect incoming airplanes (and ships) before the existence of radar.

Computer rendering of an acoustic listening station. The three semicircles cover 360 degrees. The segments have a parabolical shape along the vertical axis. The focal point of the parabola is at ears-hight for people in the trench in front of the mirror. When an acoustic signal was detected the listener would signal to his commander on the white platform who would then verify the findings before relaying the message to the command post.
The military would often employ blind people as listeners in the trenches because of their superior hearing. A graduation in degrees was painted on the flat area between the trench and the mirror for easy determination of the direction of the sound. The device was amazingly effective.

In the beginning of WWII the Italians initially sided with the Nazis. The so called “Axis of Power” controlled mainland Greece, the Greek islands and Crete. However after heavy fighting with the Allied Forces the Italians switched sides and entered a truce with the UK and the US. As soon as Germany realised the new situation they rushed in reinforcements to maintain control over the Dodecanese and Crete. Churchill saw a strategic value in the Dodecanese, however for the Americans it was only a distraction so they warned the Brits that they had to do it alone.

Crete was too heavily fortified to invade and the British quickly lost Rhodes, with three military airfields and Kos with one military air-field. The lack of air support proved fatal for the defence of Leros which eventually also fell to the Nazi’s. The Battle of Leros was the last major success for the Nazis in WWII.

The next day we hiked the inland roads to the capital Platanos. Along the way we stumbled on the Italian WWII radio station with the barraks and its three antenna masts (without the interconnecting wires) still standing. Lakki bay in the background where our boat is anchored.
Platanos street view.
We had lunch in one of the waterfront restaurants in Agia Marina, the port of Platanos. Yachts are allowed to dock in the port but it it only safe with (rare) Southerly winds.
THE tourist shot to take in Agia Marina. The mill in the water. No longer in operation but the blue restaurant is.
View of the Castle of Platanos as seen from Platanos. We didn't climb up to the castle since we have seen so many of them already.
Up to the fort, just after the war.
Up to the fort today.
Locals bringing building materials up to the castle on horse-back for restoration works.
Also this Castle has a similar story as all Castles in the Dodecanese. Built by the Byzantines to protect against the Seljuk Turks. When The Knights of Saint John took control they extended the fortifications to protect against the Ottomans, but there is a difference! The Ottomans tried three times to conquer the fort but all attempts failed. After the fall of Rhodes a treaty was signed and all Aegean assets of the Knights were passed into Ottoman hands. The fort saw heavy battle in WWII.
Again a good example of the different design for this Italian church. It is soooooo non-Greek.
Lakki just after WWII.
Lakki today.

This concludes our visit to Leros. In a few days we will leave for Patmos, an island with its own spiritual history.

Thank you for reading our stories. Love Liza and Frits.