Levitha

It is a role none of their training anticipated, on terrain that erases every advantage the unit built its reputation on, there is nowhere to disappear to on an island a few miles wide.

The clearest example comes in late October, on a small, almost uninhabited island called Levitha, 20 miles southwest of Leros.

A British vessel sent to investigate a possible German presence there is sunk by shore fire, and the local British commander orders an immediate assault to retake the island.

Immediate enough that the LRDG's request for even a basic reconnaissance first is refused.

On the night of 23 October, 49 LRDG men under Captain John Olivey land on Levitha in two groups.

Through the night, the fighting goes their way.

They capture around 35 German prisoners and seem to have the island in hand.

When word reaches Wellington that New Zealand troops, the same founding contingent Ralph Bagnold recruited out of the 2nd New Zealand Division back in the summer of 1940, have been committed to an entirely new theatre of war without New Zealand's government being consulted, the Prime Minister formally protests to London.