:00:48
Greece and the islands
of the Aegean Sea...
:00:50
...have given birth to many myths
and legends of war and adventure.
:00:56
And these once-proud stones,
these ruined and shattered temples...
:01:01
...bear witness to the civilization
that flourished and then died here.
:01:08
And of the demigods and heroes
who inspired those legends...
:01:11
... on this sea and these islands.
:01:14
But though the stage is the same,
ours is a legend of our own times...
:01:18
...and its heroes are not demigods,
but ordinary people.
:01:23
In 1943, so the story goes...
:01:26
... 2, 000 British soldiers lay
marooned on the island of Kheros...
:01:29
... exhausted and helpless.
:01:32
They had exactly one week to live.
:01:35
In Berlin, the Axis had determined on
a show of strength in the Aegean Sea...
:01:39
... to bully neutral Turkey into
coming into the war on their side.
:01:46
The scene of that demonstration
was to be Kheros...
:01:49
... itself of no military value,
but only miles off the coast of Turkey.
:01:55
The cream of the German
war machine, rested and ready...
:01:58
... was to spearhead the attack.