The Italian Regia Aeronautica was established as independent service on march 28^th 1923 and because of Italy’s position in the middle of the Mediterranean, sea air bases and seaplanes became essential assets of its combat power.
Following eastward the then strategic national interests, there stood the Dodecanese, the islands that were annexed by Italy in 1923. Combined naval and air bases were established in strategic positions, Rhodes and Leros, to control all sea lines of communications from surface, underwater and air.
Rhodes offered more suitable surfaces for land based aircraft whereas Leros was selected as a sea air base for its well dimensioned and natural protected harbour in Portolago-Lakki.
 For two decades the Lepida harbour was home to fighter, reconnaissance and maritime bombardment seaplane units; the early “30s” combat unit based in Leros, the “5° Stormo Misto Egeo”, a composite maritime fighter and bombing Wing, was transformed in 1937 in a more complex “Comando Aeronautica dell’Egeo” with its HQ in Rhodes and operational units in both islands.
This High Command eventually entered WW2 with the following units in Leros: 84^th Squadron Long Range Maritime Rescue with 147^th and 185^th Flights, later joined by 11^th Rescue (Maritime) Detachment; 161^st Fighter Flight.
As war progressed, the fast growing aeronautical technologies dictated the end of seaplanes, their performances and effectiveness in combat could not match those of faster and more heavily armed land based aircraft. Lack of resources and insufficiently reactive politics, air Commands and industries prevented Italy to develop enough land based modern aircraft to replace the seaplanes deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean theatre to sustain combat operations in this strategic region.
The armistice between Italy and the Allies of September 8^th 1943 dramatically affected the conflict: Leros fell under British rule and soon thereafter the units in Leros faced the fierce German air assaults to the garrison.
Leros was indeed protected against traditional naval threats but its defense lacked the “air power” and the associated provisions of effective modern fighter aircrafts and ground based air defense, hence, deprived of any truly capable asset to counter the attacks, all military capabilities in the island were annihilated by German airstrikes. The German dominance of the air allowed complete surface control, the inadequate air defense proved to be no threat in a modern warfare sustained by evolutionary strategies and technologies.