7,5cm Leichtgeschütz 40 with Crew

Operation Marita. This is the name Germany gave its plan to invade Greece in April 1941. In fact, Germany stepped in after Italys failed invasion kicked off the preceding October. Greece had repelled that initial invasion and had even counterattacked by March 1941. Consequently, on 6 April, 680,000 German troops with 1,200 tanks and 700 aircraft launched their invasion of Greece from Bulgarian territory, bypassing the bulk of Greek troops near the Albanian border. The Metaxas defensive line was overrun, and small numbers of Australian, British and New Zealand troops could not stem the flow. By the end of the month, the Greek mainland was in German hands, and then German troops also landed on and captured Crete in May 1941. Of interest, next year will mark the 80th anniversary of Operation Marita, so Dragon has brought together a number of 1/35 scale figure sets that feature participants in that decisive campaign. This Dragon assortment features no fewer than six 1/35 scale figure sets depicting the Greek invasion, a campaign that has not received the publicity or attention that it perhaps deserves. All the figure sets represent German troops, including paratroopers, mountain troops, combat engineers and elite infantrymen. These realistic-looking figure sets depict different units, various uniforms and a range of weapons, giving lots of flexibility for model-makers to create a diorama. Few eyewitnesses of that military campaign in Greece remain alive, but modelers can recreate it through this prized figure collection.