Ghost Patrol: A History of the Long Range Desert Group, 1940–1945
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GHOST PATROL
A History of the Long Range Desert Group, 1940–1945
John Sadler
Oxford & Philadelphia
Published in Great Britain and
the United States of America in 2015 by
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW, UK
and
1950 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083, USA
© John Sadler 2015
Hardcover Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-336-8
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-337-5
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Non Vi Sed Arte (‘Not by Strength by Guile’)
This one is for Captain Rebecca Meadows RE
If you can keep your kit, when all around you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can scrounge a fag when all refuse you,
But make allowance for their doubtful view;
If you can wait, and not be tired of waiting,
Or, being pushed, let no man push you back,
Or, being detailed, waste no time debating
But force a British grin and hump your pack;
If you can drink, and not make drink your master,
And leave the thinking to your N.C.O.,
If you can meet with dear old Lady Astor
And treat her just as though you didn’t know –
If you can bear to see your rations twisted
Into the weird concoction known as stew;
If neither knees nor face are ever blistered,
And neither flies nor fleas can worry you;
If you can face the other fellow’s chinnings
And turn deaf ears to their unleashed abuse;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve on guard when you should be relieved,
And swear like hell with all the breath that’s in you,
With all the curses ever man conceived;
If you can walk with blondes and keep your virtue,
Or ride in trams and keep your pay book safe;
If needle stabs and castor oil don’t hurt you,
And rough angora shirts don’t even chafe;
If you can fill a sandbag every minute,
Dream that your trench is Lana Turner’s flat –
Yours is the blue my son, and all that’s in it.
And what is more, you are a DESERT RAT.
—R.F. Marriott, Crusader (no. 37, 11th January 1943)
The desert was a small raider’s paradise.
—General Sir John Hackett
Contents
Acknowledgements
Maps
Chronology
Dramatis Personae
Being Introductory
1 Legends of the ‘Blue’
2 Piracy on the High Desert, 1940
3 The Year of Dangerous Living, 1941
4 ‘The Libyan Taxi Company Limited’, 1941–1942
5 Sting of the Scorpion, 1942
6 Out of Africa, 1942–1943
7 The Wine-Dark Sea, 1943
8 Garlic-Reeking Bandits, 1944–1945
9 On the shores of the Adriatic, 1944–1945
10 Ghost Patrols, 1945–2015
Glossary
Appendices
Appendix 1: Weapons, Vehicles, Training & Equipment
Appendix 2: LRDG Commanders and Patrol Designations
Appendix 3: Patrol Commanders
Appendix 4: Daily LRDG Ration Scale
Appendix 5: LRDG Roll of Honour
Appendix 6: A View from the Other Side – Axis Units
Appendix 7: Ultra in the Desert War
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
When I was a boy, a maternal uncle who had served in the desert presented me with carved wooden models he’d made of a Sherman tank and a Spitfire, roughly 1/32nd scale, ideal for the size of toy soldiers I was campaigning with at the time, created in idle hours from spare pieces of timber and odd, redundant radio parts. My uncle, alas and like so many veterans, has died but the models remain, having made, over the last forty years, that hallowed transition from mere playthings to artefacts. Timpo I think was the toy manufacturer, along with Cherilea and Lone Star who produced desert war figures in 54mm and 60mm, Monty was there in his beret and flying jacket; Australians in a variety of stern action poses. The Germans were usually in the act of surrendering or expiring; either was good. In the modern world with its absurd, emasculating Puritanism, such things would doubtless be banned, for too much fear of children enjoying themselves and dreaming martial dreams.
Specific credits for verse and prose extracts are comprised of: Introduction, Epitaph on a New Army is reproduced by kind permission of the publishers of More Poems of the Second World War. Chapter One: Blessing for the Traveller is quoted in G Patrol, A Cook’s Thoughts on Bully Beef is anonymous, Code of Fellowship is quoted in John Strawson’s, the Battle for North Africa, Ode to a Desert Flower appears in Crusader, issue 57 and Rare as Fairies is Anzac doggerel, the author is unable to trace any copyright holder. Chapter Two: I never see a map… is from Kennedy Shaw. Chapter Three: Streams of Blood by Hanns Pfeuffer is quoted in Hargreaves, R., Blitzkrieg Unleashed (Barnsley, Pen & Sword, 2008). Chapter Four: If is included by kind permission of the trustees of the Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland. Chapter Five: the author is unable to trace copyright on Desert Victory. Chapter Six: The Poor Bloody Infantry is quoted in Mallinson, A., the Making of the British Army (London, 2011). Chapters Seven and Eight: the two poems by E. Yates are both included by kind permission of County Durham Record Office, Chapter Nine: the D-Day Dodgers is featured by kind permission of Mrs. Margaret Ward.
Thanks are due to Pen & Sword publishers for permissions to quote from the late Captain William Kennedy Shaw’s Long Range Desert Group and the late Major-General David Lloyd Owen’s Providence Their Guide, also to Sutton Publishing for permission to use extracts from Mike Morgan’s Sting of the Scorpion.
Furthermore, this book could not have been written without the generous assistance of a number of organisations and individuals, particularly The Long Range Desert Group Preservation Society, Peter Hart and the staff of the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, Richard Groocock at the National Archive and Amy Cameron of the National Army Museum, the archive staff of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom at Shrivenham, Liz Bregazzi and Gill Parkes of Durham County Record Office, David Fletcher of the Tank Museum, Bovington, Roberta Goldwater of the Discovery Museum, Rod Mackenzie of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum, Thomas B. Smyth of the Black Watch Museum, Paul Evans of the Royal Artillery Museum, Ana Tiaki of the Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand, Christopher D
orman O’Gowan for information concerning his late father Brigadier E. Dorman-Smith, John Stelling and Henry Ross of North War Museum Project, Dr. Martin Farr of Newcastle University, Barry Matthews of Galina Battlefield Tours, Trevor Sheehan of BaE Systems Plc, John Rothwell, James Goulty, Sir Paul Nicholson, Major (Retired) Chris Lawton MBE, Arthur W. Charlton, Colonel Anthony George, John Fisher, John Shepherd, Mary Pinkney, Brian Ward, Jennifer Harrison, Neville Jackson, the late Nigel Porter, Timothy Norton, Kit Pumphrey, Graham Trueman for his indefatigable and enthusiastic help with primary source material, and Chloe Rodham for the maps.
As the author I remain, as ever, responsible for all errors and omissions.
John Sadler,
Mid-Northumberland, summer 2015
Maps
Chronology
1939
3rd September – Britain declares war on Germany
1940
10th June – Major Ralph Bagnold suggests the concept of a desert patrol
11th June – Italy declares War on Britain; 11th Hussars involved in initial border skirmishes
23rd June – General Wavell, C-in-C Middle East, approves Bagnold’s plan
10th July – the War Office approves formation of the LRP
17th – 19th August – LRP begins reconnaissance and observation along the Jalo-Kufra road
11th August – Italians invade British Somaliland
19th August – British withdraw fully from Somaliland
27th August – Wavell inspects the LRP; ready for duty
5th September – first LRP mission into Libya
13th September – Italians invade Egypt and occupy Sollum
17th September – the Italians occupy Sid Barrani
20th September – British open the Takoradi aircraft reinforcement route through West Africa to Egypt
29th September – WO authorises doubling the unit size
9th November – LRP becomes LRDG with HQ and two field squadrons, each of three patrol units
12th November – Germany’s OKH issues the order to create a force to support the Italians in North Africa
23rd November – W & R patrols on 1st operation
5th December – G Patrol at the Citadel in Cairo
8th December – Wavell launches Operation ‘Compass’ under the command of General O’Connor
11th December – Sidi Barrani recaptured; British counter-offensive proceeds with less difficulty than anticipated
17th December – Sollum recaptured
27th December – G & T Patrols undertake the Fezzan expedition
1941
5th January – British enter Bardia
11th January – LRDG & Free French take Murzuk
22nd January – Australians enter Tobruk
29th January – British re-invade Somaliland
30th January – British enter Derna
31st January – Southern Rhodesian Squadron is formed
5th/7th February – British defeat Italians in Battle of Beda Fomm
25th February – British complete re-conquest of Somaliland
27th February – initial skirmishes with Afrika Korps
1st March – Free French capture Kufra
5th March – first British troops withdrawn from theatre to be deployed in Greece
9th March – Yeomanry Patrol is formed
21st March – RA gunners arrive
24th March – Panzerarmee takes El Agheila
31st March – Rommel attacks Mersah Brega
3rd April – Germans occupy Benghazi
7th April – Generals O’Connor and Neame captured; Germans occupy Derna
9th April – LRDG, minus A Squadron, locates to Kufra Oasis: A Squadron in spring and early summer ranges through Cyrenaica
10th April – Tobruk besieged, Rommel bypasses garrison to press eastwards
13th April – Tobruk surrounded, Bardia falls
14th April – Axis assaults on Tobruk defences repulsed
28th April – Germans occupy Sollum
May/June – British intervention in Iraq (effectively subdued by 1st June) 5th/12th May – ‘Tiger’ convoy brings much needed armour across Mediterranean
15th May – British launch Operation ‘Brevity’
16th May – British complete conquest of Ethiopia
20th May/1st June – Germans launch Operation ‘Mercury’ to take Crete; Allied survivors evacuated by RN
June/July – British open campaign against Vichy French in Syria
15th June – British launch Operation ‘Battleaxe’
22nd June – Barbarossa begins
1st July – Auchinleck replaces Wavell
10th July – LRDG at Kufra, relieved by Sudan Defence Force
25th July/8th August – British intervention in Persia
1st August – Colonel Bagnold receives promotion and hands over operational command to Lieutenant-Colonel Prendergast
14th/15th September – Rommel launches raid on Sofadi
1st October – LRDG comes under command of (what will be) Eighth Army
1st November – LRDG Patrols divided into two
9th November – LRDG, minus S Patrol, is concentrated at Siwa
18th November – British launch Operation ‘Crusader’
18th November – all LRDG units bar a reserve deployed to support the ‘Crusader’ Offensive
19th November – British enter Sidi Rezegh
21st November – sortie by Tobruk garrison to effect link with forces around Sidi Rezegh
23rd November – Germans fare better in confused tank battles
24th November – Rommel makes a dash across Egyptian border
26th November – Auchinleck takes over direct command of Eighth Army from General Ritchie
30th November – Rommel tries to sever the corridor between British forces from Tobruk and Sidi Rezegh
6th/8th December – massed battles around and south of Sidi Rezegh
10th December – British relieve Tobruk
13th/17th December – Rommel’s series of counter-attacks are eventually beaten off
19th/24th December – British occupy Derna (19th), Mechili (19th), Barce (23rd), Benghazi (24th)
23rd December – LRDG acts as pathfinders for SAS
28th December – ILRS is formed
30th December – Kufra base abandoned
1942
2nd January – British re-capture Bardia
6th/8th January – Rommel’s offensive from Agedabia is beaten back
12th January – British occupy Sollum
17th January – British regain the Halfaya Pass
21st January – Axis offensive pre-empts Operation ‘Acrobat’ – British forces worsted and forced into retreat
23rd January – Germans re-take Agedabia
26th January – LRDG HQ evacuates Jalo
1st February – HQ set up at Siwa
2nd February – British occupy Gazala Line and lay plans for offensive – Operation ‘Buckshot’
4th February – Axis re-capture Derna
2nd March – LRDG begins ‘Road Watch’
26th May – Axis offensive against the Gazala Line
2nd June – Axis besiege Free French forces at Bir Hakim on southern flank of Gazala Line
3rd June – General Ritchie’s attempted riposte founders, 150th Brigade destroyed
10th June – Free French ordered to abandon Bir Hakim
12th/13th June – Major tank battle ranges around ‘Knightsbridge’ position
14th/17th June – British withdrawal to Egyptian border
18th/21st June – Axis pressure on Tobruk which falls, followed by Bardia
23rd/26th June – LRDG retreats from Siwa
24th June – Axis forces enter Egypt
25th June – Auchinleck assumes personal command of Eighth Army
27th/28th June – Axis forces successful in Battle of Mersah Matruh
2nd/3rd July – 1st Battle of El Alamein begins
&
nbsp; 4th July – Eighth Army launches counter-attacks
10th July – Australian gains from Italians
26th July – further British attacks held off
26th July – official end of the battle – a limited British victory
18th August – Alexander replaces Auchinleck as C-in-C Middle East and Montgomery is appointed to Eighth Army following the death of General Gott
31st August – New Axis offensive opens; the Battle of Alam Halfa
3rd/7th September – unsuccessful attack by NZ division in Alam el Halfa area, battle ends as a limited British defensive victory
13th/14th September – Operations Bigamy, Agreement, Nicety & Caravan are launched
1st October – Eighth Army stages attack in the Deir el Munassib sector
1st October – ILRS (two patrols plus HQ) come under LRDG command
23rd/24th October – 2nd Battle of El Alamein opens after initial bombardment – the ‘Break-in’ phase
24th/25th October – the ‘Crumbling’ phase
26th/28th October – the ‘Counter’ phase
29th/30th October – Stalemate
30th October – LRDG again comes under direct control of GHQ ME
1st/2nd November – ‘Supercharge’
3rd/7th November – Break-out and pursuit by Eighth Army
8th November – Allied landings in French North Africa: Operation ‘Torch’
1943
14th/25th February – Axis offensives from Sidi Bou Zid to Kasserine, initially successful but finally repulsed
6th March – further Axis offensive – Battle of Medenine
20th/27th March – Eighth Army breaks through Mareth Line
23rd March – US forces defeat Axis at Battle of El Guettar
March – April – LRDG units withdrawn to Egypt
6th April – Eighth Army defeats Axis at Battle of Wadi Akarit
13th May – remaining Axis forces surrender at Tunis; end of the Desert War
June – the Allies prepare to invade Sicily
July – the Battle of Kursk (‘Operation Citadel’) begins; Palermo falls to the Allies and Mussolini is overthrown
August – the Quebec Agreement is signed
September – official surrender of Italian forces, Mussolini rescued by Skorzeny