Ghost Patrol: A History of the Long Range Desert Group, 1940–1945

by Sadler, John

  September – British Dodecanese campaign begins

  October – the Germans take Kos

  November – Battle of Leros

  November – the Battle of Tarawa opens; Red Army offensive in Ukraine

  December – Tito declares a provisional government for Yugoslavia; Allies sink the Scharnhorst

  1944

  LRDG active in Italy and the Balkans

  January – the Red Army Enters Poland; 1st Battle of Monte Cassino

  February – 2nd Battle of Monte Cassino; ‘Big Week’ strategic bombing of Germany

  March – beginning of battle of Imphal; 3rd Battle of Monte Cassino; Germany occupies Hungary

  April – the British advance from Imphal; de Gaulle commands all Free French forces

  May – the Red Army retakes Sevastopol, Monte Cassino is finally taken

  June – Operation Overlord, D-Day

  July – fighting in the bocage country in Normandy; attempt on Hitler, the July Plot fails

  August – the Warsaw Uprising begins; German forces in Normandy nearly trapped in the Falaise Pocket, and Paris is liberated

  September – Brussels is liberated, Operation market Garden fails, V1’s and V2’s land on England

  October – the Moscow Conference; British enter Athens, Battle of Leyte – MacArthur returns

  November – Operation Infatuate – clearing the Scheldt Estuary; at Auschwitz the gas chambers and crematoria are blown up

  December – the Home Guard is stood down

  1945

  LRDG active in Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania

  January – the battle of the Bulge ends in German defeat; destruction of Nuremburg; Auschwitz liberated

  February – Russians close in from the east; bombing of Dresden

  March – Allied crossing of the Rhine

  April – Battle for Berlin begins; Belsen is liberated

  May – death of Hitler and VE Day

  21st June – LRDG officially disbanded

  Dramatis Personae

  Ralph Algar Bagnold (1896–1990)

  Bagnold was the guiding spirit behind and first commander of LRDG, and one of the great pioneers of desert exploration during the 1930s. He laid the foundations for the research on sand transport by wind in his influential book The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes (first published in 1941), which remains an established reference in the field. It has been used by agencies such as NASA in studying sand dunes on Mars.

  Herbert Cecil Buck (1916–1945)

  Captain ‘Bertie’ Buck MC, was one of those classic British officers so beloved of post war stereotypes: dashing, eccentric and also a fluent German speaker. The unit he created was the most exceptional of all Special Forces – the Special Interrogation Group (“SIG”). Their purpose, like the LRDG and SAS, was to raid behind enemy lines but they did so in German uniforms, thus risking execution if captured. They trained, lived and thought in German. Most were also Jews who had escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s to seek a new life in Palestine.

  Patrick Andrew Clayton (1896–1962)

  Clayton spent nearly twenty years with the Egyptian Survey department during the 1920s and 1930s, extensively mapping large areas of previously unmapped desert. At the outset of the war he was working as a government surveyor in Tanganyika. Bagnold had him brought back to Egypt because of his detailed knowledge of the Western Desert, and he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps. Clayton was leading “T” Patrol in a planned attack on Kufra when the patrol was engaged by the Italian Auto-Saharan Company on 31 January 1941, near Gebel Sherif. He was wounded and captured.

  Michael Duncan David Crichton-Stuart (1915–1981)

  Crichton-Stuart was educated at Eton College. He subsequently graduated from Christ Church, Oxford with an MA. During the war he reached the rank of Major in the Scots Guards, serving with LRDG and was twice wounded, earning an MC in 1943. After the war he held a range of civic appointments in his native Scotland.

  John Richard Easonsmith (1909–1943)

  Easonsmith initially joined the 4th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment. He then served in tanks before being commissioned, and joined LRDG in December 1940. His first command with the LRDG was with the New Zealand ‘R1’ Patrol which was the unit that collected the SAS after their first, unsuccessful mission. By August, 1941 he had been promoted to Captain, and in January 1942 was gazetted for a Military Cross. He was killed during the raid on Leros in December 1943.

  Rupert Harding-Newman (1907–2007)

  When he died at the age of 99, Harding-Newman’s Telegraph obituary (11th December 2007) hailed him as the last survivor of a handful of Englishmen whose professions had taken them to the Middle East between the First and Second World Wars and whose experience of desert travel and exploration led to the formation of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). As a soldier he was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1928 but became hooked on desert exploration, working with Bagnold both as mechanic and cook! Although he assisted Bagnold in equipping the group in 1940, he was not actually allowed to join.

  John (‘Jock’) Haselden (1903–1942)

  Jock Haselden was born in Ramleh, near Alexandria. Before the outbreak of war, he was employed by Anderson, Clayton & Company, a cotton trader. Haselden was fluent in several languages including Arabic, French and Italian. Initially, on joining up he was posted to the Libyan Arab Force. From July 13th, 1940, he served on the GR Staff Middle East, specializing in commando-type operations. He was then appointed as Western Desert Liaison Officer at Eighth Army HQ, working very closely with LRDG. He was killed in action during the final abortive phase of Operation Agreement on 14th September. His name is engraved on the Alamein Memorial at the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Alamein, Column 85.

  Geoffrey Beresford Heywood (1914–2006)

  ‘Tim’ Heywood, who ran LRDG Signals, was born in Newcastle and educated at Eton. At school he became interested in wireless, then qualified as an accountant before being commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals (Middlesex Yeomanry) in 1939. After the war, he inherited family land in Gloucestershire and became a farmer, very active in the Royal College of Agriculture. His passion was sailing. Lloyd Owen described him as an officer people respected, though they did not necessarily like him. A hard taskmaster, he was highly instrumental in the success of LRDG.

  Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne (1915–1955)

  Mayne was from Northern Ireland, a highly successful rugby union international and amateur boxer. He was an early recruit into David Stirling’s fledgling SAS. Highly decorated and distinguished as a soldier, he had a dark and mercurial side exacerbated by heavy drinking. He worked as a solicitor after the war but never settled into civilian life, subsequently dying in a car crash.

  Vladimir Peniakoff [‘Popski’] (1897–1951)

  One of the Desert War’s more colourful and controversial characters, Vladimir Peniakoff was born in Belgium to Russian parents. He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and became a conscientious objector during the Great War. After a change of heart he volunteered to join the French artillery as a private; subsequently wounded, he was invalided out.

  In 1924 he emigrated to Egypt where he worked as an engineer for a sugar manufacturer. During this time he learned the crucial art of steering motor vehicles through desert terrain, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He spoke English, Russian, Italian, German, French and Arabic with varying degrees of fluency.

  He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in October 1940, serving in the Libyan Arab Force. His buccaneering in the desert gained him an MC in November 1942 and a DSO three years later. In 1947 ‘Popski’ was created a Belgian Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne avec Palme and awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 avec Palme.

  David Lanyon Lloyd Owen (1917–2001)

  Lloyd Owen was originally commissioned into the Queen’s Royal Regiment. In July 1941 he joined the LRDG and took part in a number of operations, including the SAS raid
on Tobruk in August/ September 1942, which resulted in a Military Cross. He was badly wounded during an air raid on the base at Kufra in October 1942, nearly losing an arm, and did not rejoin till February 1943, in time for training in Lebanon before being sent to the Aegean. He took command of LRDG at the end of 1943 following the death of his predecessor, Jake Easonsmith.

  Guy Prendergast (1901–1986)

  Guy Lennox Prendergast was one of that elite body of British Saharan explorers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the war he was initially commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment, before joining of Bagnold in the fledgling LRDG. After his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel he assumed command of LRDG between November 1941 and October 1943. Subsequently, he rose to be Deputy Commander of Raiding Forces and later Deputy Commander of the Special Air Service Brigade during 1944–1945 when he also led the Free French SAS Regiments with the rank of Brigadier. He gained a DSO and the Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion III Class.

  William Boyd Kennedy Shaw (1901–1979)

  Between the wars Kennedy Shaw contributed to the exploration of the Libyan Desert in the area around the southwestern corner of modern Egypt with his particular interest and skills as a botanist, archaeologist and navigator. He made three major trips. Bagnold recruited him as the Intelligence and Chief Navigation officer for LRDG. Kennedy Shaw was transferred to the Intelligence Corps in 1940 and latterly served with the SAS. He wrote one of the earliest books on the LRDG, Long Range Desert Group, immediately after the war.

  David Stirling (1915–1990)

  Founder of the SAS, Stirling was indefatigable, bold and often brilliant. His style of aggressive raiding contrasted with LRDG’s more low-key, intelligence-led approach. Nonetheless, in the fifteen months before his capture, the SAS had destroyed over 250 aircraft on the ground, shot up and bombed dozens of supply dumps, and sabotaged railways and all manner of enemy communications. Hundreds of enemy vehicles were put out of action. He ended the war in Colditz.

  Moir Stormonth-Darling (1913–2002)

  Born the son of a Writer to the Signet, Stormonth-Darling was commissioned into the 2nd Cameronians in 1935. Pre-war he served in Palestine then in India, Iraq and Persia. He became a ski instructor, which led to his introduction to LRDG. A born adventurer, he commanded two squadrons in the Aegean sector. His excellent logistical skills were as much in demand as his fighting spirit. He remained in khaki for a considerable period after the war before retiring to manage the family estates in Angus.

  Eric Charles Twelves Wilson VC (1912–2008)

  Wilson was commissioned into the East Surry Regiment but transferred to the Somaliland Camel Corps in 1939. It was during the Italian invasion of British Somaliland that he won the VC, having been presumed killed. He was released after the Italian surrender in East Africa and joined LRDG. He moved to the 11th (Kenyan) King’s African Rifles. He subsequently served in Burma. After the war he served in the Overseas Civil Service, retiring in 1961 after Tanganyika gained independence.

  Being Introductory

  No drums they wished, whose thought were tied

  To girls and jobs and mother,

  Who rose and drilled and killed and died

  Because they saw no other,

  Who died without the hero’s throb,

  And if they trembled, hit it,

  Who did not fancy much their job

  But thought it best and did it.

  —Michael Thwaites: Epitaph on a New Army (November 1939)

  The concept of indirect operations, in the aftermath of Britain’s sole commitment of a mass army in the First World War, had been forgotten in this country. It was revived in the struggle against the Axis in Egypt and Libya during the crisis of the Second World War. Among several Special Forces raised to carry war to the enemy’s flanks and weak points the Long Range Desert Group was pre-eminent. Today, when Britain’s mastery of Special Operations is universally acknowledged, it is appropriate to recognise the pioneering achievements of those who raised, led and served in the Long Range Desert Group.1

  Most of us who were born some years after the end of the Second World War and who were children during the 1960s, grew up on a diet of British and American war films. Quite a number of these were set in the North African Campaign and the blistering sands enlivened many a dank northern afternoon even where, as was frequently the case, they were depicted in black & white. The exploits of what are now termed Special Forces, then more often referred to simply as commandos, thrilled us eager youths.

  As early as 1958, the British movie Long Range Desert Group with Richard Attenborough, John Gregson and Michael Craig, offered an exciting but generally accurate view of the role of LRDG. They were our heroes really; the Special Air Service weren’t anywhere near as popular, and it took till the 1980s and the storming of the Iranian Embassy to catapult SAS fully, and it seems now indelibly, onto the wider public consciousness.

  For many of us of that generation, LRDG were the new musketeers, a wartime extension of Dumas or Henty. The desert was a vast, exotic expanse with no civilian casualties and a cause that was undeniably just. A whole genre of films glorified the desert commandos: Tobruk, Raid on Rommel, even the ‘Dirty Dozen’ version of Play Dirty with Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport.

  After the end of the Second World War the LRDG was disbanded, as its post desert operations had not met with such resounding success. High command tends to look down on Special Forces and commando units as too costly, too maverick and of questionable value. Many operations had been unsuccessful. Operation Agreement, the ill-starred raid on Tobruk, for example, was a fiasco. However, nothing could detract from the fact that LRDG had shown the true potential for Special Forces if conceived, recruited and deployed correctly. They punched well above their weight throughout the desert war.

  Though both LRDG and SAS had been disbanded, the ‘Winged Dagger Boys’ were resurrected with considerable success during the long counter-insurgency in Malaya and have gone on to become the very epitome of Special Forces, forming the model for such units worldwide. The dawn of asymmetric2 and now hybrid3 warfare has created a very different kind of battlefield.

  This in part, forms the justification for this new history. There have of course been others, starting in 1945 with Bill Kennedy Shaw’s Long Range Desert Group, Michael Crichton Stuart’s G Patrol, and Providence their Guide by David Lloyd Owen, and Mike Morgan’s Sting of the Scorpion. What I aim to achieve building on the excellent foundations prepared by these accomplished authors, most of whom were veterans of LRDG, is to reflect upon how their wartime experience has influenced modern Special Forces thinking. It is rumoured that the US army holds Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom as the definitive manual for low-intensity warfare. All modern Special Forces operations also owe a debt, freely acknowledged, to the LRDG, pioneers of modern irregular tactics.

  As former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair tellingly remarked to the parliamentary Enquiry into his ill-judged latter-day crusade in Iraq in 2003: 9/11 changed everything. In this he was undoubtedly correct. The consequential implications for the current use of Special Forces are discussed more fully in the final chapter, but ‘the War on Terror’ seems a very far cry from the wide, barren spaces of the Western Desert and a war where the enemy was clearly defined; where the Allied cause was patently right and the final objectives never in doubt. The War in the Desert lasted less than three years and ended in a resounding Allied victory. The involvement in Afghanistan required a full decade longer and fizzled out with a low-key withdrawal of UK forces. For those left behind of course, the war continues.

  Seventy years and more from the events of the Desert War, we look back on the conflict with a brand of nostalgia. A war where the enemy was clearly perceived as being the very epitome of the forces of darkness, a war of pure and clear ideologies and easily defined aims – beat Hitler. And we did. This was ‘our finest hour’ and most of what has come after fails to measure up. Perhaps no single unit embodies that ideal more than the Lo
ng Range Desert Group with its famous Scorpion badge.4

  Notes

  1 Keegan, Sir John, in the foreword to Lloyd Owen, Major-General D., Providence their Guide (Leo Cooper London, 2000), p. xv.

  2 Asymmetric warfare – essentially the irregular alternative to interstate war, a conflict where the two sides are vastly disproportionate in terms of strength and resources.

  3 Hybrid warfare – a form of low-key total war where the use of conventional and irregular forces is blended with cyber-warfare, guerrilla operations, and the use of improvised explosive devices (“IEDs”).

  4 Trooper “Bluey” Grimsey was the soldier credited with designing the LRDG cap badge. The legend has it that a scorpion stung him and then promptly died (the scorpion, not the trooper!). The emblem is not entirely dissimilar to the Italian Auto-Saharan Company, which features a crab in a circle: http://lrdg.hegewisch.net/beret.html, retrieved 5th February 2015.

  CHAPTER 1

  Legends of the ‘Blue’

  God be thy guide from camp to camp; God be thy shade from well to well; God Grant beneath the desert stars thou hear the Prophet’s camel-bell

  —Blessing for the Traveller1

  The last days before Christmas were spent packing. ‘Shorty’ had turned out to be a splendid New Zealand quartermaster who allotted us rather over twenty tons of equipment and stores to load onto the ‘30-cwt’ trucks and a light Ford scout car. Any pedantic ideas we had been taught about load limits were dissolved by simple arithmetic. Seven Lewis Guns, four Vickers, Boys anti-tank rifles, the Bofors and their ammunition; spare parts, with plenty of extra springs; rations and water cans; navigator’s equipment; fitters’ tools, medical stores, signaller’s wireless and accessories, all had to be checked and loaded. But the bulk of every load was petrol, tons of it in four-gallon ‘expendable’ tins, two tins to a wooden packing case. Keep every scrap of wood we were warned.2