by Sadler, John
5 Neillands, p. 109.
6 Operation Flavius in March 1988 involved the killing of Sean Savage, Daniel McCann and Mairead Farrell. At the subsequent inquest there was pressure on the jury to return a verdict of ‘unlawful killing’ – however they found the killings to have been lawful.
7 Neillands, pp. 253–254.
8 Ibid., p. 291.
9 Ibid., p. 293.
10 Ryan, M., Battlefield Afghanistan (Spellmount Stroud, 2007), pp. 42–48.
11 Kilcullen, D., Out of the Mountains, the Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla (Talks at Google, retrieved 30th January 2015).
12 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9837238/The-SAS-a-very-special-force.html (retrieved 30th January 2015).
13 Ibid.
14 Retold in Morgan pp. 39–41.
GLOSSARY
Abbreviations and Acronyms
‘AA’ – Anti-aircraft
‘AFHQ’ – Allied Forces Headquarters
‘AFV’ – Armoured fighting vehicle
‘AP’ – Armour piercing
‘A & SH’ – Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
‘AA’ – Anti-aircraft
‘AT’ – Anti-tank
‘BAF’ – Balkan Air Force
‘BEF’ – British Expeditionary Force
‘Bir’ – well, cistern
‘Bivvy’ – Bivouac
‘BTE’ – British Troops in Egypt
‘CIA’ – Central Intelligence Agency (US)
‘C-in-C’ – Commander in Chief
‘CO’ – Commanding officer
‘CP’ – Command post
‘CSM’ – Company Sergeant-Major
‘CT’ – Communist Terrorist
‘CTR’ – Close Target Reconnaissance
‘DAF’ – Desert Air Force (RAF)
‘DAK’ – Deutsches Afrika Corps
‘DCM’ – Distinguished Conduct Medal
‘De-lousing’ – minefield clearance
‘DID’ – Detail Issue Department
‘Div’ – Division
‘DMI’ – Director of Military Intelligence
‘DSO’ – Distinguished Service Order
‘Erg’ – Sand Sea
‘FOB’ – Forward Operational Base
‘Fusti’ – fuel drum
‘Gebel’ (Jebel) – mountain or hill
‘Gilf’ – cliff, plateau
‘Goumier’ – French irregulars
‘GOC’ – General Officer Commanding
‘GSO1’ – General Staff Officer 1st Class
‘GSO2’ – General Staff officer 2nd Class
‘Hamada’ – stony desert
‘Hatiet’, ‘Hatiya’ – patch of vegetation
‘HE’ – High explosive
‘IAOC’ – Indian Army Ordnance Corps
‘IED’ – Improvised explosive device
‘IO’ – Intelligence officer
‘ILRS’ – Indian Long Range Squadron
‘ISLD’ – Inter-service Liaison Department
‘I-Tank’ – Infantry tank
‘KD’ – Khaki drill
‘Kebir’ – large, big
‘KIA’ – Killed in Action
‘LAF’ – Libyan Arab Force
‘L of C’ – Lines of communication
‘LRDG’ – Long Range Desert Group
‘LRP’ – Long Range Patrol (forerunner of LRDG)
‘LSF’ – Levant Schooner Flotilla
‘MAD’ – Mutually Assured Destruction
‘Ma’aten’ – well
‘MC’ – Military Cross
‘Mehariste’ – Camel Corps trooper
‘MG’ – Machine gun
‘MP’ – Military Police
‘MT’ – Motor transport
‘Mudir’ – native official
‘NAAFI/EFI’ – Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes/Expeditionary Forces Institute
‘NATO’ – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
‘NCO’ – Non-commissioned officer
‘O Group’ – Orders Group
‘O.H’ – Official History
‘OKH’ – Oberkommand des Heeres
‘OKW’ – Oberkommand der Wehrmacht
‘OP’ – Observation post
‘ORBAT’ – Orders of Battle
‘PBI’ – Poor bloody infantry
‘PIRA’ – Provisional Irish Republican Army
‘POL’ – Petrol, oil and lubricants
‘PTSD’ – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
‘Quaret, ‘Gara’ – hill
‘QM’ – Quartermaster
‘Quibli’ – hot, south wind
‘RA’ – Royal Artillery
‘RAC’ – Royal Armoured Corps
‘RAF’ – Royal Air Force
‘RAP’ – Regimental Aid Post
‘RAC’ – Royal Armoured Corps
‘RAOC’ – Royal Army Ordnance Corps
‘RASC’ – Royal Army Service Corps
‘RE’ – Royal Engineers
‘Recce’ – reconnaissance
‘Regt’ – ‘Regiment
‘REME’ – Royal Engineers Mechanical Engineers
‘R & R’ – Rest & Recreation
‘RN’ – Royal Navy
‘RSM’ – Regimental Sergeant-Major
‘RTU’d’ – Returned to unit
‘RTR’ – Royal Tank Regiment
‘RV’ – rendezvous
‘SAS’ – Special Air Service
‘Scarper’ – Disorganised and precipitate retreat, verging on rout
‘SDF’ – Sudan Defence Force
‘Shott’ – salt marsh
‘Serir’, ‘serir’ – gravel desert
‘SMG’ – Sub-machine gun
‘SMLE’ – Short-magazine Lee Enfield
‘SNCO’ – Senior non-commissioned officer
‘SOE’ – Special Operations Executive
‘Wadi’ – watercourse, normally dry
‘WD’ – War Department
‘W/O’ – Wireless Operator
‘W/T’ – Wireless telegraphy
‘VC’ – Victoria Cross
APPENDIX 1
Weapons, Vehicles, Training & Equipment
Vehicles
In 1940, the era of specialised kit for Special Forces had not yet dawned. Much of what LRDG utilised was strictly on a ‘make do and mend’ basis, seasoned by chronic wartime shortages. As mentioned in the introduction, long after the war the shifting sands revealed a lost survivor, scorched by sand and wind but still recognisable – a Chevrolet WB 30 cwt two-wheel-drive truck. Found in and recovered from the desert like Ozymandias’ bust, though this relic was not entirely forgotten. Its markings had survived sufficiently to be recognisable as truck 8 of W Patrol (New Zealand), though probably abandoned by G Patrol late in 1940 or early 1941. Despite new owners, the vehicle markings did not get updated, retaining their earlier Maori names, and we know that Trooper Clarkie Waetford branded this one Waikaha – the location his family hailed from.1 The truck, still in its raw, scarred state, can now be seen in the Imperial War Museum, London.
It was of inestimable value that Ralph Bagnold had spent so many years engaged in desert exploration before the war. Optional extras such as sand tyres, water condensers for vehicle radiators, sand mats & channels, and the superb sun-compass (see below) became essential. Adapted, cannibalised and stripped, LRDG vehicles became a mobile oasis in the desert for the troops who relied on them.2 Nominal weight limits were soon discarded and it wasn’t uncommon for the 30 cwt truck to set off with over two tons (imperial) of fuel, supplies, ammunition and gear. Additional leafs were added to the existing suspension system to compensate. Each vehicle had a flexible crew of three: driver, gunner and commander. Each individual’s roles might encompass a range of functions: wireless operator, medic, navigator and fitter. The ability to carry out running repairs was crucial; nobody was going to be anywhere near to a de
aler or service station.
In the very early days officers were provided with Ford 01 (½ or ¾ ton) pickups. Additional air vents were added by the simple expedient of punching holes in the bonnet. New rear bumpers, affording better access for tyre-changing, were fitted together with swan-neck machine-gun mounts. Doors were removed and an ad hoc timber superstructure built up to house supply containers. Typical armament might be a .303 Vickers or Lewis Gun, or perhaps one of each, (see below). The advantage of these command or pilot vehicles was their relative lightness, far easier to dig out and so ideal for scouting.
Ford also produced the larger F30 truck – this had the apparent advantage of four-wheel drive but this was frequently offset by additional weight and a gas-guzzling V8 engine which could seldom offer more than six miles per gallon, a serious disadvantage on long-range missions where adequate fuel supply was a constant worry. This was the prime attraction of the Chevrolet 1533X2 30-cwt model, which had been specifically re-designed to military specifications. LRDG further customised these vehicles, which began to replace the older trucks from early 1942. To the standard rig troopers added the vital sand tyres and customised radiator grills to boost air-flow. Some were further modified for specialist support roles: engineering, light artillery and anti-tank capabilities.3
Heavier vehicles such as conventional 3-tonners were used for supply, and the 30-cwt trucks were augmented by their lighter brethren, the 15-cwt Pilot, also employed as a handy scout. Most of these were two-wheel drive, which was preferred as they used far less fuel. The idea of a four-wheel drive vehicle had to wait for the ubiquitous Jeep, the Willys MB. Perhaps the most famous images of desert raiders are photos of piratical-looking SAS troopers in jeeps which bristle with automatic weapons, a film-makers dream. LRDG, who’d first encountered the earlier Bantam BRC-40s, continued to refer to all jeeps as ‘bantams’. The famous Willys were ideal for desert warfare; light, manoeuvrable, sure-footed, rapid and robust. Within LRDG, they swiftly replaced many of the earlier scout cars. Most LRDG jeeps carried less armament than their SAS contemporaries; say a single or twin-mounted machine-gun.4
A key innovation, unique to the desert and designed ingeniously by Bagnold himself, was the condenser:
We realised that cars do not use much water by actually boiling it off in steam, but that the steam blowing violently down the narrow overflow pipe, provided in all radiators, carries with it a great quantity of water splashed up by the boiling. All this could be saved if the overflow were led into a special tank even if the steam itself were lost. So we blocked up the overflows of the radiators, and in their place soldered large copper pipes to the filler caps, joining them by other tubes down into two-gallon cans bolted onto the running boards of the cars, so that the only outlet from the radiator was at the end of a pipe immersed in cold water at the bottom of a can. When the water boiled in the engine a mixture of water and steam was carried over into the can where all the water was saved, and so, until at last the water in the can itself began to boil, the steam was condensed and saved.5
Getting around in the seemingly limitless wastes of the Western Desert, a region the size of the Indian sub-continent and with rather fewer inhabitants, wasn’t just about having the right vehicles; it was very much about knowing how to use them. Again, the pre-war experiences of Bagnold and Clayton proved invaluable. The learning curve had already been met. Obviously, there was the ever-present risk that the heavily laden vehicles would get bogged in soft sand. The skilled driver soon learnt, usually the hard way, to judge the ground ahead. The use of sand channels and mats to ease trucks out of soft sand saved hours of sweat. The channels provided a hard surface for the rear (driving) wheels while the mats gave purchase for the front tyres. Much heaving and pushing might still be needed. If the truck was truly bogged then it might have to be first unloaded. At this point the driver might have few friends.
Over compacted ground, hard sand or gravel serir, the trucks could bowl along at respectable speeds, and might hope to cover over two hundred miles in a day. Progress across the treacherous shifting and undulating dunes, sometimes several hundred feet high, was a lot harder. A patrol leader had to know the difference between the hunched and passable ‘whalebacks’ as opposed to the hazardous ‘razorbacks’ where the unwary might come to grief over a blind summit and sheer drop. The favoured tactic was a ‘balaklavering’ (from the famous cavalry charges at Balaclava in the Crimean War, 1854): a rush at the slope, using speed, momentum and the grip of deflated sand tyres to get a bite. Pausing on the crest to consider the next move was advisable.
War generally is hard on military vehicles; desert warfare doubly so; and the distances and terrain traversed by LRDG on a daily basis, vastly more so. LRDG could not have functioned effectively without the unglamorous but vital work of the Light Aid Detachment. This was a trusty band of REME and RAOC fitters who looked after trucks, jeeps, weapons and all other things mechanical. Commanded by Captain Joe Braithwaite, they kept ships propellers and those of the trusty WACOs turning. Their work was the everyday mundane, no adrenalin-pumping contacts but, as David Lloyd Owen rightly points out, without them there would have been no action at all!
Weapons
Men of the LRDG, like most swashbucklers, valued their weapons. The choice could easily determine success or failure, life and death. Equipping the unit, however, was problematical from the outset as the whole theatre of war was bedevilled by a shortage of available firepower. Most of what was carried by patrols was standard British army issue. The most common sidearm was the .38 calibre Enfield or Webley, a tried and tested revolver; less sophisticated than its Axis semi-automatic counterparts, but rugged and dependable.
As the desert is as hard on kit as it is on men, reliability and durability were key. Rifle of choice was the legendary Mark III SMLE (‘Smellie’), a .303 calibre, ten-round bolt action, box-fed rifle which served in both world wars and offered a grenade-launching variant.6 In terms of submachine guns, the .45 calibre 1928 model Thompson, a variant on the gangster’s favoured ‘tommy-gun’, was preferred to the mass-produced home grown 9 mm Sten. This American weapon could produce rapid hard hitting, ‘man-stopper’ rounds at close quarters.
For sustained automatic fire, the venerable .303 Lewis was widely carried, able to be fired from or off vehicles as circumstances dictated. This water-cooled weapon had been the standard British light machine gun from the second half of the Great War. Now obsolete and superseded by the air-cooled Bren, Lewis guns were, in 1940, more readily available in the Middle East. Much of the army’s small arms and support weapons had been left in the shambles of Dunkirk. Indirect fire support could be provided by the handy 2-inch mortar.
Patrol trucks bristled with weapons. Whatever was needed for the fight had to be with the troopers as they took an enemy on. There would be no supporting fire from aircraft, armour or artillery. For desert raiders, being able to dispose massive firepower in an instant conferred an immediate and enormous advantage, likely to be decisive. Convoys of Axis vehicles could very quickly be deterred from resistance by a few well-directed non-lethal bursts. Those who were made of sterner stuff would receive the full deluge. This wasn’t buccaneering; it was a micro-version of industrial warfare. In such sharp sudden encounters, he who shot first with accuracy and weight of fire would decimate his opponents and shred their vehicles.
The standard British medium machine-gun, the redoubtable Vickers in .303 calibre were mounted alongside the heavier .5 calibre weapon. Browning equivalents were also popular. A variant of the conventional .303 was the gas-operated Vickers K. These were essentially intended for use on aircraft, and when mounted in pairs could deliver a tremendous volume of sustained fire. Another survivor, carried in the early days, was the .55 calibre Boys anti-tank rifle, whose effectiveness was pithily summed up by Lloyd Owen: a more useless military weapon has never been invented, either before or since.7
For a weightier punch and taking on armoured vehicles, each patrol carried a truck-mounte
d 37 mm anti-tank Bofors8 which could penetrate light armour and effectively shoot-up desert forts. Whenever possible, LRDG patrols would trade these in for captured Italian 20 mm dual-purpose Breda cannon.9
Communications and Navigation
Given the vast distances traversed by patrols, being away from any kind of base for weeks on end, good, reliable communications were an absolute essential. The raiders had to be able to transmit the intelligence they’d gathered and receive orders in return. British wartime radios have not enjoyed a good press, but the No. 11 set more than proved itself under desert conditions.10 Though not initially intended to reach out over long distances, the No. 11 managed to operate at an extreme range of 1,400 miles. Sky-wave signalling11 and key operating were used exclusively.
Security was obviously paramount. The Axis were good listeners and a single slip could spell disaster. Frequencies and call signs were varied twice daily. All signal instructions were carried encoded; international commercial procedure was used and the known call signs of local commercial stations were employed wherever possible; and the controls of the set were always set to zero after every transmission was completed, thus avoiding the risk of compromise if the set were captured.12
The sets were powered by two 6-volt batteries, one from the vehicle carrying the set and another with the radio itself, both charged by the truck generator. For distances up to 500 miles a straightforward six-foot rod aerial would do the job, but for transmission beyond that distance a Windom aerial13 was needed. As a rule each patrol had three times slots in a day when they could radio in – morning, noon and evening. Due to the nature of the kit and the need to erect an aerial, transmission couldn’t be managed on the move. It took time too to encipher and/or decipher the messages. As a result the midday slot was usually avoided.
Of course, the equipment was only as good as the operator, and veterans like Lloyd Owen have nothing but praise for the wireless operators who served with them. These men were the patrol’s lifeline, the umbilical which linked them to a distant HQ. The radio-man carried a heavy burden, his hours were long and he needed technical skills to keep his set operational. The nearest repair shop was probably a thousand miles away.
