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

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 Dorman 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