Long Range Desert Group
The
Long Range Desert Group (
LRDG) was a
British Army unit during
World War II. The unit was founded in
Egypt following the
Italian declaration of war (June
1940) by
Major Ralph A. Bagnold with the assistance of Captains
Clayton and
Shaw, acting under the direction of
General Wavell. The group specialised in
mechanised reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and
desert navigation. The group was disbanded at the end of the war. The LRDG was nicknamed "the
Mosquito Army" by Wavell.
Special Air Service soldiers would refer to it as "the
Libyan Desert Taxi Service".
The unit, initially known as the
Long Range Patrol Group, was founded
3 July 1940 and was assigned 150
New Zealand volunteers. Bagnold had reasoned that the New Zealanders, being mostly
farmers, would be more adept at using and maintaining
machinery. Later additions to the group included
British and
Rhodesian units.
The unit was arranged into 3 main patrols, of 40
soldiers each. Patrols were initially equipped with
Ford F30 4WD and
Chevrolet WB trucks, supported by Chevrolet 1311x1 15 cwt (3/4 t) command cars. The patrol trucks were later replaced with Chevrolet 1533x2 30 cwt (1.5 t) trucks, and the command cars with
Willys Jeeps.
Each patrol was equipped with ten
Lewis machine guns, four
Boys Anti-tank Rifles, and a
Bofors 37 mm anti-tank gun; later on, trucks were equipped with
Browning .50 cal machine guns, captured Italian
Breda 20 mm
anti-aircraft guns and twin mounted .303 cal
Vickers K machine guns. The troops carried
Brens,
Thompson submachine guns, and other
weapons. The unit also used Army
No. 11 wireless sets.
During the initial training, Shaw was responsible for teaching navigation, while Bagnold taught
communications.
On
September 13,
1940, the unit formed its first base at the
Siwa Oasis. They arrived there by driving approximately 240 km across the
Egyptian Sand Sea. On
September 15, two patrols of the LRDG were engaged in the unit's first combat operations. In this action
Captain Mitford's unit traveled via the
Kalansho Sand Sea and attacked Italian
petrol dumps and emergency landing fields along the
Palificata. Meanwhile, Clayton's group passed through Italian territory to contact the
French forces in
Chad. It is believed that the LRDG helped persuade the forces there to join the
Free French Forces. The patrols rendezvoused at the southern tip of the
Gilf Kebir (where a supply dump was located) and then returned to
Cairo, via the
Kharga Oasis. Each patrol had traveled approximately 6,000 km.
Following the September expedition, the
War Office approved a doubling of the unit's size, its renaming, and the promotion of Bagnold to
Lieutenant Colonel. The enlarged unit gathered volunteers from British,
Indian, and Rhodesian units. Bagnold wrote, "During the next few months, raids were made on a number of enemy-held oases...isolated garrisons were shot up...the raiders seemed to appear from a fourth dimension...
Graziani was beginning to doubt his intelligence reports [and] the Italian army halted for...months."
In September 1940, Bagnold travelled to
Fort Lamy,
Chad, where he helped persuade the French
colony to join the
Allies. The LRDG and Free French forces worked together to raid Italian positions in the area of the
Murzuk Oasis and the combined forces, using French
artillery, captured
Kufra. In April
1941, the LRDG's headquarters was moved to Kufra. Bagnold wrote, "
Temperatures exceeding 50
°C were found to be tolerable, even on a restricted
water ration, owing to the dryness. The worst discomfort came from...
sandstorms, which lasted several days. They made eating very difficult." From Kufra, the LRDG commanders would essentially serve as the military commanders of a region approximately the size of northern
Europe, a region which had not seen
rain in 70 years.
During the summer of 1941, Bagnold recruited another prewar exploration companion,
Guy Prendergast, to serve as his
second-in-command. On
July 1, Bagnold left the unit, to serve in
Cairo as a
Colonel, and Prendergast became the LRDG's commander. Prendergast would be succeeded by
Jake Easonsmith who was followed by
David Lloyd Owen.
After the end of the African campaign, the LRDG was trained in mountain warfare at the Cedars of Lebanon Hotel, in Lebanon. They were also trained in parachute operations. The unit went on to serve in the Greek islands, Italy and in Normandy.
The LRDG was disbanded on
August 1 1945, being later reformed as the
Territorial Army 63 (SAS) Signals Squadron (V).
|
LRDG Memorial at Papakura Army Base, New Zealand. |
An original truck, recovered from the North African desert, is held by the Imperial War Museum.
A War Memorial is at
Papakura army base, in
Auckland.
Several private replicas of LRDG vehicles have been built in the UK, America and New Zealand.
* http://www.lrdg.org - Website of the Long Range Desert Group Preservation Society.
* http://www.lrdg.de - Another LRDG site, has background information on vehicles and equipment and an extensive bibliography.
* http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/lrdg/lrdg.html a page devoted to their exploits in the desert with extensive information on weapons, personnel, and equipment. Site also includes detailed annotated bibliography.
