The North African theater of operations during the Second World War took place mainly on the coastal edge of the Mediterranean, from French Tunisia coveted by Italy, which was already occupying its Libyan colony, to British Egypt, which had a reduced army. Mussolini thought the game was playable; Thus began round trips that ended when the help of the Nazis was needed, who sent an expeditionary force from Africa or Afrika Korps. The only possible overruns on the flanks were by sea and through the depth of the Libyan desert, far behind the coastal lanes. This is why the mythical Long Range Desert Group was created. This theater of operations attracted the full attention of the belligerents and Rommel flew from tactical victories to tactical victories towards the final strategic defeat which allowed the landings in Sicily and Italy, the rise of which enabled the Allies to land in Normandy in the moment when other allies entered Rome, open city.
Major Ralph Bagnold developed the Long Range Desert Group which, along with the SAS, played a major role in the desert warfare in North Africa; he was born in 1896 and died in 1990. His father was in the British Engineering corps and always encouraged him to learn. In 1915, Ralph carried on the family tradition and enlisted in the army where he spent three years during the First World War. After the war he went to study engineering at Cambridge University, graduating in 1921 and returned to the army soon after; he was assigned to Cairo. This position at the gates of the desert allowed him to satisfy his ambitions to explore the desert in a motor vehicle in the 1930s. Discharged from the army in 1935, he devoted himself to his passions for mathematics, physics and to his curiosity to develop the ultimate knowledge of the desert.
He made a remarkable crossing of the Libyan desert from east to west and his team invented the sun compass which is unaffected by metals and magnetism. It is a simple and rustic device consisting of a vertical segment whose shadow cast on a horizontal plate indicates the direction. He also developed a technique for driving on soft sand, alongside navigating the desert without obvious landmarks. He has also developed techniques for crossing the dunes in force, at high speed, paying attention to the other slope which is always steeper. These finds were vital at the opportune time of the Libyan Desert War when Ralph Bagnold was recalled for active duty at the rank of major by his extensive knowledge and expertise. So he asked General Wavell, Commander-in-Chief of British Ground Forces in the Middle East, to form a reconnaissance party to act as scouts in the desert and pass on the intelligence obtained.
Since the other senior officers were suspicious of the "private armies", Wavell was ready to accept Bagnold's request and wanted to know how these patrols were going to get out of trouble in the event of an attack, how to rescue them and what were the the necessary desert expertise that the Italians and Germans did not have. Wavell gave Bagnold six weeks to form his group which would become the "Long Range Desert Group", the eyes and ears of the British Army in North Africa, far behind enemy lines. To the observation and reconnaissance function was added the SAS transporter function which gave it the nickname of "Libyan Desert Taxi Service". Before having its own vehicles, Leclerc's "Force L" launched its raids on the Italian forts of Mourzouk and Koufra from Chad as passengers of these Libyan desert taxis where, once, Jacques Massu, camel officer stationed in Tibesti, transformed his desert ship into an oil tanker for a refueling rendezvous. Bagnold's knowledge proved invaluable and he even found time to write The Physics of Blown Sand in 1941. In July 1941, he was promoted to colonel and in place in Cairo, in the British army despite the skepticism of the military hierarchy.
“[...] Never in our peacetime travels had we imagined that war could ever reach the enormous empty solitudes of the inner desert, walled off by sheer distance, lack of water, and impassable seas of sand dunes. Little did we dream that any of the special equipment and techniques we evolved for long-distance travel, and for navigation, would ever be put to serious use.” Ralph Bagnold
Military operations
They consisted simply of solitary navigation through difficult terrain which the adversaries believed to be impracticable. Depending on fleet availability, 4X2 pickup trucks (2WD over 4WD) were adapted and modified civilian equipment and varied as needed, such as equipment. The iconic vehicle was the 1937 and then 1940 Chevrolet 30CWT (1.5 tonne payload in British nomenclature) made in Canada by General Motors. Lighter Ford vans could be used for command as well as heavier 60CWT (3 ton payload) trucks, later, for artillery and recovery, during the development of this group and its metamorphoses.
Observation missions required perfect camouflage and long hours of motionless waiting as well as avoiding combat when possible. Traces of presence or passage had to be carefully erased. For the expertise of crossing the desert, this versatile group of British commandos "capable of anything" carried out a wide variety of missions from its base, installed in the Oasis of Siwa, far in the South, at the gates of the desert. Reconnaissance missions also included the capture and interrogation of Italian and German prisoners as well as intelligence from the Bedouins. For this, the LRDG included teams of linguists who knew the languages and languages used in this situation.
The eccentricity of some English gentlemen (gentlemen) could give excellent results whose "saga" are still in the memory, like those of Lawrence of Arabia and Orde Charles Wingate who created the Chindits.