Long Range Desert Group

Long Range Desert Group. W.B. Kennedy Shaw. 1945; reprint, Greenhill Books, 2000. 260 pages. $18.95 (softcover).

British Army Captain W.B. Kennedy Shaw served as Intelligence Officer of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) from the time it was organized in Egypt in the summer of 1940 until the concluding phase of the North African campaign in February 1943. During this action-packed period, Kennedy Shaw participated in numerous operations behind enemy lines against Italian forces and later Rommel's Africa Corps, and briefed and debriefed veritably every LRDG patrol.

When Italy declared war on the United Kingdom in June 1940, its forces in North Africa numbered about 250,000 while British troops numbered 36,000. Recognizing the potential of desert travel to counter the Italian manpower superiority and to gain intelligence, Major Ralph Bagnold (a leading and experienced desert explorer) proposed the establishment of a light vehicle reconnaissance unit. Formed in late June 1940, the LRDG was initially composed of British officers and soldiers from New Zealand and Rhodesia. The group, alter intensive training, became operational in September 1940.

The first patrols consisted of two officers, about 30 men, 11 trucks, 11 machine guns (although these numbers were later reduced by half), and vast quantities of fuel, ammunition, food, and water. Navigating over frequently uncharted, immense trackless stretches of desert and sand seas, in extremes of temperature (over 120 degrees F. in the shade in summer, and below freezing in the winter), the LRDG patrols specialized in gathering intelligence and reconnoitering enemy positions and new routes. The patrols also occasionally ambushed enemy convoys, interdicted supply lines, and attacked outposts, airfields, and rear area elements, using their hit-and-run tactics and high mobility to give the Italians (and later the Germans) the impression that the British had more troops than they actually had.

One of the most significant activities of the LRDG was the "road watch" on the Via Balbia. The Via Balbia, paralleling the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, was the only paved road through an area where vehicle traffic was extremely limited and water was scarce. The Germans landed their tanks, and most of their other reinforcements and supplies, at Tripoli, then moved them hundreds of miles along the Via Balbia east to their forward units. At a vantage point near Sirte--some 400 miles behind enemy lines--the LRDG established its road watch site where patrols constantly monitored all enemy vehicular traffic and convoys coming from Tripoli. By monitoring all movements, the LRDG was able to provide early warning of impending enemy attacks by counting vehicles by type and identifying surges and other patterns in resupply and reinforcements, and other indicators of enemy activity. The road watch, according to Kennedy Shaw, was perhaps "the most useful job LRDG ever did."

Kennedy Shaw's gripping memoir provides tremendous insight into the Western Desert campaign and the colorful, courageous, and indefatigable personalities of the elite Long Range Desert Group, described in a contemporary newspaper article as "the bravest, toughest, and brainiest unit of Britain's great desert army." More importantly, the pages of this fascinating book reveal battle-proven lessons in small-unit leadership, tactics, and desert operations.

Lieutenant Colonel Harold E. Raugh, Jr., U.S. Army, Retired.

COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army Infantry School
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group