LRDG

[PeterW]

Nothing to do with cameras, but I thought I'd pass on the following story that was told to me by a German friend whose father was a veteran of Rommel's Afrika Korps. It concerns the British Long Range Desert Groups who were famed for being able to move very quietly behind enemy lines and attack without warning.

A young German soldier was about to start his first stint on night watch and and was told to keep his ears open for a British Long Range Desert Group patrol. He asked his sergeant what he was listening for.

Well, said the sergeant, it's very dark and very quiet in the desert at night. You listen carefully and you can hear b*gg*r all.

Then there's a pause, and then you can hear b*gg*r all again.

That pause is an LRDG patrol approaching, so you wake me up.

PeterW

[John Parry]

Peter

That's a sassy story !

Regards - John

[Andrew]

great story Peter! i never tier of hearing accounts such as this.

it reminds me of faint memorys of a TV show i watched late at night when i was a kid..i think it was called 'Desert Rats' or something like that...i cant remember if if was an American show or British but i thought perhaps British.

they would have all sorts of missions in the Desert, although i think the show centered mainly around them using jeeps with the machine gun mounted on the rear and flying over the cresents of the sand dunes at great speeds hehe

[olroy2044]

..i think it was called 'Desert Rats' or something like that

If I remember correctly, that show was called "Rat Patrol." I wondered even at the time how that little flathead 4-banger could get those jeeps going fast enough to get airborne, especially weighted down with that pintle mounted Browning 50.

O, wait, It was TV!! ;D Roy

[Andrew]

thats it Roy! about a half hour later the name Rat Patrol occured to me as well, but i still wasnt sure.

i had the opotunity to drive one of those jeeps a couple of years ago and thought the same thing at the time. no way would i get this thing airbourne over sand dune cresents, lol

[John Parry]

They alternated between Chevrolet and Ford light trucks, and Willys Jeeps - what could they have done with Landrovers? (The history of the LRDG contains more tales of the problems they had with the vehicles, than of their exploits)!

A sterling article Peter...

Regards - John

[Andrew]

Landrovers were, and still are a somewhat, a common sight, on old farms , broken down wrecks sitting in the corner of a paddock. along with all the old broken farm machinery implements.

Occasionaly you see one that thats been converted to a shooting platform, bush bashing vehical or some other use that make use of the differencial coupling at the rear (the name of that feature escapes me at the moment).

being aluminium they just seem to last forever sitting there. although i guess its true that theres not nearly the same amount of old wrecks to found anywhere nowadays with people selling them for scrap metal if nothing else

[casualcollector]

Andrew. In the USof A we call it a power take-off. From 1995 to 1998 I had the experience of being around Landies on a daily basis and on a part time basis for a while after. I was the warhouse manager for a parts importer/dealer. I shipped a lot of axle seals, hub gaskets and brake cylinders. Often shipped wheels, clutches and springs. Occasionally engines and transfer cases. Interesting old beasts. The bodies look quite good well after the steel chassis has given up. In two instances I've seen them rusted so badly beneath the footwells that they sagged in the middle. It was a regular drill to unhook the wires and a few other bits and lift the body off the chassis. We would transfer the running gear to a new, galvanized frame, renewing and replacing some of it along the way, then lower the body back on. Much less time to describe than to perform! Never fancied owning one!

[John Parry]

I worked out in Saudi Arabia for five years, and drove a number of 4WD vehicles in soft/quick sand conditions, although never a Landrover. The Toyota Landcruisers were the best of the ones I tried. closely followed by the Mitsubishi Shoguns. Having spent two whole days under a seriously hot sun, digging out bogged down Nissan Patrols, I couldn't recommend them in those situations!

But I met an Australian out there who had used to have a contract to single-handedly maintain the weather stations in the Empty Quarter (the Rub al-Khali). Weather? What weather? It's hot! But that's what this guy did for a living. And he wouldn't go out there in anything other than a long wheel-based Landrover. This was before the days of satellite phones, and long distance radio communications. He was on his own. He told us that he could carry enough supplies and resources to dig himself out of soft sand in the deep desert. Twice. Any more than that and he would just die out there.

Of course, under those conditions you'd be reluctant to try anything new, but his old Landrovers worked for him - he was still alive to tell the tale!

Regards - John

[Deleted]

When serving in the armored cavalry back in the 1960s, I was a scout section leader. Four Jeeps --three men to a vehicle with the .30 caliber machinegun mounted on a pedestal--Just like the "Rat Patrol." We were "sneaking and peeking" out in front of the heavy tracks. That's OK in training but in combat scounts had a life expectancy rated in minutes.