Long Range Desert Group (Paperback)
Reconnaissance and Raiding Behind Enemy Lines
Pages: 272
Illustrations: 32 black and white illustrations
ISBN: 9781399092050
Published: 15th November 2021
Last Released: 15th December 2023
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| Other formats available | Price |
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| Long Range Desert Group ePub (9.0 MB) Add to Basket | £6.99 |
During the two-and-a-half years' fighting in the Western Desert of North Africa, which began with the Italian declaration of war in June 1940 and ended in 1943, the Long Range Desert Group became the acknowledged master of the vast desert.
This small, highly mobile force was engaged in daring exploits and reconnaissance far behind the enemy's lines. Emerging suddenly from the depths of the desert, the LRDG would raid important airfields or attack Axis lines of communication along the Mediterranean coast, and then vanish back into the desert, to reappear hundreds of miles away. With its brilliant description of the harsh beauty of the desert, and its exiting chronicle of the LRDG activities, this book is as fascinating today as it was when was first published in 1945, after being vetted by the War Office.
'Moving, exciting and authentic'
The Observer
'The British genius for exploration, hard living and insolently bold guerrilla warfare has never been better demonstrated than by the Long Range Desert Group … [Kennedy Shaw's book is] a remarkable record, told simply, unpretentiously and with engaging humour … One cannot remember a better war book.'
The Manchester Guardian
"Wargaming the Long Range Desert Group is great fun."
Wargames Illustrated – Issue 421, January 2023
Described by Major General David Lloyd Owen (formerly a Lieutenant with the LRDG in its earliest days and later its Commanding Officer) as a ‘factual and exciting chronicle’ with an ‘evocative and stirring narrative’ this is essential reading for those wanting to understand the both LRDG and the early days of the SAS.
WW2 Today
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The Long Range Desert Group achieved remarkable success during the North African campaign, sometimes as a small scale raiding force but chiefly in a reconnaissance role, operating hundreds of miles behind the lines to report on enemy strengths and movements. There can be few who are better placed to tell this story than Bill Kennedy Shaw, who had spent over 10 years prior to the war becoming an expert on the Libyan Desert before serving as the Group's Intelligence Officer, participating in the first sorties then working at Group Headquarters, where he was uniquely placed to observe the bigger picture. He wrote this most authoritative account in 1945 while the facts were still fresh in his mind, and it describes in wonderful detail the rapid foundation of the unit and its numerous exploits, revealing the enormous skill with which they operated in and navigated their way across the desert, and the methods they used to avoid detection and escape when spotted. Included amongst the appendices are a roll of honour, order of battle, a list of the many awards issued to personnel of the LRDG, and a precise breakdown of the rations required per man.
Pegasus Archive
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The book gains a great deal of atmosphere from being written during the war, and is one of the most impressive wartime accounts I've read.
History of War, John Rickard
Read the complete review here.
The new book is very well presented and is a must for those interested in Special Forces or the war in the desert.
Military History Group - Robert Bartlett
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