#LRDG

[rockyp77mk3]

Member of a Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) patrol poses with a Vickers K machine gun on a Chevrolet 30cwt truck in North Africa - May 1942.  

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SAS Rogue Heroes (2022)

[tzekkaz]

Model showcase: SAS troops and LRDG weapon teams

The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was formed in July 1940 was the brain child of Major Ralph Bagnold, they began operating in September of that year. The LRDG under Bagnold's leadership specialised in mechanised reconnaissance and desert navigation as well as offensive actions and intelligence. The LRDG would help out special forces, most notably the Special Air Service (SAS). The SAS failed to attack enemy outposts by parachute, so they turned to the LRDG to transport them to attack desert outposts by parachute. The LRDG became known as 'The Lbyan Desert Taxi Service', but their deeds were far greater than a mere taxi service for the SAS.

LRDG BOYS AT rifle team

LRDG 2" mortar team

SAS with rifles

SAS with sub machine guns

My SAS force needed updating for Bolt Action 3rd edition. I bought some SAS characters and a Ford Bofors truck from Perry Miniatures and another Chevy from Warlord Games, this chevy had an anti l-tank gun, but enough about them for the moment as they're a future project. The fact is I expanded my SAS to have more LRDG elements in it such as the anti-tank team and the mortar. I needed to add some more men to the SAS units I had so after a few weapon swaps (my Demolition teams are now no longer a thing currently) I had a new SMG unit and a couple more rifle guys. I undercoated in a desert yellow and used vallejo desert colours to paint them. I think they all turned out okay. They match the already painted models well. The increase in recommended points values for Bolt Action has meant I can fit more in my army which is a good thing.

Until next time

Happy hobbying!

[lightthewaybackhome]

Just finished Killing Rommel! I highly highly recommend!

The British Army 1939 - 1945: The Long Range Desert Group.

[amnesiacprophetphotography]

Had a great time taking photos of these guys reenacting the Long Range Desert Group. They really worked hard on these vehicles that they've restored and kitted out. Looking for more opportunities like this to shoot! DM me.

[paddyandpoetry]

"The navigator of the LRDG's Rhodesian unit was Mike Sadler, a quiet, unassuming, and exceptionally intelligent twenty-one-year-old. Born in Gloucestershire, Sadler was working on a farm in Rhodesia when war broke out. He immeadiately downed tools and signed up with an artillery unit, wich was later deployed to North Africa."

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sas rh: let eoin survive the fall au » meeting the lrdg

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Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) Chevrolet 1533x2 30 cwt Patrol Truck in North Africa during WWII.

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Captain Bruce Ballantyne, Patrol commander of T Patrol, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), probably taken in the Western Desert, Libya, 1940-43.

[rockyp77mk3]

"Founded in July 1940, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) specialized in raids and reconnaissance behind enemy lines. Masters of desert navigation, they relied on lightly-armed jeeps and trucks to traverse the Sahara and gather intelligence. The LRDG's 'Road Watch' reports on Axis troop movements were vital to Allied successes." - National Army Museum of the UK NAM Accession Number 1988-09-39-4)

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SAS Rogue Heroes (2022)

[justforbooks]

Mike Sadler, who has died aged 103, won both the military medal and the military cross as an honorary “founding member” of the wartime SAS before going on to a long career in the British secret intelligence service MI6. He was the last original member of the SAS, whose exploits were dramatised in the BBC series SAS: Rogue Heroes (2022), based on the 2016 book of the same name by Ben Macintyre.

When the second world war broke out, Sadler was working on a tobacco farm in what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He joined the Rhodesian army and was promoted rapidly to sergeant, but established an early willingness to question the wisdom of his officers’ orders.

When his commanding officer threatened to strip him of his rank if he did not apologise to an officer with whom he had disagreed, he told him in no uncertain terms that he would reduce himself to the ranks.

As a result, he was highly receptive to an invitation in a Cairo bar to join the recently formed Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), which had been set up by the British in 1940 to mount behind-the-lines attacks on German and Italian forces on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.

During the long journey from the Egyptian capital to the LRDG’s base at Kufra, in south-east Libya, Sadler became fascinated by the group’s use of stars and the position of the sun to navigate their way across more than 700 miles of largely featureless desert.

“It was a voyage of discovery because the maps, except in the very coastal regions, had nothing much on them except longitude and latitude lines and the odd dotted line marking a camel track or something,” he said. “It was entirely like being at sea.” As a result, when they arrived at Kufra, he was offered the role of unit navigator. “The idea of navigating by the stars was so fascinating I couldn’t resist.”

Sadler’s involvement with the newly formed SAS began some months later, in the immediate aftermath of its disastrous first mission. The regiment had tried to parachute into the desert in the dark during a fierce storm, and 34 of the 55 men taking part were killed or captured.

David Stirling, who had founded the SAS, needed to mount another operation quickly or see the unit disbanded, and asked the LRDG to ferry them on the next mission, in December 1941. Sadler was attached as navigator to the mission commander Blair “Paddy” Mayne, an Irish rugby international with a similar lack of respect for poor decision-making, and they got on well.

The raid, on an airfield at Wadi Tamet, on the Libyan coast west of Sirte, destroyed 24 aircraft, blew up a number of fuel dumps and killed or wounded around 30 Italian and Germans, ensuring the SAS survived.

During another raid on a German airfield at Sidi Haneish, 235 miles west of Cairo, in July 1942, Sadler, now officially transferred to the SAS, navigated 18 jeeps across the desert without headlights or maps. Storming across the airfield firing tracer bullets from their machine-guns, the men destroyed an estimated 37 aircraft.

Sadler was told to wait at the edge of the airfield and make sure everyone got out. “So I only got away from the airfield at dawn, after the raid, and found myself driving through a German column that had set out into the desert to look for us,” he recalled. “I drove through the column from the back and nobody noticed. I don’t think they expected anyone to be behind. They’d stopped to have a cup of tea on the roadside, and I drove on and out.” As a non-commissioned officer, Sadler was awarded the military medal for his bravery.

In January 1943, now a lieutenant, he was part of a small team led by Stirling looking for a route for the British forces to outflank the Germans and link up with allied forces in Tunisia.

They were captured by the Germans but Sadler and two colleagues escaped, crossing 100 miles of desert with little water and no compass or maps to meet up with US troops. An American journalist, Abbott Liebling, who saw Sadler when he arrived, said: “The eyes of this fellow were round and sky blue and his hair and whiskers were very fair. His beard began well under his chin, giving him the air of an emaciated and slightly dotty Paul Verlaine.”

Sadler reprised his nonchalant approach to driving past German vehicles during an operation in France in August 1944. He was in the first of two jeeps crossing a busy road east of Orleans when they encountered a heavily armed German patrol.

Rather than abandon his mission, Sadler drove slowly up to the patrol, waved to them and crossed the road, less than 6ft from the Germans. It was only when they had passed that the Germans realised they were British, and opened fire.

Sadler whipped his own jeep around and fired on the Germans, giving the second jeep time to escape before withdrawing himself, having knocked out two German machine-gun crews. As an officer, he could now be awarded the military cross.

Born in Kensington, central London, Mike was the son of Wilma and Adam Sadler. When his father became director of a plastics factory in Stroud, Gloucstershire, the family moved to the nearby village of Sheepscombe.

Sadler was educated at Bedales, an early co-educational private boarding school in Petersfield, Hampshire, that was founded on Montessori principles, with children freed from rigid educational methods and encouraged towards independent thought. He left in 1937 for Rhodesia, to work on a farm.

By the end of the war, he was adjutant to Mayne, now the SAS commander, and with the SAS being temporarily disbanded, they both volunteered to go to Antarctica with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (later the British Antarctic Survey).

Sadler was awarded the Polar medal for his work setting up a new base on Stonington Island, which was connected to the mainland by a glacier. When the glacier melted, the area it vacated was renamed Sadler’s Passage in his honour.

On his return to the UK, he briefly worked for the US embassy in London, before being recruited into MI6 to help plan cold-war operations. During the Falklands conflict he was involved in a deception operation over the sale of Exocet missiles to the Argentinians.

He stayed with the intelligence service until the mid-80s, spending his retirement indulging his love of sailing.

Sadler married twice, first, in 1947, to Anne Hetherington, a former driver with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Fany) whom he had met when she drove him to an airfield. They divorced after two years. In 1958 he married Patricia Benson, who worked for the Foreign Office, and they had a daughter, Sally. Patricia died in 2001. Sally survives him.

🔔 Willis Michael Sadler, SAS navigator and intelligence officer, born 22 February 1920; died 4 January 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[just-barrow]

How close are the cast of SAS: Rogue Heroes to their real life counterparts? Today we remember possibly the most tragic member of the original L Detachment, Bill Fraser played by the enigmatic Stuart Campbell.

If there is a single SAS member that's been most overlooked in the telling of the story, its the fourth officer Bill Fraser. Bill was born into a family of Gordon Highlanders and himself was a professional soldier throughout the late 30s. After serving with the BEF and being evacuated from Dunkirk, he was commissioned and joined the Commandos, serving alongside Mayne.

He was one of the platoon commanders at the Litani River battle and was severely concussed by a bullet hitting his helmet and had to hand over to his trusted Sergeant, John Cheyne. After recovering in Cyprus, like Mayne, he answered Stirling's call for men to join L Detachment. Due to a broken arm sustained during parachute training, he was absent from the disasterous Op Squatter, but was part of the LRDG party that went to collect them. Cheyne was killed on landing, an unnecessary casualty that must have infuriated Fraser the professional soldier.

Fraser's first jolly was the attack on Agadebia airfield. After laying up for a day to observe the airfield, he and his team stealthily destroyed 37 aircraft and one tractor from a possible 38 Lewes Bombs, the most of any of the raids. After the initial explosions went off, they lit up the airfield and showed another row of brand new ME109s, which Fraser duly returned to destroy. It was such a successful raid that the Italians thought they had been attacked by aircraft.

He received the MC for his leadership and tactical skill. He served with the SAS throughout Sicily and Normandy, injured in each theatre and earning a bar to his MC as well as a Croix de Guerre. After the war when the SAS was disbanded, he returned to the Gordon Highlanders. Sadly he was demoted for being drunk on duty and subsequently left the army. His later life was one of instability and illness, dying at the age of 58 in obscurity.

Fraser's initial raid was the most successful and secured the future of a very uncertain L Detachment.

For those who are curious as to why Fraser was mostly omitted from the records, it is possibly because he was homosexual. It is reported that he was mercilessly bullied by Mayne when he had been drinking, which further adds to the speculation that Mayne himself might have been gay and repressed. It could also be the undignified manner in which he left the military and subsequently dropped off the radar.

source

[tzekkaz]

Army showcase: SAS Independent Reinforced Platoon

David Stirling's L Detachment SAS were formed in 1941 after Layforce a commando unit, of which Stirling was a member, was disbanded. Stirling believed a small covert unit of men could parachute behind enemy lines and sow chaos and mayhem amongst the German and Italian supply lines and airbases and along with Jock Lewes, who invented the Lewes bomb that the SAS would go on to use to great effect and Paddy Mayne who had a reputation for being a mad man and a violent temper after a few drinks, the SAS was formed.

During November 1941 the SAS parachuted behind German and Italian lines, this turned out disastrous for L Detachment as both the weather and the enemy being on high alert conspired against them, of the 66 men that made up the SAS half of them lost their lives or were captured. The SAS changed tactics and began using the LRDG to transport them around instead, eventually Stirling secured armed Jeeps for the SAS, reducing reliance on LRDG vehicles. The SAS used the jeeps to devasting effect including at Sidi Haneish where a large convoy of jeeps under Stirling's command used their machine guns to destroy 30 aircraft. Stirling was captured at Gabes Gap trying to link up with US forces, eventually ending up in Colditz, Lewes was killed whilst on a mission, the SAS convoy came under an aerial attack and Lewes was last seen destroying mission notes in the cab of a truck before it was blown up. Mayne became a major and led the SAS for the rest of the war, he became one of the most decorated soldiers of the war, though he was denied the Victoria Cross for reasons unknown. Under Mayne's command, the SAS went on to see action in Italy and Western Europe helping the allies in their push to Berlin. 

Starting at Christmas 2022 I began a project to paint an SAS jeep and an LRDG truck, both from Warlord Games,this quickly spiralled out of control and became a platoon for Bolt Action. I began work on a 1000pt SAS independent reinforced platoon, however thanks to some nice models from Warlord Games and Perry Miniatures my force expanded beyond the 1000pts I planned. There are two army lists in Campaign:the Western Desert  book the first is reinforced platoon-early: November 1941-May 1942 or reinforced platoon- independent: June 1942-April 1943. I chose the reinforced platoon- independent as they have a large number of Jeeps and ford/chevy trucks available to them, which meant more vehicles for me to paint and I love painting vehicles.

Below is my initial 1000pt list:

Second Lieutenant (veteran) 

SMG, 

veteran team medic with rifle

                                                                         96ptsSAS infantry section

NCO with SMG

2 veterans with SMG

1 veteran with rifle 

Team medic with rifle

Veteran LMG team

                                                                      164pts

SAS infantry section

NCO with SMG

2 veterans with SMG

1 veteran with rifle 

Team medic with rifle

Veteran LMG team

                                                                      164pts

SAS Demolition team (veteran)

NCO

Team medic 

                                                                         55pts

SAS Jeep (veteran)

HMG

Wing mounted MMG

Rear facing MMG

                                                                        95pts

SAS Jeep (veteran)

Rear facing MMG

Forward facing twin vickers K

                                                                         80pts

SAS Jeep (veteran)

Forward facing HMG

Rear facing MMG 

                                                                         80pts

SAS Jeep (veteran)

Rear facing MMG

Forward facing twin vickers K

                                                                         80pts

LRDG chevy CWT 30 truck

Forward facing MMG

Rear facing MMG

                                                                         93pts

LRDG chevy CWT 30 truck

Forward facing MMG

Rear facing MMG

                                                                         93pts

Total points:                                               1000pts

Order dice: 10

My list is far from competitive, I have tried to make the squads rather eclectic with a mix of rifles, LMGs and SMGs, the intention behind that is to demonstrate that the SAS used whatever they could lay their hands on. There is very little choice in the selector and the hardest part is fitting everything in as a good proportion of the points goes on compulsory purchases, the officer and two squads of vererans, three jeeps and transports for everything, what with everyone being veterans too, it did not leave many points to play with. Once I have used them I shall write a Tumblr post on how they performed, though with my track record it will not be very well.

 

(Left-right) Paddy Mayne, David Stirling and Jock Lewes

SAS officer with SAS veteran

SAS demolition team 

SAS veteran squad

SAS veteran squad

SAS Jeeps

(Left to right) LRDG Chevy, LRDG Ford, LRDG Chevy

[gyunikum]

J, T, X for the fandom meme!

Ooo much obliged!!

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

It should be a hard 'none' for me because I returned to tumblr for one specific fandom, but I've been seeing a lot lot lot of the Pacific!

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

You know, now that I think about it--I haven't really thought about headcanons yet. Maybe something something about the juxtaposition of Paddy's favourite poems and Eoin's writing, because that's a place I really want to explore (despite not being into classic literature at all. I am not well-endowed in that regard.)

Wait. Actually. Yes I do have one. Pat Riley is related to Clyde Blackburn, a character (pilot) from Battlefield 1.

Also, Reg allows Johnny pretty much everything. Can't say no to him.

Also also! Mike has met Almásy László (desert explorer extraordinaire in Rommel's army, contemporary and colleague of Ralph Bagnold, founder of LRDG) once in the desert. Maybe they raced each other too and the outcome remains inconclusive.

Help, how do I stop the headcanons!!

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

Eugene Roe (I always have a soft spot for medics, might be connected to me always playing as a healer in RPGs);

Harry Chase, from World on Fire (every time that guy goes to the old continent, he ends up bringing home some stray, and I respect that because I'd do the same);

Bill Fraser (and Withers, they come as a package deal);

Peter Dawson, from Dunkirk (2017)

I'm definitely forgetting some more, but oh well.

[crazygadgetshere]

LZ Models : LRDG-Figures and Updates

Ford F30 update kit includes new LRDG figures LZ Models and a set of updated Ford F30 figures Source