Historian Brendon O'Carroll with the abandoned LRDG truck Te Aroha. (Image courtesy of Dan Henry)
20 April 2009
A documentary which traces the Long Range Desert Group “T” Patrol on their journey through the Sahara Desert during WWII will screen on TV One on Anzac Day.
Wellington director Dan Henry travelled to Libya to make the documentary after a discussion with friends about the feats and achievements of the heroic group of (mainly Kiwi) soldiers.
The desert group, which became known as the LRDG, was originally the Long Range Patrol, and was a British unit but most members were New Zealanders. It used heavyweight trucks for patrols and desert reconnaissance, attacking Italian outposts deep behind enemy lines. Group members raided enemy supply convoys and airfields, and also carried Special Air Service raiding parties. They specialised in surprise raids, and their operations invariably led to enemy air attacks which damaged or destroyed their vehicles.
Mr Henry teamed up with three historians for the journey, including Aucklander Brendan O’Carroll, the author of three books about the LRDG.
Along with a cameraman and producer, the team travelled through the Sahara to the final resting place of three trucks which were abandoned then torched after the LRDG’s first big campaign in December 1940, the Fezzan Raids.
Before the journey Dan Henry interviewed three LRDG veterans, all now in their eighties and nineties.
“Their stories were so inspiring we knew they had to be documented. These guys were pioneers of that special style of soldiering – they were really resourceful, adventurous and plucky, with that Kiwi sense of giving something a go, even when people say it can’t be done,” he says.
“The documentary is a story about hardship and survival, and triumph over adversity. It’s a very Kiwi story.”
The production team travelled to Libya in May 2008. Visas to enable team members to enter Libya arrived just hours before they were due to leave New Zealand.
“But after we arrived in Tripoli everything went well. We travelled through the desert for some 4000 kilometres in a fleet of four-wheel drive vehicles, and slept under the stars.”
Mr Henry says the journey showed him a little of what the LRDG members must have been through. “We had good vehicles and plenty of water. Those guys were in two-wheel drive vehicles and water was rationed. They had two litres of water a day for them and the truck. They were mapping as they went, and no one really knew what was out there. It’s a very inhospitable place.”
After a week driving through sand, in temperatures to 42 degrees C, the film crew reached the trucks, each of which had been named by the LRDG Te Paki, Te Aroha and Te Anau.
The LRDG had camped overnight near the Gebel Sherif site and were seen by an Italian spotter plane. Italian Special Force ground troops were alerted and a fire fight ensued.
What followed next heralded acts of bravery few people are aware of, says Mr Henry.
“The LRDG was outgunned, but the Kiwis kept returning fire, and seven trucks managed to escape. One LRDG member, Corporal Rex Beech held his ground and kept firing his machinegun so the rest of his section could get away. He was killed.
“Four of the other men decamped into the hills, and later returned to their truck but found it had been torched. Led by Trooper Ron Moore, who had a bullet wound in his foot, they decided to walk south to what they hoped was safety.”
The men had about eight litres of water between them, and all were eventually picked up by the Free French.
Trooper Moore completed the 336km journey to safety through the Sahara, on bare feet and with very little water, in nine days. He was the first member of 2NZEF to receive a Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Lost in Libya will screen on Anzac Day, Saturday April 25th, on TV ONE, at 1pm.
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