The Desert My Dwelling Place

In mid 1941, David Lloyd Owen, aged 24, joined the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) as a young patrol commander. He soon found his feet learning the arts of survival and navigation deep in the Libyan desert, and recounts in detail the characters in his Y Patrol, their operational methods, their team spirit and camaraderie. The LRDG was primarily concerned with reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, but was also allowed the occasional ‘beat-up’. With astonishing navigational skills based on their founder Bagnold’s invention of the sun-compass and unparalleled long-distance signal communications, the LRDG became masters of the deep desert – an area that was effectively a no-go zone for the Axis forces. Here, Lloyd Owen describes the origins of the LRDG and the formation and first operations of the SAS under David Stirling, and how the two units worked so closely and successfully together for the rest of the campaign in the desert and thereafter. ‘Popski’s Private Army’ also worked