Desert Rats

[Sturmtruppen]

Here,put the info you know about the work of british desert rats vs afrika corps.

[Dani]

http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.a.paterson/main.htm
and
http://www.army.mod.uk/7bde/

[Sturmtruppen]

thanks dani :wink:

[student-scaley]

I study World War Two in Europe as a module of my degree course, i can suggest a number of very good books relevant to the topic of Desert Rats vs. Afrika corps (p.s. these are off the top of my head)

J. Keegan - second world war

i can only remeber the exact title of one at the moment, but will get back with more if you want.

[SMLE]

For those interested in the work of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and SAS, the following may be of interest:

Lot 1296 (http://www.dnw.co.uk/dnw/medals/FMPro?-db=dnwmedals&-format=itemdetailmedals.htm&-lay=master&Category=GROUPS%20AND%20SINGLE%20DECORATIONS%20FOR %20GALLANTRY&Description%20ex%20Estimate=LRDG&-max=10&-recid=44046&-find=)

Lot 575 (http://www.dnw.co.uk/dnw/medals/FMPro?-db=dnwmedals&-format=itemdetailmedals.htm&-lay=master&Category=GROUPS%20AND%20SINGLE%20DECORATIONS%20FOR %20GALLANTRY&Description%20ex%20Estimate=LRDG&-max=10&-recid=12602212&-find=)

[IronFist]

The war in the desert was fought repeatly on the same ground. In this area of the world only a certain stripe of land (sandy land) is passable to tanks, which was the weapon of choice in these battles. This stripe of sand was only passable because it was firm enough to hold a tanks weight. All the other terrian in this area of the world is unpassable to any tank because the sand is to soft, or the terrian is a mountain.

[Twitch1]

Anyone remember the old TV show The Desert Rats. Was entertaining if nothing else.
http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0304/waffen/violent-smiley-090.gif

[Monty's Double]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785815910/qid=1133946594/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_8_1/202-4445763-1423030

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/030435497X/qid=1133946635/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-4445763-1423030

for big picture, then there's loads of first person stuff like Leakey's Luck.

My grandad and his two brothers were there, all survived and came back with permanent tans.[/url]

[Lemuel]

For those interested in the work of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and SAS, the following may be of interest:

Lot 1296 (http://www.dnw.co.uk/dnw/medals/FMPro?-db=dnwmedals&-format=itemdetailmedals.htm&-lay=master&Category=GROUPS%20AND%20SINGLE%20DECORATIONS%20FOR %20GALLANTRY&Description%20ex%20Estimate=LRDG&-max=10&-recid=44046&-find=)

Lot 575 (http://www.dnw.co.uk/dnw/medals/FMPro?-db=dnwmedals&-format=itemdetailmedals.htm&-lay=master&Category=GROUPS%20AND%20SINGLE%20DECORATIONS%20FOR %20GALLANTRY&Description%20ex%20Estimate=LRDG&-max=10&-recid=12602212&-find=)

If I remember rightly, the Long Range Desert Group had a Scorpion as its emblem. Possibly the most sought after Allied badge from WW2 and unfortunately a lot of forgeries on the market.

[1000ydstare]

It did and it is.

It is very rare because it was in production for such a short time, most men wore their parent capbadge if they wore one at all. When the LRDG capbadge came in, it suffered again from hardly ever being worn. Also a large consignment of capbadges went to the bottom of the sea, when the ship carrying them was sunk.

Completely irrelevant side track but funny non the less.

The Americans trained a number of Iraqis recently to be part of the countries forces in one role or another, anyway at the end of training they announced that the new unit was to be called scorpion force, complete with scorpion shoulder badge, in US parlance "scorfor". Anyway this spectaculary backfired on them, as Iraqis regard scorpions as very low forms of life, and were disgusted with the name and badge and threw them on the ground.

What's in a badge!!!

[1000ydstare]

7 Armoured Brigade carry the traditions of the 7 Armoured Division (the desert rats) to this day.

The 7 Bde flash is a red Jerboa mouse, which lives in the desert area.

http://kids.christiansunite.com/images/animals/jerboa.jpgThe animal

http://www.ourwardfamily.com/template_images/desertrat.jpgThe badge (this is a WW2 one but the current one is practically identical)

see www.ourwardfamily.com/ the_desert_rats.htm

[redrat]

hi iv just join the forum i m mostly on
www.wwwiireenacting.com ,
my hobby is re-enacting the 8th army (desert rats) im part of a display team is you have any questions about the subject i would be happy to help . dean

[SS-Totenkopfverbande]

Quite skilled desert troops werent they.