WINGS over the desert

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 21, 23 October 1944, Page 12

WINGS over the desert

/'JI KO hfrO' REPfI'RT ■; 4.'--'•■s a' ' «. ~■ <■

/Published by arrangement with Army Archives Section. No part of this article may be reprinted without the permission of Archives Section, Army H.Q.

Aircraft —the eyes of army. That is a military truism which every campaign since the last war has confirmed. It was no less obvious to that hardy band of raiders and scouts known as the Long Range Desert Group. Territory that they took weeks to traverse, a plane could cross in a matter of hours. On the ground the sun-glare made it difficult to distinguish objects ; in the air, vehicles and men stood out plainly on the desert’s sandy face. A set of tracks might lead as far as the eye could see, but the eye could not see very far. The tracks might stop half a mile farther on or fifty. Only a plane could tell quickly the answer. So the leaders of the L.R.D.G. started a minor “ campaign,” a bumph war to get their own aircraft. In the early stages of desert war when the unit was operating from Cairo, R.A.F. machines were borrowed for various jobs. Later, however, as the Desert Group’s base moved into the inner desert and for a while rested at Kufra some better arrangement was needed. The immediate practical considerations were that the C.O. could by air keep in touch with his scattered patrols ; in a few hours he could scan a stretch of desert that would take the trucks days to navigate. Moreover, by air a two-way flow of information between Cairo and the patrols could be maintained ; G.H.Q. would have up-to-the-minute information of events in the inner desert, and one page of current information is worth a

whole volume of stale news in war. Finally, wounded and sick men could be evacuated quickly to hospital. For it must be remembered that a man wounded on patrol in the desert had only the first aid his comrades could give him on which to rely. There was no R.A.P. or C.C.S. for him. And in many cases the difference between life and death is the speed with which skilled attention can be given a wounded man. At that time, early 1941, the R.A.F. had its hands full. They wanted all the pilots, planes, and mechanics they could lay hold of for their own work. But the senior officers of the Desert Group combined tenacity of purpose and determination. They had conquered the desert and scragged the Italians, they were not going to be licked by this. Finally their persistence was rewarded and they were allowed to buy two Waco aircraft that were for sale in Cairo. Then began the hard work of adapting the two erstwhile private cabin monoplanes for long desert trips. This took time, and during the period a second pilot, a senior officer of the unit was the first, was needed. So a New Zealand trooper was taught, and given the title of “ Sergeant Pilot ” to put him on a par with similar R.A.F. personnel. The Admirable Crichton was just a novice compared with the Kiwi. Nothing comes amiss to him and he turns his hand with equal facility to piloting a plane over the desert or brewing “ hooch ” in the jungle. If they ever fly a plane to the moon there will be a Kiwi with them.

By the end of April of that year the first plane was ready and was flown to Kufra. On its third journey two forced landings were made due to overheating and loss of oil pressure. Luckily these did not occur while crossing the Great Sand Sea. Had that happened, it would have been — the tongue of that part of the world— mafish. An unpleasant and long drawn out end. After that the Wacos went in company on long transdesert trips. The second plane arrived at Kufra by the end of May, and there they were —the air Arm of the Desert Group —two unarmed Wacos and a

French observation plane. Perhaps it was as well. Had the planes been Hurricanes, the Desert Group would have tackled the desert war on its own bat. Difficulties still remained. The R.A.F. took pity on them and helped with maintenance. Spare parts, however, had

to be ordered from the United States of America. A contingent of six R.A.F. planes arrived just after midsummer at Kufra. The Desert Group prepared landing-grounds and petrol dumps. Then it was found that the planes were unsuited for the job on hand — that was that. But nothing daunted the Desert Group. They had “ wings,” they had “ eyes,” and they used them to good effect to assist their task of spying out the land and the enemy and dishing out what can best be described as an unexpected belt in the ear to his startled outposts. The risk of a land-

ing in the desert and certain death, their defencelessness, for they were unarmed, against chance-met enemy planes ; nothing deterred them. They had made the desert their playground and, not content with that, they took the air. The "Camel had wings."