LRDG

This is coolbert:

"Non Vi Sed Arte -- Not by Strength, by Guile" - - Motto of the LRDG.

"These men [LRDG] are dangerous!!"

Here are the Englishmen who during World War Two [WW2], pioneered the concept of ranger/commando/special operations troops attacking and destroying enemy aircraft while on the ground.

The Long Range Desert Group [LRDG] .

"The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a British Army unit during World War II. The unit was founded in Egypt, following the Italian declaration of war in June 1940 . . . The group specialised in mechanised reconnaissance, intelligence gathering and desert navigation."

[not exclusively Englishmen, but for the most part so?]

LRDG! Unconventional warfare troops, small, autonomous units, adept at reconnaissance, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and DIRECT ACTION MISSIONS! Direct action missions the goal of which was to destroy enemy [Axis] aircraft ON THE GROUND!

Direct action missions, using measured audacity, units employing for movement specially modified jeeps, automobiles, trucks! Movement over terrain [Saharan desert] thought be either next to impossible or impossible! Missions that sometimes involved movement across trackless waste of THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS!!



Units, officered to a certain extent by the sons of the English elite? Officers, quite often persons themselves of noble rank, not shirking their duty but commanding ground troops performing the most dangerous and rugged duty possible!

Credited [along with other similar units] with having destroyed, in the North African campaign, over four hundred [400] Axis aircraft, those planes sitting ducks on the ground!!

[this too at a time when the British campaign in North Africa had a number of serious ups-and-downs. LRDG maintained, almost singlehandedly, an offensive spirit that was undeniable and admirable!]

A unit [LRDG], that even devised and employed their own unique demolition explosive device, ideally suited for destroying aircraft on the ground. The Lewes bomb.

"The Lewes bomb was a blast-incendiary field expedient explosive device, manufactured by mixing diesel oil and Nobel 808 plastic explosive . . . powerful enough to destroy and set fire to aircraft on an enemy airfield. Weighing approximately 1 pound (0.45 kg), the Lewes Bomb could be carried in quantity by an individual."

IT WAS THE DIRECT ACTION MISSIONS OF THE LRDG AND OTHER SIMILAR SUCH UNITS THAT PROMPTED HITLER TO ISSUE THE INFAMOUS COMMANDO ORDER!!

"From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called commando raids, even if they are in uniform, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be annihilated to the last man.... Even if these individuals on discovery ... give themselves up as prisoners, no pardon is on any account to be given."

An order, that in the main, was not followed by German commanders in the field! [on some occasions, was followed, the executions constituting a war crime of the most serious nature!]

"These men [LRDG] are dangerous!!"

You betcha'!

coolbert.