Kuno

@ Bodger; will most probably be in the same city in that period...

...it came back to my mind now. Further up I was asked, what had "brought" me to the Desert War. Actually, I just like to take then & now pictures - and most of the old pictures have been taken during the desert war. Below a fine example:

The British had the idea to test their Hoovercraft in the desert of Libya :idea: This must have been a British idea :yay: --- SRN.5 was driven from TOBRUK/ELADEM down to GIARABUB and the published report describes this testtrip as a good success Although they could not enter the sandsea as planned orginally and although each trench which was wide enough caused the craft to crash in the opposite embankment :-D The solution proposed was that the choosen route shall be inspected best by helicopters or Landrovers (another British invention which has a good & tough image although such does not match the reality) and marked consequently :coffee: But the testing of such vehicle must have been really fun: ENDLESS DESERT :clap::clap:

...and some pics of the same colleague showing the Commonwealth Cemetery at TOBRUK:

Don't have my own pics at hand at the moment - so I use a colleagues ones. The German memorial is built like a traditional fortress. There is one small entrance and the names of the fallen soldiers are all in mosaics along the inner walls. Hope these pics can give an impression.

Always very impressive to see how young these people were. Was asked once by a German veteran, if I could take a photo of the name of his best mate from scool days until dead in the desert war from the memorial at Tobruk. He sent me then as well a photo - the last of the colleague alive and the main dates of his life. I returned with the question, if he is sure about the birth-date. It was correct; he was not even 18 years of age when he died. And this was already in 1941! The German memorial at Tobruk is quite different to the Commonwealth cemeteries. No individual stones but only the pure names laid in mosaic. No rank nothing. The names in alphabetical order...

@ Snapper; if you would be in danger of life, then please do not tell anything. I would somehow feel guilty - and this only that short after I have joined this forum. No, that's not what I want.

Hi Rick; don't think that we are working on the same project. However - you never know... Never heard about the "competition". Would be interesting to learn more about his job with the LY-gouvernment, Snapper.

Have spent a lot of my time at various locations in Libya; depending on the job...

Two Bedford Q are still on daily duty in the Jabel al Akhdar region of Eastern Libya. They are used to provide water to the sheep in the fertile plain once the rainfall has stopped in early summer...

It was just 175 kilometres south of the location where LBG crashed where another tragedy took place in the year before: http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol122jc.html

Would really be worth to make a good movie. What I "like" about this story is how members of a feared bomber suddenly become lost and have to struggle for their survival. Makes one thinking, how often we simply rely on our "technical assistants" and how helpless we become if they stop working. Fascinating as well, how long human being is fighting for survival - would be interesting to know, if they were somehow aware, how far off they were...

Was very surprised to find this new page about the LBG. If they want, I can sent them some pics of the wreckage and the crashsite as it looks today. What is somewhat strange to me is the mentioning of Italian truck traces dating back to 1941. How can someone date such traces? Ok; the British truck traces are left by the LRDG, so you can say that they were not older than 1940 :-). But for the Italians?

In the mid 1960s they exported about 10'000 tons of scrapmetal!

Just found a new website regarding our subject; the "map room" is most interesting: http://ladybegood.net/maps/index.htm

Hi Rick; the area where they have bailed out makes it simply impossible that any one of them could have reached a safe place (water). I would assume that he has jumped only a little bit later than the others and could not find to the group once landed. Maybe he was hurt and could not walk. One day somebody will find him...

http://www.wmparts.de/parts.php?akt_uk_id=22 How to make a 90 out of a 110...

It is really strange that the last crewmember has never been found...

@ abn; actually all crewmembers have been found - except the one you have mentioned. After the plane was found empty, a huge search mission was initialized. One of the crew kept a diary... until the last moment. I am not sure, if the diary is mentioned in the book above - but it is a dramatic read. They were far more south than they had expected and they had no chance to reach anything when marching north. --- What not so many people know; about 200kms north of the crashsite of the LBG, an Italian torpedo-bomber had the same fate. Coming back from an attack on Allied shipping it went lost without trace. Until it was found in the early 1960s. The pilot managed to forceland the machine. He removed the compass and marched north to try to reach the track from Giarabub to Gialo. The others waited near the plane. He did not know, that this was not a major trafic rout but only an occassionally used track. Anyhow, he did not reach it and died in the dunes.

First of all: There are not many vehicles out in the desert any more; then, I am not really familiar with the production numbers and must admit that I have left the hard works with the colleagues in MLU ;-) The vehicles at Jebel Sherif were easy :-). The Chevrolet of the Free French is identified as well. MLU colleagues could tell me something about another French used CMP but ir remains a miracle - no clue, who has left it that far south. Forgot to mention a Ford F.30 of G Patrol. Although there was no number visible - the location fitted with the description in the book.

...not always lucky. I drive a Landrover...

Unit markings; never saw any. But the numbers, if the plates are still there, are always worth a picture. In this particular case nothing was to be found any more.

It is always somehow a strange feeling, if you approach such loaction. Sometimes after hundrets of kilometres of driving through the desert. Then you stand in front of such wreck and try to imagine, how the crew must have felt (although in this particular case, the crew bailed out before the plane had landed).

Personally I would like to have seen it at is original place... have visited the crashsite last year. There are still pieces of the wreckage. Desperate place... Just to prove that it was not the crew who brought the LBG to TOBRUK who caused this immense damage to the wreck: Attached is a picture of the German traveller Reinhard Mazur, photographed just shortly before it has been removed: