Kuno

Sorry, I am not familiar with this wars but cannot recall any other as the 1977 one. Was just a thought...

@ Hanno; as far as I know, the only real French garrison was the Foreign Legion at Sebha (with some tiny posts in the other villages). There was a supply route for trucks via Ghadamis - Hamada al-Hamra - Sebha - Murzouk - Gatroun - Chad (and the planes used until the mid 1950s were not seldom of German origin: Ju.52!)

Since you mention Egypt. Could be that it is a remnant of the Egyptian army which changed the side at one of the conflicts between these two countries. Might be brought to Tripoli for testing later on...

@mcspool; I am talking "postwar" as well. The French had nothing to do in the North. They occupied Fezzan to have a land connection from Tunisia down to Chad. I am not aware about any supplies to Libya by the French (they had to build up their own army first ;-)).

Presume that the tank was used by the British.

Cannot say who used the LVTs but presume that it was the British as well.

The French were not a Tripolis. They only occupied the Fezzan (southwest of the Country). They had no tanks available!

Tripolis was not defended by the Axis forces. The last stand was made south of Tripolis at az-Azizia. Might be that some tanks were lost there but not near Tripoli.

I remember a shooting range in Cirenaica. Bizzare thing - Amphibious tanks in the middle of the desert ;-) They were riddled over and over by bullets - the British planes from el-Adem AFB...

Snapper - use it.

I have the feeling that this tank was used for target practicing. It has too many impact holes for battle damage only. Further, the driving gear on both sides is damaged by shooting at the tank.

The Libyan Capital of Tripolis is undergoing massive civil construction works at that time.

During excavations for a new residence quarter at the seashore at the western limits of the city, a WW2 tank has been unearthed.

Obviously its is one of US origin, a SHERMAN.

Personally I am not that familiar with such products, would anybody be able to tell me more about the particular type and its details? Maybe also something about its service during the desert campaign of WW2?

Would be time I go there once....

No clue, where this is written :-(

We all need luck ;-)

No, actually not. They were stopped at the crossroad. Two sentries there. They told them that they have the lugage of "the General" who would follow about half an hour later - and they were let go.

Naturally they were convinced that the PASS had worked.

And on the return journey, they passed the oasis once more. Again undistrubed ;-)

BtW. the question came up in relation to a German behind the lines operation. They were sure that this sign would let the vehicles pass everywhere and that it was only issued to high ranks (and their staff). Cool. They just drove into the city. Confident that this plate would help them...

Many thanks for that!

Colleagues; I wonder the function of the PASS plate one recognizes quite often on Allied vehicles during the Desert War.

Did it mean that this vehicle was allowed to pass an eventual roadblock / checkpoint... would wonder, if this would really have been the case. Each driver could have done it by himself.

No; you are right - it went to the IWM.

What is webcast?

Colleagues; it does actually not surprise me to read such message from Poland. If you check out the offers from the same seller on Ebay, then you will find that they even sell original dog-tags. Unbroken dog-tags mean that still a family is waiting to learn about the fate of their father, brother, son.

Makes me not only sad but angry. And Ebay is not watching it - only if somebody would dare to present a historical photo with a Swastika, then they would interfer...

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/FELDPOST-14-45-MILITARY-SHOP_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ0QQftidZ2QQpZ2QQtZkm

Very interesting information! Thanks a lot for that!!!

It will be on TV in the second quarter of this year. But in NZ.

Colleagues;

It is like this: in regard of the possession of such vehicles you have three possibilities. You own...

A) no Iltis

B) an Iltis

C) several Iltisse

(Do I sound now like a teacher ?)

That's correct; in May 2008 we were with a TV crew to search the traces of the LRDG in the South; in particular in relation to the Incident at Jebel Sherif. This was together with Brendan O'Carroll and Roberto Chiarvetto (who are both together with me in the final stages of a book to the same subject ;-)).

Rick; the book was under process for quite a long time - it is most probably always the case that just when you think to close the research, soething additional pops up. So actually the setup was fixed long before I had the trip with the TV crew (and I was really not the "star" there, this was not the idea at all). However; I had the chance to contribute a small epilogue to Jonathan's book - it was about the one and only clash between the LRDG and the German "Sonderkommando Dora". Else I am curious about the content as you... I have not yet seen it :-)

Colleagues;

please allow me to do some advertising for the just published book of Jonathan Pittaway. He is helping me a lot with the project "Incident at Jebel Sherif"....

Cheers, Kuno

LRDG Rhodesia

The second issue of this book by Jonathan Pittaway is actually a completely new book. The content in very brief words is this:

1. over 1000 previously unpublished pics

2. maps, documents, badges, militaria, medals etc

3. 468 action packed full colour gloss pages.

4. all Rhodesian LRDG medal citations

5. full Rhodesian Rolls, Roll of Honour, Awards, Nominal Roll etc.

6. most stories by veterans and serving LRDG patrolmen

My copy is on the way. Yours can be ordered here:

www.dandy.co.za

agencies@iafrica.com

(I will post more as soon as the book has arrived, respectively as soon as I am back to Europe to pick it up… may take a wile…)

Maybe they have even used those two particular vehicles? Will try to take some screenshots with my digicam these days.