The Long Range Desert Group in World War II - Gavin Mortimer

The Long Range Desert Group in World War II

By: Gavin Mortimer

Hardcover | 29 March 2017 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $51.99

$44.75

14%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $11.19 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 10 to 15 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

Written by the foremost expert on British wartime special forces and illustrated with images that have not been seen in seventy years, this is a new history of the Long Range Desert Group.

Established in June 1940, as the brainchild of scientist and soldier Major Ralph Bagnold, a contemporary of Lawrence of Arabia, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) allowed the British Army to gain a crucial advantage in the North African Front of World War II.

Traversing great swathes of the desert that had never before been explored by Europeans, the LRDG were able to launch hit-and-run raids against remote enemy targets such as the fort and airfield at Murzak. From December 1941 until the end of the Desert War in May 1943, the LRDG carried out numerous missions in tandem with the Special Air Service, using their unparalleled knowledge of the desert to navigate the SAS to enemy airfields from where attacks would be launched. As well as in Africa, the LRDG also fought in the Aegean undertaking numerous dangerous missions in Yugoslavia, Albania, Italy and Greece, displaying their extraordinary versatility by operating in boats, on foot and by parachute.

Featuring never-before-published photographs and archival material, interviews with surviving veterans who have never before gone on record regarding their wartime exploits, and special access to the SAS archives, Gavin Mortimer tells the story of the origins and dramatic operations of Britain's first ever special forces unit.

About the Author

Gavin Mortimer is the author of Stirling's Men (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004), a ground-breaking history of the early operations of the SAS, The SAS in World War II: An Illustrated History (Osprey, 2011), The Daring Dozen (Osprey, 2012) and The SBS in World War II: An Illustrated History (Osprey, 2013). He has also recently published The Men Who Made the SAS (Constable, 2015). An award-winning writer whose books have been published on both sides of the Atlantic, Gavin has previously written for The Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and Esquire magazine. He continues to contribute to a wide range of newspapers and magazines from BBC History to the American Military History Quarterly. In addition he has lectured on the SAS in World War II at the National Army Museum.

More in British & Irish History

The Catalpa Rescue - Peter FitzSimons

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF
The Journals of Captain Cook : Penguin Classics - James Cook
Normal Women : 900 Years Of Making History - Philippa Gregory
Colonialism : A Moral Reckoning - Nigel Biggar

RRP $34.99

$31.75

Churchill : Walking with Destiny - Andrew Roberts

RRP $35.00

$31.75

Unruly : A History of England's Kings and Queens - David Mitchell

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF
Unruly : A History of England's Kings and Queens - David Mitchell
One Life : The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton - Barbara Winton
Jane Austen at Home : A Biography - Lucy Worsley

RRP $26.99

$25.75

Crypt : Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond - Alice Roberts
Empireland : How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain - Sathnam Sanghera
Princes in the Tower : Solving History's Greatest Cold Case - Philippa Langley
An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West - Konstantin Kisin