Desert War

Canadian · May 29, 2010

My grandfather (the Colonel) was a book publisher in civilian life. He published a book by Lt. St-Claire from the British artillery at Tobruk. The Lieutenant was captured and held in hospitals and POW camps after being wounded at Tobruk.

The book makes a point that when the fighting started, he was wearing civy silk pyjamas. But once the fighting started he changed into khaki. When he was captured, he had lost his shirt and was outfitted with new kit after capture.

Thomas

Sgt Brown · May 29, 2010

My copy of Sea of Sand arrived today and I just finished watching it. Good flick though it did have to have the ubiquitous "dying march through the desert sun" scene.

Had to laugh. The seller commented in his eBay description that the film's glaring error was the fact the LRDG was shown using STEN guns when they actually only carried Thompsons. To me that was minuscule as compared to the Germans driving White halftracks armed with BREN guns!lol

Anyhow, definitely worth the watch.

Tom

Story · Sep 5, 2011

Most of these are well-known, some are not.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-north-african-campaign/100140/

Heeresbergführer · Sep 5, 2011

Can't go wrong with Henry Fonda in "The Immortal Sergeant."

[video=youtube;6TlWx6GXwNY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlWx6GXwNY[/video]

Raid on Rommel:

[video=youtube;wouyzIsqx14]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wouyzIsqx14[/video]

The 2008 Polish film "Tobruk"

[video=youtube;MB-VO4mjzN4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB-VO4mjzN4[/video]

or the classic 1967 film "Tobruk"

[video=youtube;34ChizO_Ju0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ChizO_Ju0[/video]

And a nice list of other North African Campaign films that I found on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/World-Movies-place-North-Africa/lm/R800IV2RSYJIZ

Horrido!

Patrick

Phantomfixer · Sep 6, 2011

Sahara was good with Humphrey Bogart and Lloyd Bridges. British and American uniforms.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036323/

fl&wvmike · Sep 12, 2011

NICK CHARLES ...................
I would not go real far, in using Hollywood's version of correct gear. Historic documents would be a better choice.
MIKE

Story · Sep 12, 2011

Nick Charles said:
Anybody know of any good movies and books about the British in Nort Arfica. I want to study the uniforms and gear since I live in the desert. I just got the Desert Fox, it was ok but more about Rommel.

You might find these pages of interest
http://www.lrdg.org/LRDG-Photo-gallery(recent).htm

dr greg · Sep 13, 2011

I enjoyed this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_Dirty

MikeKardec · Oct 1, 2011

Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield, a good book but not on the epic scale of his Gates of Fire (about the battle of Thermopylae ... sort of a serious and vastly more emotional version of "300.") and the film Five Graves to Cairo ... Eric Von Stroheim as Rommel, what more could you want?

The overlapping fiction and non fiction of The English Patient (novel and film very different, both good), The Lost Oasis (already mentioned), and Ken Follet's The Key to Rebecca.

Dr. Greg, Northern NSW? Byron Bay, Nimben, where abouts? I love that area. I worked on a film out of Surfer's about 10 years ago and used to come down all the time because my closest Australian was from Byron. Missing the antipodes greatly!

dr greg · Oct 3, 2011

Dr. Greg, Northern NSW? Byron Bay, Nimben, where abouts? I love that area. I worked on a film out of Surfer's about 10 years ago and used to come down all the time because my closest Australian was from Byron. Missing the antipodes greatly!
In the hills outside Murwillumbah, about 20 minutes south of the border..know those Gold Coast studios well, did a bit of extra work there a while back....

Story · Dec 5, 2011

With the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, the family of Lieut Jock Lewes has finally got the chance to give the officer a proper burial. His nephew has been offered help from military sources and experts in lost burials, who believe they have found the location of the shallow grave in the desert outside Benghazi, Libya’s second city.
Lewes was killed, aged 28, in December 1941 after leading an attack on a German airfield. The loss of the soldier, a founding member of the elite unit, was deeply lamented by David Stirling, the regiment’s first commanding officer. “Jock could call himself more the founder of the Special Air Service than I,” he wrote in a letter to Lewes’s father.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...o-travel-to-Libya-to-find-soldiers-grave.html

Stearmen · Dec 5, 2011

The Lady Be Good

It just dawned on me, with the fall of Libya, has any one heard any news about The Lady Be Good?

jbmilart · Dec 5, 2011

Howdy, Stearmen...The news of "The Lady Be Good"...is not a pretty one...It seems that the Gaddafi regime had the aircraft removed from the crash site...and transported it to a Tobruk Police compound...and didn't even bother of how they took the aircraft apart for transport! I found this website of some recent photos of "The Lady Be Good" in that very compound today...it's very disturbing of what they did to that historic aircraft...it's a complete shame! Here is the website address... www.montrealfood.com/lbgpics.html

Jim

B-24J · Dec 5, 2011

Story said:
With the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, the family of Lieut Jock Lewes has finally got the chance to give the officer a proper burial. His nephew has been offered help from military sources and experts in lost burials, who believe they have found the location of the shallow grave in the desert outside Benghazi, Libya’s second city.
Lewes was killed, aged 28, in December 1941 after leading an attack on a German airfield. The loss of the soldier, a founding member of the elite unit, was deeply lamented by David Stirling, the regiment’s first commanding officer. “Jock could call himself more the founder of the Special Air Service than I,” he wrote in a letter to Lewes’s father.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...o-travel-to-Libya-to-find-soldiers-grave.html

I searched the Lounge and did not see directly mentioned the nephew's (John Lewes) biography of Jock Lewes. I contains a good deal of information. The whole title is "Jock Lewes, Co-Founder of the SAS" ISBN 085052 743 0. Well worth a read!

John

filfoster · Dec 8, 2011

Smithy said:
Alan Moorehead's African Trilogy is simply brilliant and well worth picking up.

Just want to 'second' this. This is vivid writing and captures so much day to day, small detail you feel like you're traveling around with him.

Story · Feb 1, 2012

The last surviving member of the original SAS has died aged 92. Jimmy Storie was one of 66 men handpicked to embark on a series of daring and deadly missions against the Nazis. The brave Scots Guards officer joined the first version of the Special Air Service, L Detachment, which operated in North Africa against Field Marshal Rommel.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-st...s-dies-aged-92-115875-23729710/#ixzz1l8ZuOweZ

Story · Feb 1, 2012

The last surviving member of the original SAS has died aged 92. Jimmy Storie was one of 66 men handpicked to embark on a series of daring and deadly missions against the Nazis. The brave Scots Guards officer joined the first version of the Special Air Service, L Detachment, which operated in North Africa against Field Marshal Rommel.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-st...s-dies-aged-92-115875-23729710/#ixzz1l8ZuOweZ

hk47 · Mar 2, 2016

Sea of Sand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Sand_(film)

DavidJones · Mar 19, 2016

I just finished watching "Ice Cold in Alex" Starring John Mills and Anthony Quayle. Story about a British ambulance crew trying to escape the Tobruk siege in 1942. Good movie.

green papaya · Mar 20, 2016

not WWII but the movie "THE BEAST" 1988 is a very good movie about the Soviets in Afghanistan back in the 1980's

lots of tank battles vs Mujahideen fighters

Desert War

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