Kufra

It is, it is so much, uh, more than simply battles in this case.

You know, you can have the, the London Times, The New York Times writing about, "Hey, listen, there might not be a lot of them." They don't necessarily need to mention that, but look, they're still actively fighting, and they're creating these heroes, like Leclerc, like Giau, who is his, uh, second in command during, uh- Battles like the, the Battle of Kufra, where they're in Southern Libya, and, and famously, this is where Leclerc gives his, ah, sermon after this victory, saying they're not gonna stop fighting until the, the French flag flies over Strasbourg Cathedral.

Then you've also got other units that may have been close to British-controlled areas who cross over and form the basis of Free French fighting units, es- especially in the Middle East.

I'm thinking about, ah, for example, there's a squadron of Spahis, which are these French Moroccan cavalrymen who are stationed in, in Syria, cross over into British mandate of Palestine, and you've got soldiers rallying out of French Djibouti to, ah, the British fighting in Ethiopia during the campaign to kick the Italians out of Ethiopia.

He was a, a officer of the famous French Saharan cavalry.

But, uh, I was privileged enough to, uh, have for a boss, uh, when I worked at the US World War I Centennial Com- Commission, uh, his goddaughter, who has recently published a book on, on General Dio in English.

It is the story of him going through the Second World War from, uh, Kufra, from the service in the Sahara, to leading a large part of the Free French Second Armored Division.

And it is a great way for English speakers to see an individual story of their participation, how they came about joining Free France, how they ended up, up becoming one of the leaders of the Free French movement, as well as the, the Free French Army, and the most famous French unit of the Second World War, the Second Armored Division.

It does not survive intact.

Command passes to Major David Lloyd Owen, who had joined the unit back in July 1941 and been badly wounded in an air raid on the LRDG's old desert base at Kufra the previous year.

He inherits a unit reduced by two-thirds from its Aegean deployment strength, its founding New Zealand contingent gone, and its purpose once again in question.

What Lloyd Owen builds from what remains is smaller and quieter than anything the unit did in the desert, but it keeps going.

friend of my heart.

If we get through to Suleiman and the horses... you will ride with him and Amira to the oasis of Kufra.

Go direct to the Sheikh Mustafa al-Kub... and say to him...

I come from K.C. Smith.

So how did you get here?

While traveling from Buran to Kufra with my father, our caravan was attacked by Mugrabi raiders.

My father was killed.

The rest of our caravan was either killed or captured.

Ali and I can take care of ourselves.

Suleiman, Amira says you may be trusted.

Would you ride with her to Kufra and temporarily forget your oath of vengeance against el-Melik?

I would, ya sheik.

In desert travel, there are three elements, camels, water supply, the guide.

Camels, the best of them, and for no apparent reason, give in, as it happened when I left Kufra and one of my best camels died on the second night, while on the other hand, the weakest camel of the caravan, which left Kufra tottering under its load, went through the whole trip, about nine hundred and fifty miles, and arrived tottering at El Fasher.

God will protect it, said its Bedouin owner, when rebuked for bringing such a sorry animal.

And in truth, God did protect it.

In the course of it, I was fortunate enough to discover two lost oases, Arkenu and Ouenat, which previously had not been known to geographers.

My journey was primarily a scientific expedition, but I have tried in this book to avoid wearying the reader with technical matters and to write a straightforward narrative which may be of some interest even to those who are not acquainted with Egypt, the Sudan, or the Libyan Desert.

It had always been my greatest ambition to penetrate to Kufra, a group of oases in the Libyan Desert which had only once been visited by an explorer.

In 1879, the intrepid German Rolfs had succeeded, but he had barely escaped with his life, and all his notebooks and the results of his scientific observations were destroyed.

In desert travel, there are three elements, camels, water supply, the guide.

Camels, the best of them, and for no apparent reason, give in, as it happened when I left Kufra and one of my best camels died on the second night, while on the other hand, the weakest camel of the caravan, which left Kufra tottering under its load, went through the whole trip, about nine hundred and fifty miles, and arrived tottering at El Fasher.

"God will protect it," said its Bedouin owner when rebuked for bringing such a sorry animal.

And in truth, God did protect it.

In the course of it I was fortunate enough to discover two lost oases, Arkunu and Oueinat, which previously had not been known to geographers.

My journey was primarily a scientific expedition, but I have tried in this book to avoid wearying the reader with technical matters and to write a straightforward narrative which may be of some interest even to those who are not acquainted with Egypt, the Sudan, or the Libyan Desert.

It had always been my greatest ambition to penetrate to Kufra, a group of oases in the Libyan Desert which had only once been visited by an explorer.

In 1879 the intrepid German, Rohlfs, had succeeded, but he had barely escaped with his life, and all his notebooks and the results of his scientific observations were destroyed.

I know.

I saw the Chadians wipe out the air base at Kufra with 300 vehicles.

It was amazing.

I didn't even think the Chadians had it in them.

In desert travel there are three elements, camels, water supply, the guide.

Camels, the best of them, and for no apparent reason, give in, as it happened when I left Kufra and one of my best camels died on the second night, while on the other hand the weakest camel of the caravan, which left Kufra tottering under its load, went through the whole trip, about 950 miles, and arrived tottering at El Fasher.

God will protect it, said its Bedouin owner, when rebuked for bringing such a sorry animal.

And in truth, God did protect it.

In the course of it, I was fortunate enough to discover two lost oases, Arkunu and Owinat, which previously had not been known to geographers.

My journey was primarily a scientific expedition, but I have tried in this book to avoid wearying the reader with technical matters and to write a straightforward narrative which may be of some interest even to those who are not acquainted with Egypt, the Sudan, or the Libyan Desert.

It had always been my greatest ambition to penetrate to Kufra, a group of oases in the Libyan Desert, which had only once been visited by an explorer.

In 1879, the intrepid German Rohlfs had succeeded, but he had barely escaped with his life, and all his notebooks and the results of his scientific observations were destroyed.

In desert travel, there are three elements: camels, water supply, the guide.

Camels, the best of them, and for no apparent reason, give in, as it happened when I left Kufra and one of my best camels died on the second night.

While on the other hand, the weakest camel of the caravan, which left Kufra tottering under its load, went through the whole trip, about nine hundred and fifty miles, and arrived tottering at El Fasher.

"God will protect it," said its Bedouin owner when rebuked for bringing such a sorry animal.

And in truth, God did protect it.

In 1879, the intrepid German Rolfs had succeeded, but he had barely escaped with his life and all his notebooks and the results of his scientific observations were destroyed.

In 1915, I had been fortunate enough to meet in Cairo Sayyid Idris el-Senussi, the famous head of the Senussi Brotherhood, when he was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The capital of the Senussi is Kufra, and when in 1917 I went on a mission to Sayyid Idris with Colonel the Honorable Milo Talbot, CB, RE, a distinguished officer who had retired from the Egyptian Army but had returned to the service during the Great War, and renewed my acquaintance with that notable man at Zutina, a little port near Jedabiah in Cyrenaica, I seized the opportunity and told him of my ambition.