Long Range Desert Group Patrols TSMGs

[rpbcps]

Last week I bought a book 'The Long Range Desert Group in North Africa'. The LRDG were the fore runners of the SAS, Britain's first special forces, who had a lot of success fighting the Italians initially, then the German Afrika Korps, in Libya and Tunisia.
In the book is a picture of the controlled stores list for two patrols, showing the weapons approved for the patrols, including two TSMGs. Another list has the ammo etc approved for the patrols, which includes 250 rounds of .45.

Not a lot of rounds, but I guess short range weapons were not a priority, clue is in the name, 'Long Range' Desert Group' 🤣. Joking aside though, I recall when serving in Chad in the 1980's, we had .50 Browning MGs mounted on our vehicles and they gave us some range. Once we spotted dust in the distance, and confirmed we had no friendly forces in the area, we could take the rebels on with the .50 MGs, without fear of many rounds coming back to us. Even with their Toyota mounted DShK's they were not good shots at long distances, they did not have the skills and training we had.

[Lewisfan]

I lived in Tripoli, Libya for 6 years as a kid (father worked in the oil biz). I had a metal detector that was used to find old corroded coins, bronze nails, and such. In one barren sandy field about 30k outside of Tripoli we found items spanning 2500 years. Today you would drive by and it would look like all of the other surrounding featureless desert.

Anyways, we often found WW2 stuff such as casings, bullets, shrapnel (grenade and artillery) - basically anything that gave a signal. Many times items were just laying on the surface.  Out of that field I found a bent Australian Commonwealth hat (?) pin and a German wound badge. In one spot, when I swept the detector coil, I got dozens of loud signals. Sure that I had found a hoard of coins, I excitedly set about digging them up. To my dismay, the signals were all from fired 45 cal slugs. After digging a number of them I finally just moved on, leaving the rest of them buried.  There were slugs all over the small area. Maybe target practice? We'll never know. All but just a few are still there. 

I never could figure out why, over 25 centuries, peoples had come to THAT specific area. Carthaginians, Numidians, Roman republic, mid-era Roman's, late-era Romans, and finally WW2.  LOTS of history in that country.  It is a real shame what's happened to it, but I guess that's why all the history there has never been dug up.  What I would give to go back...

[rpbcps]

Lewisfan,

What a child hood and fabulous souvenirs.

A good percentage of my adult life, I worked for Oil companies and almost started a contract with a Canadian oil company in Libya in 2013. However, but the instability and conflict at the time put everything on hold and I never got the opportunity to work there.

In the 1980's Chad was awash with WW2 weapons, left in North Africa by both the Axis and Allied forces. in 1988 when serving near Faya-Largeau, we found cases of brand new cased .303 rifles and Model of 1928's, as well as other types of weapons and cases of ammunition to go with them.

[Rekraps]

Rat Patrol!

[rpbcps]

On 12/15/2024 at 12:40 PM, rpbcps said:

Last week I bought a book 'The Long Range Desert Group in North Africa'. The LRDG were the fore runners of the SAS, Britain's first special forces, who had a lot of success fighting the Italians initially, then the German Afrika Korps, in Libya and Tunisia.
In the book is a picture of the controlled stores list for two patrols, showing the weapons approved for the patrols, including two TSMGs. Another list has the ammo etc approved for the patrols, which includes 250 rounds of .45.

Not a lot of rounds, but I guess short range weapons were not a priority, clue is in the name, 'Long Range' Desert Group' 🤣. Joking aside though, I recall when serving in Chad in the 1980's, we had .50 Browning MGs mounted on our vehicles and they gave us some range. Once we spotted dust in the distance, and confirmed we had no friendly forces in the area, we could take the rebels on with the .50 MGs, without fear of many rounds coming back to us. Even with their Toyota mounted DShK's they were not good shots at long distances, they did not have the skills and training we had.

Found picture of vhle mounted .50 in legion service. An old GMC, which we used regularly, together with Dodges, in the 1980's.

And fitted to a VLRA, (Véhicule de Liaison de Reconnaissance et d'Appui or Liaison, Reconnaissance, and Support Vehicle). Vehicle we used on operations in Chad, Djibouti and Republic of Central Africa. Some were aso fitted with Milan AT weapon systems.

 

And one of our bases in Chad, near Moussoro, where I was based for a period in 1988. On the cover of Kepi Blanc, the Foreign Legions monthly magazine.

Edited December 23, 2024 by rpbcps

[1gewehr]

What are the  "Rifles E.Y." that they had two of?

[rpbcps]

1 hour ago, 1gewehr said:

What are the  "Rifles E.Y." that they had two of?

Grenade launching rifles.

The rifles were stamped EY, which was a reference to Edward Yule a man who contributed to the later designs of the cup discharger. The cup discharger was brought in with the Mills 23 MkIII which initially used a rod like the MkII but then was used with the gas check plate in the new discharger. The No 36 was brought in as a dual use grenade and the heavy cup discharger with adjustable vent allowed greater range control. The idea was that as any rodded grenade ruined a rifle's barrel quickly, this method would allow a rifle to fire grenades withoud damage to the rifling. However, the shock of the discharge could obviously weaken the whole structure of the rifle, hance the re-inforcement of guns used exclusively for grenade work.

Edited December 23, 2024 by rpbcps
Photos added

[1gewehr]

Thanks!  I had seen the rifles used with the rod grenades from WW1, but not these.  And I had not heard of them as "E.Y." rifles.

[Autorotate]

Richard,

On the photo of the GMC deuce and a half there is something written on the edge of the hood…can’t quite make it out…

Do you remember what it says and if a nickname, how it came to be?

Thanks!

John

[1gewehr]

1 hour ago, Autorotate said:

Richard,

On the photo of the GMC deuce and a half there is something written on the edge of the hood…can’t quite make it out…

Do you remember what it says and if a nickname, how it came to be?

Thanks!

John

Diables Verte; Green Devils.

[rpbcps]

17 hours ago, 1gewehr said:

Diables Verte; Green Devils.

The legion has a thing about devils,  diables.

The regimental song of the 2ème Régiment Etranger de Parachutistes is " Le diable marche Avec nous", (the devil marches with us).

In the late 1940's with the creation of the first legion parachute unit, the 1ere Bataillon Etranger de Parachutistes, followed by the 2eme Bataillon Etranger de Parachutistes, they unofficially adopted the 'le béret vert', (green beret), for operations in French Indo China. 

It was not until 1959 that all Legion units officially adopted le béret vert. Now all legion units were Green berets with their respective regimental beret badges.

Hence the truck marked 'Diable Verte', green devils...

 

Legionnaires on patrol in France, Opération Sentinelle, wearing green berets with the para beret badge, so these legionnaires are 2eme REP.

Edited December 28, 2024 by rpbcps
Added photo

[ppgcowboy]

Vive la France, si ce n'était pas la France, nous n'aurions pas de pain perdu, ni de frites, et nous serions tous en train de nous embrasser la bouche fermée.

Long live France, if it were not for France would not have French toast, French fries, and we would all be kissing with our mouths closed.

Edited December 28, 2024 by ppgcowboy

[rpbcps]

8 minutes ago, ppgcowboy said:

Vive la France, si ce n'était pas la France, nous n'aurions pas de pain perdu, ni de frites, et nous serions tous en train de nous embrasser la bouche fermée.

Et le premier contrat de l’Auto Ordnance Corporation, de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, était avec la France, le dernier des modèles de 1921.

[rpbcps]

Seems I can not escape association with the devil, down in his cellar now.

[Autorotate]

Mon Dieu! My wife and I had a bottle of that over the holidays!

Appreciate the translation and the back story as well…were we all that young once?

[rpbcps]

29 minutes ago, Autorotate said:

Mon Dieu! My wife and I had a bottle of that over the holidays!

Appreciate the translation and the back story as well…were we all that young once?

I hope you enjoyed it.

We're all still are young, in mind, if not in body 😉

[booger hooker]

Interesting read on the backstory of the SAS.