The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura

I wish I liked this book more then I did. Something about the style of writing didn't register and it caused my attention to wander. This is probably a personal quirk and readers of the review need not take it seriously. The subject matter is great. It is about the real life world of Indiana Jones in the Indian Summer of the British Empire, and in the subsequent fight for all of civilization. It is full of larger-then-life characters, quests, intrigue, war, and derring-do and all of it real. It gives a picture of a more personal war where heroics still counted and men were not reduced to cogs in a machine. It also shows the quixotic eccentrics that inhabited the era and made it come to life. It is worthy of the getting and I would recomend those who have a taste for it to try it.

This book tells the real story of the desert explorers who inspired Michael Ondaatje to write The English Patient. While the real events were less romantic in the narrow sense, they were even more exciting as adventures. These men -- and one woman who played only a brief part -- were daring and determined, often driving hundreds of miles across unmapped desert landscapes or flying rickety aircraft to remote sites deep in the Sahara. Some of their feats, such as rescuing refugees from Libya, deserve the word heroic. Most of the men observed a code of conduct that now seems like a leftover from the age of chivalry. Their companionships were strained by the outbreak of the war in North Africa, when both sides drew on their expertise. In that context, Kelly introduces us to the little-known exploits of the British Long Range Desert Group. Here and in some other parts of the book, he is too thorough in describing the details of missions. Some careful pruning by an editor would have made this interesting book even better.

...Autumn 1940 and the British were up against the Italians in North Africa, the Germans not yet having arrived in that theater of war. In his "The Lost Oasis," Saul Kelly writes of one unit that: "The men of the LRDG patrols were quite a sight on their return to Cairo from a month's trip in Libya. Unwashed (for the water ration did not allow it), bearded, burnt brown by the sun and clad in ragged shirt, shorts and sandals, they had the air about them of a bunch of wild-eyed Biblical hermits. "The success of the first fully-fledged LRDG operation, which covered 4,000 miles, showed the capability of small armed units to travel anywhere in the interior of Libya." The expedition's leader was Maj. (soon to be Lt.Col.) Reginald Bagnold, who had put the Long Range Desert Group together in a lightning five weeks, once his submission of the idea had the approval of Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell, British Commander-in-Chief Middle East. In an age of desert explorers, Bagnold was the greatest of them. In 1935 he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal for leading the 1929-1930 expedition to search for the "lost oasis" of Zerzura in the southern Libyan Desert. He also was awarded the RGS' Gold Medal, the "ultimate accolade for an explorer." Bagnold combined personal drive, toughness and stamina with engineering curiosity to an extraordinary degree. He modified Henry Ford's new Model T Ford to equip it for long distance driving across harsh desert terrain and crossing the high sand dunes that seemed to go on forever. He devised his own sun compass and other navigation equipment. He saw places never seen before. But he did not find Zerzura, the searchers for which founded the Zerzura Club in 1930 in a Greek bar in Wadi Halfa. When World War II came, Bagnold, given carte blanche by Wavell, was able to bring numerous Zerzura Club members into the LRDG. They were a brilliant, desert-hardened collection, but of such an advanced age (mid-40s for Bagnold) as to dismay the troops rounded up by Bagnold for his command. Reckoning that he needed maturer, more independent-minded men than usual, he was able to borrow cavalry and machine-gun personnel from the New Zealand force on hand. Finding that the cars were unable to bear the weight of guns needing to be carried, Bagnold settled for 30-cwt 4 by 2 commercial trucks. Needed equipment was scrounged from Cairo shops and other sources familiar from his peacetime deserts expeditions. Wavell soon gave the LRDG an expanded role, which was to harass the Italians by destroying convoys, attacking airfields and other "piracy" in so many widespread locations that the enemy commanders didn't know where the British were. When the Germans arrived after their assault on the Balkans in April 1941, the same treatment was waiting for them. Over the next 18 months, LRDG successes were many and their casualties light, though their were great trials to be born, such as 200-walks across the desert to

... you definitely will not be disappointed with Saul Kelly's THE LOST OASIS. I'm three chapters into the book and it's a fascinating recount of the true members of the Zerzura Club. If you're an English Patient fan like I am, you won't be disappointed either. It sheds light on places and topics mentioned by Ondaatje, such as the Gilf Kebir, the Cave of Swimmers, Zerzura, and even things such as how these early explorers kept their primitive vehicles from getting stuck in the sand. But whether you're an English Patient fan or not, this book stands alone just fine.