'A bit of piracy' in the Desert

1st November 1940: The first operations of the Long Range Patrol, forerunners of the LRDG and SAS, as they cross deep into the desert to assault remote Italian positions

A British Army 15-cwt truck throws up a cloud of sand and dust while moving at speed along a desert track in North Africa, 1 November 1940.

The concept of ‘Special Forces’, small groups of highly skilled soldiers operating independently of conventional forces, often covertly and behind enemy lines, is now familiar to us. In 1940 it was an entirely new id…