The Long Range Desert Group

An account of the Long Range Desert Group's overlooked exploits in the last 18 months of World War II.

The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was formed in 1940 and is most famous for the secretive but vital role it played in the North African campaign in World War II. However, it also saw significant service elsewhere. After taking part in a series of disastrous British operations in the Aegean during September to November 1943, the LRDG, significantly smaller in size, survived, and in 1944 deployed to southern Europe and the Balkans. In the European Theatre, the LRDG was part of a massive Allied effort to support local Partisans, being tasked with coast and road watches, intelligence gathering, ambushing enemy forces and generally disrupting enemy lines of communication.

Drawing on unit war diaries and the narratives of those who were there, this is the previously untold story of the LRDG in the last 18 months of the war in Europe, with detailed accounts of behind-the-lines operations in Italy, Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Istria.