Collections strong in World War II history will find it an excellent survey

books:


	• Desert raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940-43 (Battle Orders) Andrea Molinari Osprey Publishing, 2007 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

desert raiders

an interesting book about all of the participants in the desert warfare of WWll, Also the porosity of the axis line of defence,wherin units of LRDG were able to penetrate and destroy axis rear area,s.

An informative overview

Overall, this is an excellent work with plenty of organizational history, detailed maps, and accounts of operations by both Axis and Allied raiding forces. I was somewhat disappointed to find no coverage of the organization of the Italian X (10th) Arditi Regiment or of the compagnie camionettisti organic to the regiment, although in fairness to the author the 10th did not carry out any forays that I am aware of (despite its being specifically created to match or counter the LRDG).

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Excellent overview

This book handily puts together information about a wide variety of Special Operations units from both sides of the North African Campaign and put them together in one place. A great read. Some of the information on the Free French efforts in this field is material I've never seen before.

A small format but worth having, if nothing else then as a quick reference.

Collections strong in World War II history will find it an excellent survey

Andrea Molinari's DESERT RAIDERS: AXIS AND ALLIED SPECIAL FORCES 1940-43 details the organization and tactics of famous units in the UK, France, Italy and Germany who all developed irregular units to exploit unique battle conditions during World War II. Collections strong in World War II history will find it an excellent survey.

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An Interesting Look at Deep Desert Operations

Osprey's Battle Orders No. 23, Desert Raiders: Axis and Allied Special Forces 1940-43 by Andrea Molinari, provides a fascinating look at operations conducted in the deep desert in the North African Campaign. Although there have been a number of books on the British Special Air Service (SAS) and Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in North Africa, this is the first effort that I have seen that encompasses Free French, German and Italian units as well. While this volume is focused on describing the structure, development and operations of Special Forces in North Africa - which it does very well - it does not provide an order of battle, so a number of smaller units such as "Popski's Private Army" are difficult to place. Furthermore, the entire question of the value of these SF units as intelligence collectors and as rear-area raiders is not fully assessed, instead, the author merely notes that they made some contributions in these areas, without quantifying it. Nevertheless, this is a very interesting and fairly comprehensive volume on a subject that often does not get much attention in Second World War history.

Desert Raiders begins with a short introduction on the development of desert raiding forces and their combat missions. Interestingly, the author notes that the British initially created the LRDG to counter potential Italian long-range operations in the desert but then quickly realized that they could use it for offensive missions. The Italian Army was fixated on colonial-era garrisons at fixed sites, such as oases, and had little appetite for mobile operations in the desert until late in the Desert War. A 35-page section then covers the unit organization of the British, Italian, French and German desert units, along with plenty of line and block charts. Tons of nifty information in this section, plus a lot of nice photographs. After years of seeing only Imperial War Museum images of the Desert War (and a few color shots from SIGNAL), the Italian sources used for this book add some nice variety. The author makes interesting comments on Italian camel units as well as their few motorized companies, the rather primitive French units and the excessively large German unit, Sonderverband 288, which had 1,800 personnel and 610 vehicles! As the author notes, other than the LRDG and SAS, most of these units were not elite or specially-trained and all were hindered by the difficulty in adapting existing vehicles to the deep desert.

The next 26-page section covers tactics, focusing mostly on LRDG and Free French operations in 1941-42. Unfortunately, the author does not discuss any SF operations after El Alamein (despite the title of "1940-43") and there is no discussion of the LRDG's efforts in helping Montgomery to pursue Rommel across North Africa or the Tunisian campaign in 1943. The section on Almaszy's mission into Egypt is interesting in shedding light on German capabilities in the desert, while the discussion of the "Big Raids" on Tobruk in 1942 indicate the stupidity in throwing away SF troops in high-risk direct action missions. Indeed, throughout this text there is an emphasis upon the harassment missions of SF units (the "derring-do" part) rather than bread-n-butter reconnaissance missions. A short section on C3I only sheds a small light on the reconnaissance aspects of SF units, but clearly indicates that poor radio communications made these types of operations difficult to coordinate. A final section covers weapons and equipment. This volume has 12 maps (Western Desert; three maps on the LRDG in the Fezzan, 27 December 1940-9 February 1941; the Free French at Kufra, February 1941; reconnaissance in Libya; the first campaign in the Fezzan, February-March 1942; the LRDG/SAS partnership, March-May 1942; two maps on the Big Raids, September 1942; the raids in Egypt, July-August 1942; von Almaszy's route into Egypt 1942). The author also provides a bibliography, a campaign chronology and a glossary.

This volume could have used an order of battle, detailing which SF units were available and when. Readers should also note that there were SF units active in this theater that were not listed here - such as the Greek SF company attached to the SAS in 1942. Units such as the German Brandenbergers are also given short shrift. The overall contribution of SF units is not addressed in any detail. At one point, the author notes that the Italians had to double the size of their deep desert garrisons from about 2,900 troops in 1941 to about 5,800 in 1942, but the diversion of a few thousand Italian (mostly low-quality Libyan units) troops probably didn't bother Rommel much. Elsewhere, the author says that British SAS road-watching teams made valuable contributions, but this is doubtful. Since there was only one road (the Via Balbo) to the front, there wasn't much mystery about where the German line of communications was and merely to count trucks/vehicles really wouldn't tell a G-2 very much (who was probably receiving the info 48 hours later, due to radio problems). In order to be effective, reconnaissance needs to be directed to collect against Priority Intelligence Requirements (PIRs) that support the commander's scheme of maneuver. Instead, the British appear to have sent out LRDG units with only hazy intelligence requirements and too much emphasis upon direct action. After getting a few bloody noses attacking fortified garrisons, the LRDG/SAS teams then put emphasis upon surviving/hiding in the enemy's rear areas and returning - a not atypical SF mentality which relegates collecting actual hard info on the enemy to a secondary mission. Reading this book, it's not apparent that the LRDG/SAS actually answered any of 8th Army's PIR's (e.g. will Rommel attempt a flank attack in the desert, identify new fuel dumps, etc), but instead conducted a `private war' based upon the whimsy of their desert-loving commanders who yearned for the type of independence T.E. Lawrence enjoyed in 1917-1918. Overall, this book is a very worthy effort, but is more descriptive than analytic in method.

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Desert Raiders

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