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A special Anzac Day event took place in Los Angeles at dawn yesterday.
The main attraction wasn’t the New Zealand or Australian dignitaries, but rather two rugged, beigecoloured utes. The fully restored vehicles of the Long Range Desert Group, complete with New Zealand insignia and details, are reminders of some of the most amazing raids by Kiwi soldiers — and indeed any Allied troops — during World War II.
They were Kiwi farm boys — tough, energetic, durable, easily maintained; qualities they shared with the machines they used for their topsecret missions deep behind enemy lines.
The elite special forces group crisscrossed the North African desert, launching hit-and-run raids, outflanking opposing forces, laying traps, making maps and gathering critical intelligence on German and Italian targets.
The covert exploits of the men of the LRDG are legendary in the annals of special operatives everywhere.
Founded by Major Ralph Bagnold in 1940, and initially known as the Long Range Patrol Unit, the LRDG came along more than a year before David Stirling’s famed SAS.
Bagnold wanted volunteers, particularly young Kiwi farmers from the 2nd New Zealand Division whom he knew as hardy, resourceful and able to repair machinery with anything they had to hand. More than half of the division put their hands up.
In crack patrols of 40 men each, they used two-wheel-drive Chevrolet trucks, stripped of all non-essentials like doors, windscreens and roofs, and equipped with machine-guns, antitank weapons and communication equipment.
During its first operation in August-September 1940, two units moved 6430km undetected across the desert to scout and then attack Italian outposts, surviving the extreme heat of the day and bitter cold of night, before making a successful return to base.
One officer later wrote, “There cannot be many instances of continued survey work behind the enemy lines in wartime,” while Field Marshal Bern- ard Montgomery — who orchestrated the victory at El Alamein, said without the LRDG’s help, some key operations in North Africa would have been a “leap in the dark”.
A total of 250 New Zealanders served in the unit, nicknamed the Libyan Desert Taxi Service, which never numbered more than 350 men.
It was moved to the eastern Mediterranean after the Axis forces surrendered in Tunisia in May 1943, before being finally disbanded in August 1945.
Yesterday, at the Los Angeles National Cemetery a dawn Anzac service paid tribute to the incredible exploits of the LRDG.
There were about 250 guests, including Leon Grice, Consul-General of New Zealand, and Chelsey Martin, Consul-General of Australia.
Former New Zealand soldier and Australian SAS man Kevin Bovill laid a wreath at the event.
He said he and his comrades went “back to the basic lessons learned by the LRDG” and he is proud of New Zealand’s role in setting up the forerunner to the modern SAS.
“Maintaining all aspects of our military history and heritage is important for future generations to learn, understand and appreciate the sacrifices of their forefathers and how they formed New Zealand’s place in the world.”