Al Alamein

[aykalam]

I just watched this AJ documentary on the damage landmines are still causing in the North Coast area of Egypt. Heartbreaking.

Al Jazeera World - Curse of the Sands - YouTube

[Whitedesert]

Originally Posted by aykalam

I just watched this AJ documentary on the damage landmines are still causing in the North Coast area of Egypt. Heartbreaking.

Al Jazeera World - Curse of the Sands - YouTube

I went there last year (to the allied graveyard memorial) to honour an uncle (rear gunner on a lancaster bomber) during WW11 as part of the South Africans who fought with the British, (my uncle was in the RAF) who died when their plane was strafed by a German Messerscmitt 109 fighter. It never occured to me what was going on there in terms of the land mines. They have a live of over 100 years, in some case, and strangely enough, the sand will actually preserve the explosives longer. I doubt the guys who laid them drew maps, they had to do it mostly at night and the German desert fox was always around...

[MaidenScotland]

Originally Posted by Whitedesert

I went there last year (to the allied graveyard memorial) to honour an uncle (rear gunner on a lancaster bomber) during WW11 as part of the South Africans who fought with the British, (my uncle was in the RAF) who died when their plane was strafed by a German Messerscmitt 109 fighter. It never occured to me what was going on there in terms of the land mines. They have a live of over 100 years, in some case, and strangely enough, the sand will actually preserve the explosives longer. I doubt the guys who laid them drew maps, they had to do it mostly at night and the German desert fox was always around...

going off topic... the desert rats had the rat insignia embroidered onto their uniform by nurses in Cairo

[Whitedesert]

Originally Posted by MaidenScotland

going off topic... the desert rats had the rat insignia embroidered onto their uniform by nurses in Cairo

I remember them...they were the guys of the long distance reconnaissance unit who did these amazing trips deep into the desert in the area of that "depression" between Egypt and Libya (forget what it is called) where there is no water and large areas where no vehicles can travel. With the final battle of El Alemein Rommel actually tried to find a way through there for his tiger tanks, but they got caught out in the open by RAF hurricane fighter/bombers who were very good at "killing off" tanks. I think this is the area where they discovered one of those fighter/bombers the other day, not so long ago!