Murzuq Airfield

This Blog will go a bit quiet over the festive season and right through January. I am heading off to Libya on 28th December with a group of Archaeologists - a trip I have now completed eight times! Quite by chance though, this year, one of the areas of study is around Murzuq. The LRDG raid on the Murzuq Airfield is judged to be their most daring and successful. Bagnold had enlisted the help and support of the Free French in Chad. The French drove north from Fort Lamy under the leadership of Colonel d’Ornano and Clayton and took an LRDG group comprising 76 men and 23 trucks, 1000 miles southwest from Cairo. The attack took the enemy completely by surprise and destroyed the airfield and all of the ‘planes there. I can see no evidence of the airfield on Google Earth, but will try and find whatever may be left.

Thanks to P. Mrazek for the photo of the old fort, downloaded from Google.
Other photos are Murzuq from Space - Google, and my Land Rover taken last year by Katja Schorle, heading out into the Ubari Sand Sea.