The Desert My Dwelling Place

David Lloyd Owen (10 Oct 19917 - 5 April 2001)

Captain David Lloyd Owen became leader of Y2 Patrol of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in 1941, soon after LRDG was created. The group's purpose was to travel deep behind enemy lines in North Africa, mainly to gather intelligence, sometimes to harrass German forces and also to support the SAS which was formed in November 1941.

Owen felt frustrated working in Officer Training in Cairo and approached Colonel Ralph Bagnold to join LRDG, being forced to admit at the interview that he knew little of the desert beyond his reading of Lawrence and of p49 --> Doughty's Arabia Deserta. Anyway, he got the job by convincing Bagnold and Colonel Guy Prendergast (who was shortly to take over command from Prendergast) that he was keen.

Bagnold, Prendergast and other founders of LRDG had explored the deserts, privately, before the war and had gained much valuable experience. They used sun compasses to navigate by and carried sand chnnels for getting vehicles out of sand bogs.

Owen's first patrol, with 5 trucks, began from Siwa p98 --> in western Egypt 15/11/41. They drove out to report on enemy movements as the British attacked to try to relieve Tobruk. (At this time the idea of LRDG carrying Stirling's SAS groups to and from attacks was conceived.) The patrol also attacked a small enemy outpost and some trucks.

Owen became commander of LRDG in 1943 when it had moved to the Aegean. It was disbanded in 1945.

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