The 2012 expedition to follow some of the routes used by the Long Range Desert Group between 1940 and 1943 led to a number of abandoned allied trucks’
In Egypt, west of the River Nile, the desert that extends as far as Libya is referred to as the Western Desert and becomes the Libyan Desert once across the border. It is vast and the landscape here pays little heed to international borders, unlike the European nations, as the 1930s culminated in the outbreak of World War Two.
During this time, the colonial policy of Italian fascism led to Cyrenaica and Tripolitania being merged into Italian Libya in 1934. The colony was expanded following concessions from Sudan, itself a British colony, and a territorial agreement with Egypt. The Kufra district of Libya was nominally attached to British-occupied Egypt until 1925, but remained the headquarters for the Senussi resistance until conquered by the Italians in 1931 when the towns of El Tag and Al Jawf became controlled by Italy.
