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Desert journeys: from exploration to covert operations
Author(s) -
Forsyth Isla
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the geographical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1475-4959
pISSN - 0016-7398
DOI - 10.1111/geoj.12136
Subject(s) - desert (philosophy) , covert , adversary , battlefield , geography , archaeology , sociology , history , environmental ethics , political science , ancient history , law , philosophy , computer science , computer security , linguistics
This paper explores the entangled relationship between geographical knowledge and covert warfare through a study of soldier and desert explorer R alph B agnold. On Italy's declaration of war in 1940 the B ritish military became engaged in a process of transforming the desert plains of the M iddle E ast into an unnerving, obscure battlefield. G eneral W avell, C ommander in C hief, ensured he drew upon those with a grounded understanding of this shifting terrain. B agnold drew W avell's attention because he had previously conducted pioneering aeolian research (later published as the seminal T he physics of blown sand and desert dunes 1941, M ethuen), as well as having developed desert‐based technologies for exploration. Due to B agnold's intimate knowledge of the desert he was perfectly positioned to be charged with a small, specially equipped force that could wreak havoc behind enemy lines; a covert unit known as the L ong R ange D esert G roup ( LRDG ). This study of B agnold's desert exploration and the emergence of the LRDG in WWII will uncover how geographical knowledge became engrained within the prosecution of desert warfare. The paper explores the ways in which the particularities of the desert shaped technologies of mobilities and covert methods of conflict and how the geographies of the desert have been informed through military‐inflected exploration combined with technological innovation.