Operation Salaam - Background

Background

In 1942, after numerous battles back and forth in the North African desert, German and Italian forces had pushed Commonwealth forces into a retreat that ended at El Alamein. This position was an excellent site for defence of the Nile Delta, and preparations had been ordered by General Auchinleck months previously. The area is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean and a huge salt pan - the impassable Qattara Depression - to the south. It is debatable whether Hitler had serious designs on the conquest of Egypt for he viewed the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre as a sideshow and at the time of Operation Salaam he was very much concentrated on the rapidly developing invasion of the Soviet Union. The Afrika Korps which had been sent to support the Italians in North Africa, had demoralised the Allied forces with the fall of Tobruk and the Battle of Gazala. The United States was months away from participation in the "Desert war" and the Axis commander Erwin Rommel had plans for capturing Egypt which would have thus put the Allies in a very precarious situation with the Suez Canal under enemy control. Although the Germans had intelligence coups such as the Black code/Bonner Fellers intercepts, they had few agents in Egypt itself. Operation Salaam would give them eyes and ears in Cairo where the British authorities and community were in crisis over the Afrika Korps' advance, with a city-wide curfew in the months before June and many Europeans fleeing to Palestine. Two spies would be delivered via a route taken far south of the Qattara Depression where enormous expanses of desert would lessen the risks of being captured.

László Almásy was an experienced desert specialist, motorist, aviator and linguist. He had already explored the Libyan and Egyptian deserts in the 1920s and 30s with other Europeans such as Ralph Bagnold (founder of the Long Range Desert Group) and Patrick Clayton who were now working for the British Middle East Command. When Hungary had entered the war on the side of the Axis Almásy was recruited by German military intelligence and given the rank of Hauptmann (captain) in the Luftwaffe. From then on he advised Rommel's Afrika Korps and Panzer Army Afrika on desert warfare, while also leading military operations such as Salaam.