The Route
Almásy, accompanied by Brandenburger commandos, the agent Johannes Eppler and his radio operator Hans-Gerd Sandstede were driven 420 kilometres in a four-vehicle convoy using captured American vehicles (with German military signs and wearing German uniform) - the Sonderkommando Almasy. The entire round trip took two weeks: seven days there and back.
They started off from the Axis base at Jalo oasis in Libya travelling south through the desert to Kufra oasis and then across the Great Sand Sea to the foot of the Gilf Kebir plateau. There Almásy showed his team members the rock paintings he had discovered at the legendary oasis Jebel Uweinat in May 1932.
After this they bluffed their way through Kharga Oasis and then dropped Eppler and Sandstede off near the railway station at Asyut. Operation Salaam now became 'Operation Condor' with the two spies on their way to Cairo and Almásy and his convoy returning into Axis-held Libya. There he was awarded the Iron Cross (first class) and promoted Luftwaffe major by Afrika Korps commander Erwin Rommel. The outward journey was tracked by British intelligence via their Bletchley Park interception headquarters though little was known about the exact intentions of the group or their final destination. During their expedition Sonderkommando Almasy had passed many Allied vehicles and were waved through the few checkpoints and bases that were on the route.
Read more about this topic: Operation Salaam
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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—Robert H. Wozniak (20th century)