Operation Caravan - Aftermath

Aftermath

After the attacks, the two patrols met up at the rallying point. By that point ten men, three trucks and a jeep had been lost. Before dawn on 14 September, near the police post to the south of Sidi Selim, the LRDG came under fire from the enemy who had been waiting. Three men were injured and a truck damaged to the extent it had to be towed. The truck and two others damaged earlier were abandoned - after transferring the stores - with timed explosives to destroy them.

The force continued the return until another vehicle broke down. The force was spotted by the enemy and attacked from the air until dusk fell. By that point all bar one truck and two jeeps had been destroyed.

Ten members of the force set out to walk to Bir el Gerrari where a vehicle had been left. The force doctor took the remaining truck and a jeep with the wounded. Although they abandoned the jeep along the way, they reached Bir el Gerrari on 15 September and then a landing ground near the Kalansho Sand Sea, where they found another LRDG patrol. The RAF then evacuated the wounded to Kufra.

Another party of fourteen set out walking with their rations and water carried on the other Jeep. After about eighty miles, on 17 September, they met LDRG patrol S2. Searches of the area found eight of the first walking party. The two missing members had fallen behind and, not expecting to reach the rendezvous, turned north. On the 20th they found an Arab camp and they were taken prisoner by the Italians. By that point the two had covered over 150 miles on foot.

Anther LRDG patrol (S1) picked up two members of the raiding force who had walked out of Barce.

For their part in the operation, there were a number of awards: Easonsmith and Wilder were awarded the DSO; Lawson the Military Cross; and Craw, Tippett, and Dobson the Military Medal.