Force and Objectives
In early September 1942 B Squadron which consisted of two LRDG half-patrols under the command of Major John Richard Easonsmith, left their Egyptian base at Faiyum with orders to "Cause the maximum amount of damage and disturbance to the enemy". The destination was Barce, approximately 80 km north-east of Benghazi on the main coast road. This was a major administrative centre of the Italian colonial government of Libya and there was a large airfield on the north-eastern side of the town, which was to be the main target of the operation. G1 patrol, commanded by Captain J. A. L. Timpson, and T1 patrol, led by Captain N. P. Wilder, between them had a total of 47 men in 12 Chevrolet 1533X2 trucks and five jeeps.
They were accompanied by Major Vladimir Peniakoff and his "spies"; two Senussi tribesmen who belonged to the Libyan Arab Force. Arrangements had been made for the Senussi to gather information about enemy dispositions from friends living near Barce and report back to Peniakoff an hour or two before the raid.
Read more about this topic: Operation Caravan
Famous quotes containing the words force and, force and/or objectives:
“what affects our hearts
Is not the exactness of peculiar parts;
‘Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note;
So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Along the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every vocation is chosen and entered upon as a means to a purpose but is ultimately continued as a final purpose in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent stupidity in which we indulge ourselves.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)