Lost In Libya follows these modern day
history hunters on their journey into the Libyan Desert.
It’s no easy ride; every day Brendan and the
team battle intense heat, the threat of dehydration and heat-stroke as
temperatures soar over 40 degrees. Sandstorms, endless mechanical breakdowns
and the challenges posed by the shifting sands threaten their goal of reaching
Gebel Sherif.
Lost In Libya is also the story of
the men who travelled those same sand dunes 70 years earlier. The LRDG was an
elite force, expert in navigation, desert warfare and survival. As the war in North Africa intensified, the British knew the only way
to make headway was to come at the enemy from the last place it would expect –
the uncharted desert to the south. For this, they needed men who could handle heavy
trucks over the unpredictable sand, knew their way around an engine and would
just get on with the job: they called in the Kiwis. The LRDG’s main objective
was to provide detailed maps and information about enemy positions from deep
behind enemy lines in the Libyan Desert – all
without being detected. Each patrol was completely self-sufficient, capable of
travelling for hundreds of kilometres over barren unmapped country for weeks at
a time.
Through interviews with some of the last surviving members of the
LRDG, Lost In Libya tells just how effective this relatively small
group was. Member of the LRDG’s T Patrol, Peter Garland, now 92, says the
Italians called them the Ghost Patrol, “They couldn’t catch us, they couldn’t
even see us.”
Veteran Tom Ritchie, 93, recalls
how precious water was in the desert heat, “The trucks always came first, it
[water] was rationed to less than two litres a day – and you had to share that
with the truck, if you ran out you didn’t get any more.”
Lost In Libya also features the only
known footage of the LRDG in action being broadcast for the first time.
Producer Amanda Evans says making Lost In Libya gave her a
unique insight into the challenges faced by the members of the LRDG 70 years
ago. “Filming in such extreme conditions tested everyone involved to the limit.
The first day of filming the temperature hit 43 degrees; the crew could only imagine
what it must have been like for the men in the LRDG out there for weeks on end
under constant threat of detection by the enemy.”
