Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Speed Demons by Gun Brooke Speed Demons: Military Dune Buggies and Their Weapons
Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Speed Demons by Gun Brooke Speed Demons: Military Dune Buggies and Their Weapons. In July 1941, Major (later, Lieutenant Colonel Sir) David Stirling, a Scotsman serving in the British Army in Cairo, Egypt, created “L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade,” which soon became known as the Special Air Service, or SAS, Britain’s first official, commando force, to operate behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign. One of their early tactics was to send out long-range, desert patrols in American-made, stripped-down, tan-painted, Willys MB Jeeps, to engage in high-speed, hit-and-run attacks against the German Afrika Korps in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. These were really the very first military “dune buggies,” striking fear into the hearts of the Germans. So, let’s begin by defining the term, “military dune buggy,” exactly as the SAS intended it to be, a high-speed, fairly-lightweight, highly- maneuverable, and usually (but not always) armed vehicle capable of swiftly traversing rugged terrain, especially deserts, with more reliance on speed, stealth, and surprise than on safety and armor plating. The world-famous Willys MB Jeep entered service in 1941, weighing in at a very modest 2,337 pounds, with a 2.2-liter, L234 “Go-Devil,” 60- horsepower engine and four-wheel-drive, propelling it to 65 miles per hour, with an operational range of 300 miles. The 1966-to-1968 TV series, “The Rat Patrol,” dramatically emphasized just how effective these tiny, Jeep patrols could be, although the show was criticized in the British Commonwealth for using a cast of three Americans and just one British soldier, when, in reality, these highly-successful, hit-and-run patrols were entirely British.
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