The Long Range Desert Group - Italy, Greece and the Balkans, 1944–1945

An account of the Long Range Desert Group's overlooked exploits in the last 18 months of World War II.

Formed in 1940, the LRDG is best known for operating behind the lines during the North African campaign. However, it also saw significant service elsewhere. After having survived a disastrous British-led effort to secure the Aegean in autumn 1943, the LRDG, significantly smaller in size, deployed in 1944 to southern Europe and the Balkans. In the European Theatre, the LRDG was part of a major Allied effort to support local Partisans, being tasked with coast and road watches, intelligence gathering, ambushing enemy forces and generally disrupting enemy lines of communication.

Drawing on unit war diaries and the narratives of those who were there, this is the previously untold story of the LRDG in the final 18 months of the war in Europe, with detailed accounts of behind-the-lines operations in Italy, Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Istria.