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Remembering on this day, Mike ‘Lofty’ Carr, [Pic] First Navigator, Y Patrol, LRDG, who died on April 5 2022 aged 101. I’ve been looking through some of the letters Mike me sent in response to my endless questions.
In one I asked him...
Remembering on this day, Mike ‘Lofty’ Carr, [Pic] First Navigator, Y Patrol, LRDG, who died on April 5 2022 aged 101. I’ve been looking through some of the letters Mike me sent in response to my endless questions.
In one I asked him...
2/
What were the individual characteristics required for the LRDG?
Mike (pic): "In my case navigation, but in general lateral thinking and perhaps a slightly better education...In my view LRDG did not exist as a unit except on paper, but was a group of ‘patrols’...
What were the individual characteristics required for the LRDG?
Mike (pic): "In my case navigation, but in general lateral thinking and perhaps a slightly better education...In my view LRDG did not exist as a unit except on paper, but was a group of ‘patrols’...
3/
...each of which had its own characteristics. The patrol (we disliked that term) did not often mix but a team of specialists might be assembled for a specific job, e.g navigators were in short supply and so I was sent all over the place. I was not always welcomed - the Guards
...each of which had its own characteristics. The patrol (we disliked that term) did not often mix but a team of specialists might be assembled for a specific job, e.g navigators were in short supply and so I was sent all over the place. I was not always welcomed - the Guards
4/
...for instance, who resented the implication that they could not do it – navigation. That was until some of them vanished without trace so they had to put up with me. Y patrol was nearly all Country Bumpkins like me but wiser in field craft, etc."
Lofty on the left
...for instance, who resented the implication that they could not do it – navigation. That was until some of them vanished without trace so they had to put up with me. Y patrol was nearly all Country Bumpkins like me but wiser in field craft, etc."
Lofty on the left
5/
That was why Ralph Bagnold, LRDG founder, first selected Kiwis. "Tougher & more weather-beaten, a sturdy basis of sheep farmers, leavened by technicians, property-owners, & professional men including a few Maoris," he said. "Shrewd, dry-humoured, curious of every new thing."
That was why Ralph Bagnold, LRDG founder, first selected Kiwis. "Tougher & more weather-beaten, a sturdy basis of sheep farmers, leavened by technicians, property-owners, & professional men including a few Maoris," he said. "Shrewd, dry-humoured, curious of every new thing."
6/6
My favourite Lofty anecdote was how Y Patrol liked to leave poems on the cairns they built in the desert from stones or petrol tins. The favourite:
“If your f**king truck is stuck
Like our f**king truck is stuck
Then you’re f**king stuck
Like we’re f**king stuck."
My favourite Lofty anecdote was how Y Patrol liked to leave poems on the cairns they built in the desert from stones or petrol tins. The favourite:
“If your f**king truck is stuck
Like our f**king truck is stuck
Then you’re f**king stuck
Like we’re f**king stuck."
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