Kuno Gross with Roberto Chiarvetto and Brendan O'Carroll:
Incident at Jebel Sherif –
In Search of the First Clash of the Special Forces 1941 / 2009
A4 (21 x 29.7cm), Hardcover
188 pages, 320 photos
Language: English
Publisher: Kuno Gross
39.00 Euro
Find more sample pages and impressions in Photo impressions.
The Book
Foreword by the Author
How was this book born? It was just after we had had our dinner on the day we finally reached Jebel Sherif and found the wrecks of T Patrol's trucks, when my travel companion, Ruedi Wäffler, came up with the idea of writing a book about our journey.
The original idea was just to create something as a souvenir for ourselves, our families and friends, but during that evening the idea grew and finally, before I got to sleep, I could already envisage something more than just a small souvenir.
Back home from the desert, the decision was made to have two books, one for our own use and another for publication. Since the subject of Jebel Sherif could not be presented just like we had found it, I decided to contact other people who were familiar with the story and asked their assistance. Perhaps as co-authors. These people were - in alphabetical order - Roberto Chiarvetto, Italy, for the Compagnia Autosahariana di Cufra; Peter Clayton, Great Britain, for the LRDG and his father P.A. Clayton; Alain Godec, France, for the Colonne Leclerc; Brendan O'Carroll, New Zealand, for the LRDG and Michael Rolke, Gemany, for the Sonderkommando DORA. I was very glad when all of them immediately confirmed their willingness to assist me and then started their part of the enormous task ahead of us.
Travel through the Libyan Desert is not only a fascinating subject on its own, the experience of the emptiness, the changing landscapes, and the endless sky full of bright stars in the night; but it also involves coming into contact with the history of this country. For example, a single black spot on the clean sand dunes turns out to be a tin of meat, thrown away by a member of one of the early Italian motorized expeditions.
Of course you could say that it is only something that has been thrown away a long time ago; it is only a piece of waste. But it is much more than that; in fact it opens a gateway to the past as soon as you start to ask yourself questions about who may have thrown it away.
What was planned in the beginning, a simple visit to Jebel Sherif, soon turned out to be far more than that. Wherever we went, we found traces of all those who travelled on the same route before us, the emergency landing grounds prepared by the Italians prior to the attack on the last Senussi stronghold, the oasis of Kufra. Wrecked cars and trucks - besides those at Jebel Sherif - which had been abandoned in the desert during the Second World War; the wreck of a crashed jet fighter which may have taken part in a conflict in more recent years. In the end it proved to be impossible to restrict the book to Jebel Sherif; too many things had been seen and experienced. However, it was not possible to tell the background stories about all we found. One book would not be nearly enough, and as I said, it always opens a gateway to another story ...
This book is neither a scientific work about Jebel Sherif nor can it provide the much sought-after last truth. The authors have used all their knowledge to come as close as possible to establish what had happened there, but in the end much still remains an assumption. There is always something behind the next sand dune.
Kuno Gross, July 2008