DESERT SIGNS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 March 1941, Page 8

DESERT SIGNS

[ IMPRESSIONS IN THE SAND. ASSISTANCE TO AIRCRAFT. CAIRO. February 3. Wheel marks on the desert sand may have just as interesting a story to tell to the modern soldier or explorer as the footprints of men and beasts have ‘ had for centuries to experienced nai fives. New Zealanders in the Libyan long range patrols are impressed with ' the valuable use to which such signs may be put. In the same way that the Bedouin can tell from footmarks the age, breed and condition of every camel in a caravan, a European with years of experience is able to extract a wealth of information from the marks of motor traffic. Except over moving dunes, car tracks persist for many years. In parts of the Egyptian desert the old tracks of 1916 patrols can still be plainly seen. This persistence of tell-tale tracks has been one of the chief difficulties which the present patrols have had to face in all their journeys through enemy territory. Once they are spotted from the air, the tracks of a motor column can be followed up until the column itself is found and bombed. Five New Zealanders had their first instruction in the reading of tracks when they accompanied Major P. A. Clayton, one of the three Englishmen directing the patrol operations, across the Great Sand Sea in two light cars before the raids proper were begun. Two hundred miles beyond the frontier, they spent four days on the main enemy route from Benghasi to Kufra. Major Clayton quietly studied the wheel marks of all the traffic that had passed, while enemy aircraft, intent on other things, flew unsuspectingly overhead.