Fighting with the Long Range Desert Group: Merlyn Craw MM's War 1940–1945

By Brendan O'Carroll

Formed in 1940 the Long Range Desert Group was the first Allied Special Forces unit established to operate behind German and Italian lines in North Africa. Its officers and men were volunteers recruited from British and Commonwealth units. Merlyn Craw was serving with the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force when he joined the LRDG in 1941. He took part in numerous missions in the desert. The navigational driving and fighting skills of the LRDG were legendary and they were frequently responsible for transporting Stirling’s SAS detachments on raids. Merlyn’s luck ran out when he was captured on the Barce raid in September 1942, but he escaped twice, the second time making it back to Allied lines. Sent home on leave, he returned to Italy with the New Zealand Army. After a ‘disagreement’ he went AWOL and rejoined the LRDG with no questions asked, serving until the end of the war. Drawing on interviews with Merlyn and other former LRDG veterans, the author has created a vivid picture of this exceptional and highly decorated fighting man. Readers cannot fail to be impressed by the courage and ruthless determination of Merlyn Craw MM and his comrades.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781399084284

Brendan O'Carroll

International star of multiple BAFTA-award-winning TV series Mrs Brown's Boys and Mrs Brown's Boys: d'Movie, Brendan O’Carroll's story begins very modestly. The youngest of eleven children, Brendan O’Carroll was born in Dublin’s inner-city in 1955. His mother, Maureen, was a Labour TD (MP) and a huge influence on his life. He left school at 12 and worked as a waiter, trying many other occupations in his spare time - disco manager, milkman, pirate radio disc-jockey, painter-decorator etc. For a time he ran his own bar and cabaret lounge before being persuaded to try the comedy circuit. The gigs were small at first and even included his own version of ‘Blind Date’, but word soon got around about this original and outrageous funnyman: soon there was standing-room only. The real turning point in Brendan’s career was his first appearance on The Late Late Show, Ireland’s longest-running chat show: the studio audience and viewers loved him. His first video Live at the Tivoli went straight to No 1, knocking U2 out of the top slot and pushing Garth Brooks to No 3. In 1994 he was voted Ireland’s No 1 Variety Entertainer at the National Entertainment Awards. He went on to make best-selling videos, and a bestselling record, as well as touring in Ireland, the UK and the USA. The radio show Mrs Browne’s Boys, written by and starring Brendan, had a phenomenal daily audience on 2FM and led to the creation of Agnes Browne as the central character in Brendan’s first novel, The Mammy, published in 1994. The book topped the bestseller charts in Ireland for months and the film rights were snapped up. The Mammy was followed by The Chisellers and The Granny: all three were huge bestsellers. Holywood came calling when Anjelica Huston read and loved Brendan's books: she made her directorial debut with Agnes Browne. Brendan toured several other stage shows with Agnes Browne as the central character, before a BBC producer saw the show and felt there was television potential. Initially broadcast in a quiet late evening slot, Mrs Brown's Boys quickly became a huge word-of-mouth hit, and quickly moved to primetime, including several Christmas Day specials. A huge success in Australia and other countries where it has been shown, the enduring appeal of Agnes and her family is secure. Brendan continues to write and perform as Agnes Browne, most recently in Mrs Brown's Boys: d'Movie (2014)

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Introduction

In the late 1990s I began research into the history of the New Zealanders in the Long Range Desert Group, which were one of the first Special Forces of the Second World War. Through various connections I eventually gained an invitation to attend a Long Range Desert Group (NZ) Association annual reunion. The veterans were very welcoming and appeared to appreciate my genuine interest in their wartime stories with a view to writing a book.

On this occasion, my wife Margaret and I were introduced to Merlyn Craw, who was in his early 80s at the time and a decorated LRDG veteran. Merlyn was a friendly, approachable gentleman who immediately made us feel at home in the company of his fellow veterans and it was to be the beginning of a wonderful relationship with him. He came across as a gentle giant, being a big man at about 1.9 metres tall and of solid build. Merlyn always spoke softly in a thoughtful, measured way, with humility. He reminded me of an old and wise Scottish chieftain. As a young man he came from a farming background and was very fit, tall and handsome. He reflected that rugged, self-reliant ‘Kiwi warrior’ image of the time.

Merlyn proved to be one of the primary contributors to my first book, The Kiwi Scorpions: The Story of the New Zealanders in the Long Range Desert Group, published in the UK in 2000. Over the following twenty years I published a further six books related to the LRDG. One of these was Barce Raid: The Long Range Desert Group’s Most Daring Exploit in World War II, published in 2002. Merlyn was a major contributor to that work also, which was dedicated to him. He played a prominent role in the raid that ended with his capture and the award of the Military Medal for bravery.

The purpose of this book is to document all the LRDG-related stories Merlyn shared with me over the last six years of his life, which reflected his wartime experiences. A number of his accounts were recorded in some of my earlier works and will be revisited and expanded here. Yet there was also much that was not published at the time because it included recollections which he preferred not to be printed until all the veterans had gone. That time has now come.

After a post-war life of farming, Merlyn took up commercial fishing at Te Kaha, a remote settlement on the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand. He retired there and lived independently in a rustic cottage above Harike Beach, which overlooked the sea. His wife, Elva, died in 1992. Merlyn invited me and my family to visit him on weekends, a five-hour drive from our home in Auckland. While the family enjoyed a walk along the beach led by Jack, Merlyn’s faithful Jack Russell dog, Merlyn and I talked about his wartime recollections. In the evening he prepared beautiful freshly caught fish or crayfish, along with some of the best cooked chips I have ever tasted! Meanwhile, in the background, the sound of his favourite Italian opera music would drift from his record player.

When the tide was out in the early evening, the reflection upon the sand ripples always reminded me, in miniature form, of the rolling dunes of the great sand seas of Libya. His Te Kaha cottage looked out towards Whakaari/White Island, an active volcanic island that for years had quietly bellowed steam and attracted thousands of tourists to land there on guided tours. Tragically in December 2019, while people were still touring, it exploded in a huge eruption. This resulted in a terrible death toll of twenty-two people and twenty-five injured, mostly severely burned.

Following our visits to Merlyn, I would think there was nothing more to be told. However, I would often hear from him again, saying that our previous discussion had triggered more memories. This meant further letters and/or more informative trips to Te Kaha. Special moments with such a wonderful man. Like a number of other LRDG veterans I connected with at the time, including Buster Gibb and Alf Saunders, Merlyn was also a prolific letter-writer. These men appeared to find it easier to narrate their stories in this context as I presume it provided more time for considered thinking before they wrote anything rather than being put on the spot in a live interview. Some of these veterans’ letters ran into many pages as they expressed their recollections, both good and bad. Furthermore, I had found that with many of the men I talked to, it was the first time they had told these stories to someone other than their comrades. As with most returned servicemen, they were reluctant to speak of the war. They preferred to only recount the camaraderie and good times, not the dark reflections. Their thinking was that those who weren’t there would never understand as they had never been through it.

Fortunately I was considered to be a trusted neutral person, someone who only wanted to listen to what they had to say and would make no judgement. Following the war, most people just wanted to get on with their lives, and veterans who spoke of their experiences in depth were often discouraged. As Merlyn remembered, ‘They said come home and forget about it. They were wrong!’ In those days there was generally no counselling for post-war trauma, so the men tended to bury the terrible memories and just recall the good times with a drink at reunions or the Returned Servicemen Association (RSA) clubrooms. However, I found that in their twilight years many seemed to want to exorcise themselves of those dark times and were ready to talk. Some of our conversations would become deeply emotional. I would ask if they wished to stop and revisit it later, but they usually declined and just preferred to continue. It was their way of releasing their wartime demons and finally getting their narrative written down. My greatest reward from publishing these books has been the thank-you letters and emails from veterans’ families, who never knew what dad or granddad had done in the war because it had not previously been spoken of. They were proud that the stories had now been told for future generations before they were all lost to time.

Interestingly, Merlyn was generally very dispassionate about his wartime recollections. He had kept his medals, including his Military Medal for bravery, loose in an old cigarette tin. I encouraged him to get them professionally mounted to wear on Anzac Day war memorial commemorations, which he rarely attended anyway. He expressed little emotion in the story-telling of what he had to do and what he saw. I asked him on one occasion how he felt when during an ambush he had to machine-gun a large enemy half-track carrying about twenty men. I said, ‘It must have been a dreadful thing to do.’ He replied, ‘It had to be done, it was either them or us, no regrets!’

At the same time he was also a very compassionate man, as this story will later reveal, when he took personal care of wounded enemy soldiers and saved the life of others. He was also a very tough and tenacious soldier who had endured incredible hardship, privations and suffering while in an Italian PoW camp for a year. This included an unsuccessful escape attempt and its harsh consequences. However, the dark memory of that time sometimes disturbed him, as he said most of the Italians he met in the desert war and as a PoW were ‘scum’, or in a more polite way he referred to them as ‘a conscripted rabble with no courage and low moral fibre.’ However, the ones he met while on the run in Italy he described as very kind and empathetic, with some even bravely risking their own lives to help him.

This work will recount Merlyn’s wartime experiences as he related them to me, through his letters, diaries and interviews. All the opinions and observations are Merlyn’s, expressed as he saw things in the context of the time. For example, in today’s world some of his descriptions of the Arabs may be considered inappropriate. However, this is how he saw it. The book will not only provide his insight into desert life and the activities of T Patrol, LRDG, but also that of several of his comrades who served alongside him, collaborating with his recollections; namely extracts from the diaries of Frank Jopling and Dick Lewis along with interviews and letters of veterans Keith Tippett, Wally Rail, Derek Parker and Keith Yealands. Furthermore, included in the Appendices are the Long Range Desert Group Training Notes dated 15 January 1941 by Major Ralph Bagnold, the founder of the group. These will serve as a useful reference into the LRDG operational guidelines as laid down for desert warfare at that time.

Merlyn was a part-time soldier in the Territorial Army and when war was declared in 1939, he was keen to join up. He and his friend Skippy rushed into Palmerston North to be among the first to sign up at the army headquarters. Skippy was called up first and Merlyn was upset at being left out. He later discovered that his father, Loyal, had listed him as an essential worker in the running of the Loch Moigh family farm. Merlyn’s son Jack Craw recounted the story:

The reason why Merlyn wasn’t in the first intake was that his father had burned his return correspondence from the army when he first volunteered, so he missed the first intake. Merlyn found out and there were strong words. Loyal’s motivation for doing so was a belief that his son would likely be killed and he didn’t want another generation of Craw men to perish like they had in the Great War. Merlyn had to intercept the mail early every day to ensure he got his papers. Two very strong-willed men!

This narrative begins with Merlyn’s arrival in Egypt in December 1940. It will describe his time based at Maadi camp near Cairo, then two months later joining the LRDG and his life in the desert along with the missions he undertook. Included will be his operations with the SAS and then in 1942 the Barce raid, when he was made a prisoner of war. Following Merlyn’s capture it explains the privations he suffered while being interned as a PoW in Italy and of his eventual escape, after which he was sent home.

After six monthsș leave in New Zealand he returned to Italy again to serve with the NZ Divisional Cavalry. Sometime later, however, following a disagreement with his officers, Merlyn went absent without leave for a brief period. Later he joined up with the British section of the LRDG in Italy where he remained until the end of the war. This is his story, told not only as a tribute to him but also to the tenacity and fortitude of those LRDG men who served alongside him.

Merlyn and his comrades came from a tough, stoic, resourceful generation, the like of which we will probably never see again. Men who stood tall and just got on with the job, as this story will reveal.

Chapter One

Egypt

On 8 November 1940, Private Merlyn Haruru Craw, aged 24, Service No. 37112, 32 New Zealand Battalion, Infantry Reinforcements, said goodbye to his wife Edna and departed from the port of Wellington, New Zealand on his outward journey to Egypt. On the way they stopped off at Sydney and Colombo and finally, after four weeks at sea, arrived at Port Said, Suez on 15 December 1940. Merlyn Craw kept a diary to record his observations or to make brief entries of what was happening around him. His diary ceased on 18 July 1941.

His first impressions of Egypt:

Monday 16th Dec 1940: Up at 4am and disembarked at nearly daybreak 6.30am. We are anchored about one mile out so we had to go to port in coal lighters. When we landed we gained a bad impression of the east, the natives are very dirty in their habits worse than most animals. Actually we have not at the time of writing seen anything like it. We went by train to Maadi camp, a camp for New Zealanders only. The line runs through Suez and shortly to the desert which is one extreme to the other, a crowded town to a waste where you only see about one or two people in 50 miles. Just before Cairo we came to an irrigated patch with date palms and vegetable gardens with tomatoes, potatoes, all things that we have at home. Cairo is a big city with some marvellous buildings up to fifteen storeys high, and also mostly some of the worst slums imaginable. The natives live with their pigs and fowls. Major General Freyberg met us at camp.

Tuesday 17th Dec: Spent a very cold night in one of the huts that have just been built. Rather a large camp well spread out. Had a lecture by the Major, he seems a decent chap. In the afternoon had a lecture by the Marshal of the Provost Corps. He said that if we ever ran over a native and did not kill him to go back and make sure. Also warned us of all the bad spots etc. of Cairo. He was very amusing.

Also had a battalion parade and drill. An air-raid alarm went at night, but no planes came over. There are three kinds of air-raid alarms with the last two called yellow and red. Apparently the Italians come across country until they strike the Nile river and at certain places they break off for different places. As soon as they are sounded the alarms go and then it just depends which way they branch which alarm goes. If the red goes we know they are making for Maadi camp. There have been a few raids on the camp here and at Helwan where the 3rd Echelon is. Most of the bombs have fallen at the bottom of the camp where there is a Marconi wireless station, where all the Marconigrams are sent for Egypt.

Water-cooled .303 Vickers heavy machine gun training in New Zealand. Craw, with his farming background, was very skilled with a rifle and soon adapted well to the use of machine guns.

New Zealand troops embarking for Egypt. Craw departed from the Port of Wellington on Friday, 8 November 1940.

Major General Bernard Freyberg chose Maadi to establish a training camp for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt. It was not far from Cairo and the desert sand was hard, so suitable for training. Moreover, the area was considered healthy, as it was practically free from mosquitoes and flies. By the time the first contingent arrived on 12 February 1940,11 km of tarmac, 10 km of water mains and more than 6 km of drains were laid out, while 150 huts were built, providing cookhouses, mess rooms, ablutions, storage rooms, etc. For accommodation, EPIP (English Pattern Indian Patent) tents, camouflaged to merge with the sand, were erected. From there, the camp further expanded over the years with the establishment of a large swimming pool and cinema. Entertainments included boxing, rugby, soccer and cricket matches, plus donkey and motorcycle racing. From 1940 to 1946, 76,000 New Zealand troops passed through this camp.

An air-raid over Cairo with a spectacular searchlight display and flak bursts.

Craw:

Thursday 19th Dec: Went for a route march past the Maadi tents to the residential area. There are some very nice houses and gardens there with all the Australian trees, pepperwood, she-oak and blue gums. There were no native trees, but for that matter there are no native trees bar the date palms.

Friday 20th Dec: Went for another route march into the desert. Very dusty and for a while pretty hot, but no flies to speak of. The food is very good too, tomatoes and onions with beetroot for dinner.

Saturday 21st Dec: Some of the boys had leave last night and went to Cairo, but they did not see much as the city is in a blackout. Met Tom Davis from Linton. He is a nervous wreck and I think he will be sent home. He has come from the base hospital at Helwan to make way for some Italian wounded. By all reports the British are doing very well up in the desert and supposed to have captured 30,000 prisoners.

Maadi Camp, 14 kilometres south of Cairo, was laid out in 1940 as the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force training camp.

Sunday 22nd Dec: After going to church parade and generally messing around in true army style I got leave and went to Cairo by diesel train. Had dinner at the YMCA. Ham and tomatoes. Afterwards Herb Carter and I went to the races at Heliopolis, about 5 miles out. We went by tram and had a good day. The horses are only ponies and the jockeys did not ride like ours, more like cowboys than anything else. Had tea at the United Services Club where we met a couple of Tommies; a corporal and a lance corp. They have just come out from England via Cape Town. Conditions in England and especially London are very bad. He reckoned that there was not one street in London where you could not see a bombed house. Cairo has got a blackout at night so there was not much to see. We were back in camp at nine o’clock.

Monday 23rd Dec: Had rather a strenuous day. Bayonet drill and marching. We have been going through tests to pick out one platoon out of the eight rifles to be ready to go up the front to reinforce the 1st Echelon at Mersa Matruh.

Tuesday 24th Dec: Christmas Eve, most of the talk was about what they would be doing if they were at home. Most of them said that they would just be going down to the pub etc. Yesterday Major General Freyberg inspected us in the afternoon. We put up a much better performance than when he saw us when we had arrived. I thought we did very well although we have not heard anything about it. No news is good news as they say, so I suppose it was alright. We had the parade well out in the desert and with the band playing the same march as we had on our final parade at Wellington, I could not help capturing the feeling of the moment. As the sun was setting we marched past to take the salute and with the long shadows being cast on the sand we disappeared over the hill. Got my first mail today and it was very welcome after writing letters and not being answered.

Wednesday 25th Dec: Christmas Day; we all got a Christmas parcel from the Patriotic Committees in New Zealand. All the boys are very excited like a lot of kids. I got a cake in a tin, a tin of tobacco and papers, a tin of barley sugar, toothbrush and paste, pad and envelopes and a tin of condensed milk. Mine came from Te Awamutu (NZ). We had sports in the morning with relay races. For dinner we had a bit of turkey, potatoes two ways, cabbage and plum pudding. Also a bottle of beer and lemonade with two oranges and nuts. At 1.30 we had leave and went to Cairo. We did not have time to go to the pyramids, so just wandered around. Had an argument with two boot boys. We had strict instructions not to hit any of the natives as they were our allies, but they just about tried my patience to the limit. You can call them anything you like, all the swear words you know, and they will still call you master or sir. Went to the Tipperary Club for afternoon tea. Had a cup of tea on the balcony looking down on the street. You see mostly gharries pulled by two horses. The street is just teaming with beggars and vendors of junk!

Thursday 26 Dec: Boxing Day, but no holiday in the army. Our four platoons had to go on guard duty somewhere, probably Abbassia, a few miles the other side of Cairo. Had a rather nasty surprise, we had an inspection by the commander and tonight we have to start cleaning the brass on our web. We don’t have much daylight now and no lights in the huts, so consequently we don’t get much time to write or clean brass or rifles.

As with all soldiers visiting Cairo for the first time, sightseeing tours were enjoyed, including the pyramids which Craw described in great detail in his diary. But being a pragmatic man, though impressed, he wrote, ‘The pyramids are a good example of a waste of time, money and labour!’ Later, however, he must have seen them as a challenge, as in 1942 he climbed to the top of the