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Cleft Hill LRDG airstrip Egypt Western Desert
could this picture help ?
https://up.picr.de/36419196hc.jpg or the sat map ? https://up.picr.de/36419238hk.jpg the tracks are really mysterious ! https://up.picr.de/36420129xk.jpg https://up.picr.de/36456788ud.jpg |
Egypt - airfields from WWII
Maybe you like my album "Airfields, Wrecks and Jerrycans"
https://www.flickr.com/photos/182588...57710065267072 |
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@Herr_Bünzli
I know there are many WWII aviation historians lurking on this forum, they are as baffled as anyone else. The tracks are unlike anything one would expect to have been made by aircraft of the day, see discussion above. |
I have seen high flotation,wide wheelbase,geophysical survey vehicles operating in Abu dhabi and Oman.Could it be this or,similar.They usually travel in a series of parallel straight lines so these should also be able to be seen.The circles may be corraling at the end of the day!
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The source of the mystery is that the tracks are quite clearly single, unlike anything one would expect from multi-wheeled craft.
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Interesting thread guys.
Any updates? Or will it all be lost to history? |
There are two images among the Arkwright photographs that might give a clue. They show a Thornycroft lorry dragging something on a long rope in the sand. There is no caption to provide any explanation for the purpose of the exercise, but that would leave a track very similar to the ones being contemplated:
https://fjexpeditions.com/desert/his...ht/FGBA_45.jpg https://fjexpeditions.com/desert/his...ht/FGBA_44.jpg |
Flying over Zerzura
2 Attachment(s)
A plug for mate of mine. I hope no one minds.
Flying over Zerzura https://www.amazon.it/Flying-Zerzura.../dp/8888180257 |
Mystery solved !
Watching the original footage of the Bagnold expeditions on youtube it became clear that these marks were left by the old tail-dragger Vickers Victorias of RAF 216 sqn. Unlike later aircraft with a tail wheel, they only had a tail skid which made a deep trough in the soft terrain, but the wheels with the rubber tires did not sink in. This explains the single tracks. The still from the video illustrates it nicely:
https://www.fjexpeditions.com/expedi...s_victoria.jpg |
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Now that we know what made them, it is actually possible to see the tracks made by the main wheels on either side of the deeper tail skid mark on this photo of Ursula:
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I keep having to remind myself how long those single tracks have been there. Seven decades or so and counting - with plenty of wind energy to move sediment around multiple times a month. Think of all the tracks we've driven out in the Sahara and Libyan desert over the years.
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These are the tracks of Prince Kemal el Din's Citroens from 1926 at Uweinat (taken in 2015):
https://fjexpeditions.com/expedition...ov17/P2970.jpg |
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