31st of January 1941.
Two special forces units clash in the desert.
The British Long Range Desert Group suffers a defeat and is forced back by the Italian
Auto Saharan Company.
They lose men, equipment, and some of their vehicles.
Amid the carnage, one truck is knocked out.
Troop commander, Ronald Moore, shouts “Shall we go or surrender?”
His men reply, “No surrender.”
The four men manage to escape to the nearby hills where they’re left with a stark choice.
Without food and little water, they can either walk 70 miles to Kufra and surrender to the
Italians.
Or head south and hope to find either the Long Range Desert Group or the Free French.
If they did that though and failed to find any allied unit, they’d perish in the desert.
Moore and his men choose to head south.
What follows are the events of what is now known as “Moore’s March”.
Intro -
On the 1st of February 1941, the day after the battle of Gebel Sheriff, four men begin
their journey through the desert.
They have a 2-gallon tin of water with a bullet-hole near the top, but they have no food and only
the clothes they wear.
Everything else burns with their truck.
New Zealander Ronald Moore leads the troop south, wounded in the foot by a piece of shrapnel
from the fight of the previous day.
He’s accompanied by Private Alfred Tighe, who’s from Manchester.
Sadly, Tighe is suffering from a stomach condition that had troubled him prior to the engagement,
and his pace is slowed.
There’s also Alexander Winchester and John Easton, two Scots Guardsmen from Edinburgh.
Easton has a wound in his throat from the attack and has difficulty swallowing.
There’s also an Italian prisoner with them, but the Italian leaves the party on the first
day, and is later picked up by his compatriots.
Under Moore’s leadership, they set out, taking it in turns to carry the tin of water.
An Italian aircraft flies over them but doesn’t see the party.
Remarkably, they manage to cover 40 miles on the first day.
But this was a pace they can’t maintain forever.
Even at this early stage, they’re hungry and being driven nearly mad with thirst.
Then, ahead some distance, they see a vehicle.
Discussing the situation, they all agree that surrender would be their best option.
But as they approach the car, they find it has been shot to pieces and abandoned.
Riddled with holes, the water has leaked out of the radiator and there’s no food - except
some empty condensed milk cans.
Scraping the remains of the hard milk (mixed-with-sand) out with their fingernails, it doesn’t satisfy
their hunger.
But then there’s a shout!
One of the men discovers a tank among the wreck - and they now have a gallon of water.
Marching on in only shorts and shirts, still hungry but at least less thirsty, they have
to cuddle together at night to keep warm.
On the third of February they find a pot of jam and some lentils which have been left
behind by their Patrol.
They eat it all, but the lentils are bad and make Winchester ill.
Worse, Tighe’s stomach condition flares up, and he begins to tire on the 4th day.
On the 5th day, digging himself a small hole, Tighe tells his comrades to leave him behind,
as he’s hindering their progress.
They give him his share of the water in a bottle they find and go on their way.
It’s only after they leave that Tighe discovers that the bottle they’d used has some sort
of salty substance in it that makes the water undrinkable.
On the 6th of February, a violent sandstorm obscures the tracks of the vehicles and their
path to safety.
Despite this, Moore, Easton and Winchester managed to reach Sarra.
They’d gone 130 miles so far.
Unfortunately, the well at Sarra has been filled by the Italians.
And finding no food in the huts, they do however find motor oil, which they use to bathe their
feet and make a fire to warm themselves that night.
On the 7th of February, the trio march on, but the tracks have almost entirely disappeared
and it becomes difficult to follow them.
Back north, Tighe decides it isn’t wise to sit in the sand and wait for death and
so he gets to his feet and marches on.
It seems preferable to him to die on his feet.
Tighe struggles on and reaches Sarra this evening, but is too exhausted to go any further.
He finds one match in the sand, left by the others, and with this and the oil, makes a
fire.
He now has warmth, shelter and a small amount of water, but it’s unclear if all this will
just prolong his death.
On the 9th day, Easton can’t stand up.
Despite rubbing his legs to get the circulation flowing, he can barely move a few paces before
falling again.
Moore and Winchester help him to his feet a second time, but he just collapses in the
sand.
After another attempt, Moore sees the look in Easton’s eyes - and realises he’s done.
“Can I have some water?” he asks - they gave him half of what’s left - and a few
moments later, he dies.
Moore and Winchester bury Easton and continue, boots worn through so completely, they now
walk barefoot across the sand.
Later in the day, a French aircraft spots Moore and Winchester.
But the pilot can’t land in the rough country, so instead drops some food and a bottle of
lemonade - all he has.
Neither Moore nor Winchester notice the food, and the cork comes out of the lemonade bottle
on impact with the ground, so they only have one mouthful each.
Back north, it seems to Tighe that this hut will become his tomb.
Slipping in and out of consciousness, he nears his end.
But then the door of the hut swings open and the light pours in.
Frenchmen help Tighe to his feet and take him to a nearby hospital, where he is able
to explain that there are three others still out in the desert.
The French set off to try and find the others, but it’s night - they can’t follow the
footmarks in the dark.
On the 10th of February, Winchester collapses, semi-delirious.
Knowing he has to go on, Moore gives Winchester half the remaining water - one mouthful - and
bids him “good luck” before pressing on.
For Moore the hours blend together as he marches forwards in almost a trance-like-state.
At this point, he can barely go a mile without having to rest.
He then picks himself up and marches another mile before resting again.
He does this over and over, alone.
There’s so little water left that Moore refuses to drink the last of it.
He swills his mouth out and spits it back into the bottle to use again.
Hour after hour goes by as he stumbles through a graveyard of camel bones.
It seems to him that if camels can’t survive, then neither would he.
A French plane flies overhead, but can’t help.
But a rescue party of Free French leaves Sarra and follows the traces of the men’s footsteps.
The Frenchmen find Winchester in the sand, gone almost insane after his experience.
Mistakened at first as a mirage, Moore can’t believe his eyes as a truck appears out of
the desert.
Moore plods on with swinging arms.
Clear headed, he waves to the trucks without stopping, as though he’s out on a stroll.
He’s still determined to reach Tekro in the next two days - which he thinks he can
last.
Sadly for him, the Frenchmen pull him onto their truck and end his his epic journey.
After 210 miles on foot, Moore has survived.
“With nothing to eat for ten days, except a little jam, and only 4 pints of water to
drink, wounded in one foot in which a shell splinter still lodged, Moore had not only
walked this astonishing distance, but had for several days virtually carried with him
two men who were physically weaker than himself, as well as poor Winchester.”
For his bravery, Ronald Moore receives the New Zealand Distinguished Conduct Medal - the
first to be awarded in WW2.
For a few weeks, he became the most talked about private soldier in Allied uniform.
His comrades were also praised.
Winchester remained bitter about his experience and, according to Mortimer, he was also bitter
about the subsequent praise of Moore by the British press.
The death of Easton was later changed by British propaganda.
Supposedly, he was found by the French and temporarily revived with a cup of tea.
At which point, he said “I don’t take sugar in my tea” before passing.
Most accounts retell this tale, which is why you shouldn’t rely on just one account.
Whatever the truth, Moore’s march remains one of the great examples of human endurance,
and has gone down as a legend in the history of the Long Range Desert Group.
Thanks for watching, bye for now.