Yes; I know most of these wreckages. But it was not always / only the sand which took the paint away.
The Italian biplane, the Romeo Ro1 was set on fire by the Italians after they could not recover it. Same happened to the Chevrolet truck (the one with the round hood). It was one of Leclerc's trucks which suffered a mechanical breakdown - the crew set it ablaze. Then the Savoia Marchetti S.79 at el-Uwenat; it was set on fire by one of the first LRDG patrols in 1940 (actually there were two planes at the same location). The other S.79 (in the sanddunes) suffered a lot of its damage by people who wanted to remove the engines and to break it apart for the melting pot.
|