With Rommel's Army in Libya
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Before the war, I spent 14 years in Africa. Eight of these were dedicated to exploring and mapping the Libyan Desert when it was one of the last and largest blank spots on the face of the earth. Traveling by light truck and small airplane, I probed the nearly 2,000,000 square kilometer unknown expanse, which, since prehistoric times, had been neither seen nor trod upon by humans, and I was able to map a considerable portion of it. When the flames of the world conflagration spread to this untouched region, I was again summoned to the desert, this time under orders from my superiors. I worked once more as an explorer and cartographer, but during the last two years I was a soldier among soldiers. The tracks of armored vehicles have plowed up the virginal surface of the desert, the clamor of war shattered the secretive, dreamlike silence of the oases, and the rows of barren cliffs, seared by the flames of the eternal sun, have echoed with the murmur of the harbingers of death. Thousands of men have passed, struggled, and suffered where, during millennia, only the fiery rays of the sun, howling sandstorms, and the glow of a million stars had ruled. No longer was an ethereal silence my traveling companion, nor could I marvel any more at the total stillness and absolute purity of my surroundings. Nevertheless, I discovered more grandeur and beauty than during the most productive years of my desert research. I found comradeship, which is so important when death threatens, and which allows us - amidst the shrieking, scorching dust storms and the numbingly cold starlit nights - to transcend the frailty and despair of our petty human nature. It awakens faith, willpower, and boundless confidence. In these fragments of a diary, the memory of my comrades survives, of those men who personified all the soldierly virtues. The nearly two years spent with them are inseparable from my fondest remembrances of Africa. The desert was always very generous to me, and I loved it more with each expedition. It offered me the most during the last few months: the friendship of my fellow soldiers.
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About the Book
The name László Almásy gained worldwide recognition as the "English Patient" through the novel and motion picture bearing that title. The real Almásy was a polyglot, cosmopolitan Hungarian who fell under the spell of the Sahara. He spent most of his adult life exploring large tracts of the Libyan Desert - often accompanied by British colleagues - and became one of the foremost experts on this part of the world, publishing several books in French, German, and Hungarian on his expeditions. He developed an uncanny ability for finding his way around the vast emptiness, by automobile and small airplane. Even the Bedouins acknowledged his skills, naming him Abu Ramla, the "Father of the Sands." It was because of this familiarity with the Libyan Desert that he ended up serving for two years under General Erwin Rommel in the Afrika Korps in North Africa. He became a commander of long-range desert patrols and led a number of secret, high-risk missions through the Sahara. Based on his diaries, With Rommel’s Army in Libya was published in Budapest in 1943. It was placed by the Communists on the index of forbidden books after World War II. Copies of it were removed from public libraries and destroyed. The authorship of this supposedly treasonous book was one of the charges brought against Almásy before the People’s Court, but thanks to the efficiency of the censors, not even the prosecuting attorney could find a copy to present as evidence. The defense had to provide a copy to show that the charges were false.
About the Author
The translator, Gabriel Horchler, has been employed by the Library of Congress for more than 30 years. He has a special interest in the large collection of Hungarian books held by the Library of Congress. Horchler has traveled extensively in the Sahara, and has also fallen under the spell of the Great Desert.