Admiring the desert land Opening dune leap The Sahara desert, and specifically the part where the Rat Patrol would have really travelled, the Libyan Desert, is said to be the most arid part of the huge Saharan desert.  The landscape of that desert land is not restricted to massive fields of shifting sand dunes (areas called ergs) where the dunes can be as much as 300m (1000 feet) high although it is images of jeeps leaping dunes that come first to mind in The Rat Patrol.  The Libyan desert also includes great plains of rocks (areas called regs) and rocky plateaus, and The Rat Patrol showed a variety of landscapes. There are generally five types of sand dunes that might be found in a desert (although they often combine to make complex forms).  Barchan (crescentic) - parabolic - linear (longitudinal and transverse) - star - dome Suncompass doesn't know if all dune types are visible in The Rat Patrol, but chances are they are all present in the deserts of North Africa.  for more about dune basics see http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/dunes/ opening sequence from RP (those two dots are jeeps)   One cannot talk about sand dunes without mentioning R.A. Bagnold. (yes, the very man who founded the Long Range Desert Group upon which the Rat Patrol may be loosely based).  Bagnold is probably the most widely quoted reference on sand formations.  He was in the deserts of North Africa well before the war and his many skills were far-reaching.  Not only did he research and write definitive works on aeolian deposits of the desert, he also invented and redesigned a number of devices (including the sun compass) that allowed his later-created military 'machine' to so effectively travel in the wartime desert and do the job they did so well. A short biography of Bagnold may be accessed at: http://www.weru.ksu.edu/symposium/proceedings/underwoo.pdf Not to be missed!  A super report about Bagnold and his instrumental role in the creation of the LRDG may be read at: http://www.lrdg.org/Bagnold's%20Bluff.htm from opening of Chain of Death Raid but also seen in Pipeline to Disaster Raid Mud Cracks or Dessication cracks - not an uncommon feature in very fine grained  deposits (clay) and indicates a formerly aqueous environment that has then been exposed to air and drying conditions.  Sometimes the cracking makes astoundingly regular straight-edged polygonal shapes. [Suncompass suspects the shot of the mud cracks for the episode was meant to remind the viewer how very dry the episode was going to be for the two chained 'enemies'.] [][][][][] Surface Patterns Chase of Fire Raid The episode mission briefing The Rat Patrol lose a member of their foursome and as a replacement, sergeant Moffitt is assigned for a special mission to find a buried British ammo and petroleum dump.  Moffitt, being an expert in 'meteorology, sand conditions, odds and ends', is recruited to guide the Rat Patrol to the prize. The surface pattern of the sand he sees is a key to their success because it runs against the prevailing Khamseen. for more about the Khamseen, see Meterology) The surface of sand is often rippled into small roughly parallel ridges.  These sand ripples form with their long axes at right angles to the wind, just like their much large counterparts, the linear dunes (there are other differences as well).  Assuming Moffitt's mentioned 'surface pattern' meant sand ripples, then one assumes that the direction of the ripples over the buried dump ran perpendicular to the ripples created elsewhere in the area by the prevailing Khamseen winds.  How exactly this came to be isn't clear to Suncompass, but no matter.  Ripples make an interesting texture overlying the desert, and clearly Moffitt found them a useful indicator when seeking a buried fuel dump. for more about ripple, dune, and desert feature formations see  http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/eolian/ Sand ripples background Chase of Fire Raid Sand ripples in background David & Goliath Raid Dunes and sand ripples  Chase of Fire Raid [][][][][] Between a rock and a hard place The Holy War Raid The episode mission briefing Dietrich puts together a team of four men and two jeeps, dresses them up like the Rat Patrol, and sends them on a mission to kidnap the holy man from a nearby Arab tribe.  His plan is to 'buy' Arab favour by later 'rescuing' their holy man and casting the Allied Rat Patrol in a bad light. Dietrich hadn't counted on the blood ties between Moffitt's father and the Arabs which gives our lads time to pull success from the fire.  Moffitt, apparently an expert in the hard rock geology of the country, uses his expertise and a chance chunk of quartz to locate the area where Dietrich is holding the holy man. from Holy War Raid Libya does have rock types that could host quartz veins so it is indeed possible that the rock Troy and Moffitt are examining in this picture really is quartz.  Whether Moffitt could realistically distinguish that particular sample of quartz as occurring in a specific location is another matter, however.  This isn't to say it is impossible though - and besides, everyone knows that anything is possible in TV land and in the hands of the stars of a series. 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