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| Three castles · Three castles Pebble Island | ||
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The Three castles (engl. Three castles, also Pebble Island) are three closely spaced sandstone hills on the way from Gebel el-ʿUweināt to the Wādī Ṣūra at a short distance to the Gilf Kebir Plateau in the egyptianWestern desert. This point is usually chosen to take a break here. During the Second World War, this was a hideout for the British armed forces.
background
Location and history of discovery
The Three Castles are located just under 20 kilometers south of the Gilf Kebir Plateau and 37 kilometers southeast of the Wādī Ṣūra away. They are thus also visible from the Gilf Kebir plateau. There is a distance of about 1.5 kilometers between the westernmost hill and the easternmost and at the same time largest hill.
The formations of the three sandstone rocks were discovered in 1932 by Lásló Almásy and called "Drei Burgen" (English "Three Castles"). The name "Pebble Island" (German "Kieselsteininsel") probably came from Patrick Clayton. During the Second World War, the "Three Castles" were used by the British armed forces as a hiding place and temporary storage facility for trucks.
Operation Salam
At the beginning of the war, Lásló Almásy was drafted as a reserve officer in the Royal Hungarian Air Force by the Hungarian army, which was allied with the German Wehrmacht. As part of "Operation Salam" (also "Operation Salaam"), which started on April 29, 1942, he had the task of being the German secret service officer Johannes Eppler (* 1914) and his radio operator Hans-Gerd Sandstede from the Jalu (Gialo) oasis behind enemy lines. The route started Kufra over about that Gilf Kebir Plateauwho have favourited the sink el-Chārga to Asyūṭ. Almásy returned the same way - in both cases unnoticed by the British armed forces.
The agents then traveled from Asyūṭ to Cairo by train. From June 1942, Eppler and Sandstede supplied information to the German Africa Corps from Cairo as part of "Operation Kondor". In September 1942 they were exposed as agents and together with the captain Anwar es-Sadat (1918–1981), later President of Egypt, arrested by the British secret service MI5. The agents were released from British captivity in 1946.
The "Operation Salam" is considered to be Almásy's bravura piece. He was awarded the Iron Cross for this.
Almásy's diary came into the possession of the British in an unexplained manner Long Range Desert Group and is now in the Imperial War Museum in London. On May 18, 1942 Almásy came to the "Three Castles", where he found a vehicle hiding place for the British Army. He wrote in his diary:
- “First I go to the cave of the eastern 'castle' to check on my old water supply. I created it in 1932 and filled it up in 1933. Eight soldered 'Shell' canisters with water from Cairo. Major had this supply Bagnold and his companion saved the life in 1935 when they had an axle break on their only vehicle just 15 miles from here. Some canisters are rusty and empty, but four of them are still full; I open one carefully so as not to spill the water. We pour it into a saucepan, it is clear and odorless. Each of us takes a sip of the 1933 vintage and we think the water is excellent.
They found six new 5 ton trucks parked here. They were being used for the first time, so the odometer reading indicated they were out Wādī Ḥalfā had come. Their tanks were full, with a total of 500 liters of gasoline. Almásy took the petrol and one of the trucks with him, and the remaining vehicles were made unusable with sand in the oil container.
getting there
The rock formation is on the way from Gebel el-ʿUweināt to the Wādī Ṣūra.
Tourist Attractions
Of course they are worth seeing 1 rock(23 ° 25 ′ 35 ″ N.25 ° 24 ′ 47 ″ E)themselves. These rocks have numerous holes created by erosion. In the vicinity there are smooth pebbles that no longer exist in this form in Egypt.
There are also remains from the Second World War. This includes old tires, "shell" gasoline cans and cans for food. The former tinplate containers are now black due to oxidation.
25 kilometers further north-west you come across an abandoned convoy vehicle, a 1940s 2 Chevrolet Maple Leaf(23 ° 32 '11 "N.25 ° 11 ′ 47 ″ E).
kitchen
On the route from Gebel el-ʿUweināt to the Wādī Ṣūra you usually take a break here.
accommodation
Overnight stays here tend to be rare, as the distance to the Gilf Kebir Plateau is no longer great.
literature
- : Swimmers in the desert: in search of the Zarzura oasis. innsbruck: Haymon, 1997 (3rd edition), ISBN 978-3852182483 , Pp. 227-253, in particular pp. 236 f.
- : Operation Salam: László Almásy’s most daring mission in the Desert War. Munich: Belleville Verlag Michael Farin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-943157-34-5 (in English).
