In the 17 May 1941 issue of the Australian magazine “The ABC Weekly” there is a long feature entitled “Diggers in the Desert”, devoted to the presence of Australian troops in the Siwa Oasis during the Second World War. The article describes how, for several months, a small unit lived and fought in one of the most remote places in the Sahara, hundreds of kilometres from Cairo and the Mediterranean coast.
Through a series of photographs, the report shows on the one hand the soldiers’ daily life – work on the desert tracks, moments of rest, positions on the Giarabub front – and on the other the landscapes and monuments of the oasis: the ruins of the ancient town, the temple of Amun (Al Ubayda) and the palm trees around the springs. The text underlines the contrast between Siwa’s millennia‑old history and the modern war which, for the first time, brings to this “world apart” military vehicles, trench digging and fortifications.
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