During the North African campaign, both sides extensively used long-range reconnaissance vehicles to probe the enemy's lines. They would have encountered each other quite often, mostly from far enough away so that actual contact was avoided. But no doubt, occasionally they would run into each other and meet eyeball to eyeball.
This scene depicts one such encounter. The rather scruffy Sdkfz 232 (8-rad) and crew here has obviously caught a pair of Desert Rats unawares at some point, and has now stopped under cover for a brew and snack on the way back to the German lines. I have used a bit of artistic license in giving the Germans a gramophone, reasoning that it is not impossible to imagine them coming across one in an abandoned Officer's Mess or some such in the days when the Afrika Korps was still on the advance. I imagine them using it to keep the boredom and loneliness away on cold desert nights, many miles away from their lines, when they had grown sick and tired of the British and German propaganda radio. Here, they have cranked up a copy of the much-loved'Lili Marlene', inspiring an impromptu sing-along. The German Leutnant would of course be singing along with the original, sung by Lale Andersen.

Tim Lehmann