This position was an excellent site for defence of the Nile Delta, and preparations had been ordered by General Claude Auchinleck months previously.
It is debatable whether Hitler had serious designs on the conquest of Egypt for he viewed the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre as a sideshow and at the time of Operation SALAM he was very much concentrated on the recently launched Case Blue.
The United States was months away from participation in the Desert war and the Axis commander Erwin Rommel had plans for capturing Egypt which would have put the Allies in a very precarious situation with the Suez Canal under enemy control.
Operation SALAM was intended to provide them eyes and ears in Cairo where the British authorities and community were in crisis over the Axis advance, with a citywide curfew in the months before June and many Europeans fleeing to Palestine.
Two spies would be delivered via a route taken far south of the Qattara Depression where the enormous expanses of open desert would lessen the risks of being captured.
When Hungary had entered the war on the side of the Axis, Almásy was recruited by the Abwehr (German military intelligence), initially to aid in the preparation of maps and the description of desert terrain.
After Ritter was injured in the first airborne attempt to deliver two spies to Egypt (the first Operation Condor), Almásy assumed command of the unit.
After several members fell sick and one of the cars was abandoned in the dunes with a broken axle, the party returned to Jalo oasis to make an aerial reconnaissance of the route.
As Rommel's advance was imminent, messages from Panzerarmee Afrika had priority in deciphering and analysis, and there were several days delay in warning HQ Middle East in Cairo.
Communication problems forced them to request assistance from the Cairo-based Free Officers Movement, who were nominally pro-Axis in the belief that they would 'liberate' Egypt from the British.
Eppler and Stanstede never managed to collect any meaningful information, and they never made any contact with a German radio station after they parted with Almásy near Asyut.
Unknown to them, communication was impossible as the designated SALAM wireless operators had been captured when Rommel's advance headquarters were overrun near Bir Hakeim on 29 May.
Fearful of reprisals in case of Rommel actually reaching Cairo, they started to create fake diaries detailing their supposed intelligence gathering and meeting of various sources.
Sanstede attempted suicide by slashing his wrists but eventually Eppler and Sandstede cooperated with their interrogators and were spared execution (the usual fate of spies out of uniform during World War II).
Another version was prepared by Jean Howard (née Alington), who received the English translation from Bagnold in 1978, together with the cover note of Count de Salis and other forwarders.