Desert forests and orchards

[phoenix]

I haven't heard many mentions of oases in the western desert battles - at least, not dotted all over the place like these are - nor seen a single picture of one, and they're certainly conspicuously absent now if you look at maps, or google earth. What all accounts highlight is the unremitting blankness of the landscape - no features to orientate by. I don't understand why there are so many patches of green on these maps. As you get further towards Egypt (at least on the coast - around El Alamein itself, for example) going East, or towards Tunisia, going west, then it's more likely, but not in the Libyan western desert.