Heidy Hunt was the only woman in the large cast !
It was based on an actual mission in which British troops & a group of German - Jewish commandos went across the African desert to blow up Rommel 's fuel bunkers which supplied gas for his drive to the Suez Canal.
Rick West, a German Veteran of Rommel 's Afrika Korps who survived the actual 1942 attack, served as a technical adviser on this film.
In fact, the real mission was a fiasco but did a little damage.