Sonderverband 288 consisted mostly of Germans but with a cadre of Arab translators and a mobile printing company that could produce Arabic-language leaflets as well as a squad for the operation of oil production facilities.[4] By January, 1942 the whole unit was transferred to Libya to defend against the British forces in the North Africa Campaign, the unit was planned to eventually be used in an invasion of the Middle East through Egypt, but this never came to be. After several months of fighting the unit was renamed Panzer Grenadier Regiment Africa and eventually captured by American forces following the capitulation of all Axis forces in North Africa, May 1943.[5]