Dressed in protective suits, an RAF typhus team of No. 31 Mobile Field Hospital wait by their Fordson WOT1 Ambulances at Bari, Italy, 1944, as they prepare to receive wounded and sick partisans and civilians of the Yugoslav National Army of Liberation, evacuated to Italy by the Balkan Air Force Casualty Evacuation Section. Victor Sierra

RAF typhus team


Sicily, 1945. A Westland Lysander, working with the RAF Anti-Malaria Control Unit, sprays DDT powder over swamp land in an effort to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitos. Victor Sierra


Anti-malaria aircraft

A typhus team of No. 31 Mobile Field Hospital back their Fordson WOT1 Ambulance up to the freight doors of Douglas Dakota Mark III, KG523 “H”, of No. 267 Squadron RAF at Bari, Italy, 1944, as they prepare to unload any suspect cases from among the wounded and sick partisans and civilians of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, who have been evacuated to Italy by the Balkan Air Force Casualty Evacuation Section. Typhus fever, bacillary dysentery and tuberculosis assumed epidemic proportions among the Yugoslav partisan forces, and it was necessary to arrange for specially-equipped typhus hospitals to be ready to deal with outbreaks among the evacuees promptly and effectively. Yugoslav partisans assisting the BAF Casualty Evacution Section can be seen running to the aircraft on the right. Victor Sierra