A Douglas Boston of 24 Squadron SAAF warming up its engines before a mission in the Western Desert from a Libyan airstrip, Spring 1943. Boston is the name assigned by the RAF and the other Commonwealth’s air forces to the American-built Douglas A-20 Havoc. Victor Sierra

On a Libyan airstrip

Supplies for the RAF wings operating from Grottaglie, Puglia, Italy, 1944, are unloaded from a Douglas Dakota of No. 216 Group RAF, using a commandeered Italian Fiat truck. In the foreground a South African Air Force officer lights a cigarette beside the wreckage of an Italian Fiat CR.42. Victor Sierra