At the Belgian town of Namur during the Battle of the Bulge, a British tank guards the Meuse River against an expected attack by the Germans. Field Marshal Montgomery on December 19th (1944) had deployed tanks and armored cars to hold the bridges along a 60-mile stretch of the Meuse. But he confessed that his notion of the attack route the Germans would use was "unpleasantly vague".

On guard

A classic image of the conditions in which the air forces of both belligerents, Axis and Allies, served in the North African Campaign: clouds of dust and sand raised starting the engines for take-off. The plane of this photo is a Curtiss Tomahawk Mark IIB of No 250 Squadron RAF before taking off from LG 13/Sidi Heneish South, an Egyptian military airfield, today abandoned, about 35 km E-SE of Marsa Matruh, 410 km NE from Cairo. The No 250 Squadron RAF, equipped with Tomahawk IIB from April 1941 to April 1942, when was converted to Hawker Hurricane, was based at Sidi Haneish South from June to November 1941; therefore the photo was taken between this two dates. Victor Sierra

A cloud of sand

A de Havilland Mosquito II of No 23 Squadron Royal Air Force took off from Malta for a during gunnery practice over the Mediterranean during gunnery practice, June 1943. The No 23 Squadron, on 1938 it became a night-fighter squadron equipped with Bristol Blenheim replaced after the outbreak of the Second World War by Douglas Havoc and later by Mosquito, on 27 December 1942 was transferred from Great Britain to Malta, Luqa airfield, to fly intruder missions over Sicily, Italy and Tunisia. After the Allied landing in Sicily a No 23 Squadron’s Detachment was based in the Island at Catania-Sigonella, 3 September-5 October 1943, and Gerbini, 5 October-1 November 1943, and, during the Allied advance in Southern Italy, at Pomigliano d’Arco, Naples, 1 November-7 December 1943. On 7 December 1943 the Squadron moved to Sardinia, Alghero airfield, and expanded its range of operations to include Northern Italy and the South of France. The No 23 Squadron was in Sardinia until 8 May 1944: when returned to England joining the No.100 Group and serving as an intruder squadron, targeting German night fighters, over Western Europe. The No 23 Squadron was disbanded, following the war's end, in September 1945 (Ministry of Information Second World War Colour Transparency Collection Catalogue number TR 1070). Victor Sierra