''A great army Africa Bound - Protecting plane photograph historic convoy en route.

''A great army Africa Bound - Protecting plane photograph historic convoy en route. The sea, as far as the horizon, covered with British Navy and Merchant Navy ships bound for the coast of French North Africa with a cargo of armed men and machine of war - a historic picture made from one of the aircraft of RAF Coastal Command, which, together a great Bomber Command and the U.S. Army Air Forces, maintained a great protecting air 'umbrella' over the convoy. While Sunderland Flying Boats, Whitleys, Leberators, Wellingtons and Hudsons maintained constant patrol, pinning U-boats in their Bay of Biscay bases, Beaufighters of Coastel Command neutralised the efforts of German long-range fighters to intercept the U-boat hunting aircraft. In one of the biggest 'combined operations ever known, the air and sea forces took vast land forces safely to a new theatre of war.