"Royal Air Force Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, 1939-1943." An air convoy of Hawker Hurricane Mark IIs led by a Bristol Blenheim Mark IV 'mother' aircraft, in flight along the West African Air Reinforcement Route to Egypt. Note the long-range fuel tanks fitted to the Hurricanes. Aircraft reinforcements for the North African theatre were shipped to Takoradi, in Gold Coast Colony, assembled there, then flown in stages along the coast line of the Gold coast and French Dahomey, across Nigeria, French Equatorial Africa and Sudan to Khartoum, before following the course of the River Nile to Cairo.