Northwest African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing The Northwest African Photographic Reconnaissance Wing ( NAPRW ) was a composite Allied photographic reconnaissance wing operational in North Africa during World War II in 1943 . History . NAPRW was a sub - command of the Northwest African Air Forces which itself was a sub - command of the Mediterranean Air Command ( MAC ) . These new Allied air force organizations were created at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 to promote cooperation between the British Royal Air Force ( RAF ) , the American United States Army Air Force ( USAAF ) , and their respective ground and naval forces in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations ( MTO ) . Effective 18 February 1943 , the NAPRW and other MAC commands existed until 10 December 1943 when MAC was disbanded and the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces ( MAAF ) , with the Mediterranean Allied Photographic Reconnaissance Wing ( MAPRW ) , were established . Colonel Elliott Roosevelt , the son of United States President Franklin D . Roosevelt , attended the Casablanca Conference and was made the commander of NAPRW . Lt . Col . Roosevelt had been the commander of the U . S . 3rd Reconnaissance Group , which had participated in the landings in North Africa in November 1942 . RAF Wing Commander Eric Fuller was Col . Roosevelt ' s deputy . One reason for the creation of the NAPRW was the grave attrition of the constituent units prior to February 1943 . NAPRW was headquartered at Maison Blanche Airport outside Algiers , and deployed units to outlying bases including Malta . Under the pressure of events , the squadron structure had broken down , and it was not reconstituted until the German surrender in Tunis in May 1943 . At that time , NAPRW HQ moved to el - Aouina Airport outside Carthage . After the landings in Italy , the Wing moved to San Severo near Foggia , Italy , in November . Numerous other airfields were used , and wing aircraft ranged throughout the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Budapest . The 3rd PR Group contributed early model F - 4 Lightning s and a mapping detachment equipped with four Boeing B17 Fs . These aircraft were found to be unsuitable for combat operations and were relegated to other duties . NAPRW found that only the later model F - 4Bs and F - 5 Lightnings , with their flaws corrected , could operate in enemy airspace . NAPRW did important pioneering work in night photography using a single assigned North American B - 25 Mitchell . The RAF contributed PR Spitfires and a few early de Havilland Mosquito s . Colonel Roosevelt borrowed two Mosquitos from the British , and began a campaign for American adoption of this aircraft ; however , when a few new F - 8 Mosquitos did get allocated to NAPRW from Canadian production , they turned out to be problem - plagued . During the first half of 1943 , the Wing also flew a single Potez 540 , a war prize modified to serve as a flying photo processing laboratory . From its operational nadir in February 1943 , NAPRW grew to become a very large unit with nearly 3 , 000 men , and relative combat losses declined rapidly during its existence . Because NAPRW was the first U . S . - led reconnaissance wing to see sustained combat in Europe , its operational experience set the tone for subsequent American operations ; this was why Col . Roosevelt was tagged to command the Eighth Air Force ' s 325th Reconnaissance Wing in England at the end of 1943 . President Roosevelt inspected his son ' s wing at El Aouina in November 1943 during his travel to the Teheran Conference . The successor unit was the " Mediterranean Allied Photo Reconnaissance Wing " Order of battle . At the time of the Allied invasion of Sicily ( Operation Husky ) on 10 July 1943 , the NAPRW consisted of : Notable personnel . Antoine de Saint - Exupéry , the renowned French aviator and author of several aviation writings as well as " The Little Prince " , was a P - 38 pilot in " 2 / 33 Groupe de Reconnaissance " . Saint - Exupéry flew a few missions with NAPRW before being grounded . He later was allowed to fly with MAPRW and failed to return to his base at Borgo , Corsica following a reconnaissance mission on 31 July 1944 and is believed to have died at that time . Along with Col . Roosevelt , USAAF Colonel Karl Polifka , who arrived in theater from the Pacific in October 1943 , was one of the most aggressive and most highly regarded reconnaissance pilots of the war . He succeeded Roosevelt in command . Wing Commander Adrian Warburton DSO , DFC & two bars , perhaps Britain ' s most notable reconnaissance pilot of the war , flew for NAPRW in 1943 , especially in missions from RAF Luqa , Malta .