line of attle.e Spitfires flew into the relief o f the defenders at the moment o f M alta’s crisis— 64 c f riders and signalmen maintained a communication system between the widely dispersed pens. All daylong the repair squads were out filling up craters upon the runways while the bombers which made them were fighting their way back to Sicily. One o f the new pilots described his day in these words :“Took off from the Wasp at 0645 hrs. Landed at Takali at 1030 hrs. The formation leader flew too fast and got his navigation all to hell, so I left them forty miles west o f Bizerta, five miles off theN .African coast, and set course for Malta, avoiding Pantellaria and Bizerta owing to fighters and flak being present there. Jettisoned the long-range tank twenty miles oW. f Bizerta and reached Malta with twenty gallons to spare in main tank. O f the forty-seven machines that flew oft' the Wasp, one crashed into the sea on take-off, one force-landed back onto the deck ashe had jettisoned his auxiliary tank in error, one landed in Algeria, one outran of petrol between Pantellaria and Malta, one crashed on landing at Hal Far, and one crashed off Grand Harbour. “On landing at Takali I immediately removed my kit, and the machine was rearmed and refuelled. I landed during a raid and four 109s tried to shoot me up. Soon after landing the airfield was bombed but without much damage being done. I was scrambled in a section o f four soon after this raid, but we failed to intercept the next one, though we chased several 109s down on the deck.