Royal Air Force Operations in Malta, Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, 1939-1945. Airmen of the Special Erection Party and soldiers of 2nd Battalion, the Somerset Light Infantry, unpack the fuselage of a Supermarine Spitfire Mark V drawn from a crate by a Coles crane on the edge of the runway at North Front, Gibraltar. The Special Erection Party was established at Gibraltar in July 1942 to assemble and test fly aircraft crated from Britain by sea for the reinforcement of Malta. They are seen here attending to a shipment of twenty Spitfires which arrived on 29 September 1942. Although many of the aircraft were damaged in transit, the SEP, assisted by the soldiers in the non-technical work, got them ready for despatch by 11 October. This aircraft, EP286, flew with No. 1435 Squadron RAF on Malta, then with No. 208 Squadron RAF in Italy, before being transferred to the Armee de l'Air in February 1946.