Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode

376, The Falcon of Malta.

The bombings continued, nothing was spared, not even the areas or buildings designated

as hospitals.

If anything, the large red cross made them easier to spot, which meant hospital staff

started becoming patients of their own workplace, which meant fewer qualified people to care

for the wounded and that number continued to grow.

To be sure the pilots were still going up, but it remained a numbers game and that rarely

benefited the defenders, and the stress on them was telling.

Like in January, it was determined that a pilot should be rotated out every six months.

Now here in June, Hugh Pueh Lloyd cut that back to three, which did nothing to help the

army personnel or more importantly to the pilots, their ground crews.

Yet, this was good news for Peter Rothwell, a Wellington pilot.

Hugh Pueh called him in and said, right, your six months is up, we have a Wellington that

needs serious attention, so why don't you fly that plane yourself and a small group of

pilots who have also reached six months to Cairo, tidy and efficient.

This was on June 21st.

Rothwell was only too happy to be his own driver in getting out of this hell, so he loaded

up his stuff, took on some fighter pilots and others and lifted off.

About an hour and a half into the flight, one of his two engines started to flame.

Geez, this bird really did need an overhaul.

Rothwell got the fire out, but it came back, so he had to shut down the engine.

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