Frank Norton's 1942 artwork Taking off, Western Desert, depicts a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk of No. 3 Squadron RAAF taking off on an operational flight from the desert landing ground at Antelat. The dust depicted in the painting was one of the greatest challenges for the RAAF. Felix Sainsbury served with No. 3 Squadron in the Western Desert and recalled that the dust storms could reach as high as 2000 feet: 'it comes over and completely blacks out the sun'. The dust also wreaked havoc on the aircraft, seizing up the controls. Felix remembers that because of the shortage of water, the dust was washed out with petrol, poured from a fuel tanker. (AWM ART29361; oil on canvas, 56.4 x 69 cm)
Source
AWM ART29361
Place made
Antelat, Libya
Copyright
Copyright expired - public domain