The Massawa airstrip located in the dust and rock of the Eritrean coast.
Italian mechanics in khaki overalls hauled fuel drums across the tarmac while officers barked orders above the noise.
From the east, silver dots appeared slow at first, then growing into unmistakable shapes.
Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers, their triple engines making noise like monstrous insects, wheeled into line one after another.
Painted in desert camouflage, they looked predatory, almost eager.
Colonel Vittorio Mecozzi, commander of the East African air units, stood hands on hips, watching the first bomber taxi to a halt.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" Major Rinaldi shouted over the din.
Mecozzi grinned. "Beautiful and late. We needed them two months ago."
A lieutenant approached with a clipboard.
"First wave complete. Seventeen SM.81 bombers, twelve IMAM Ro.1 reconnaissance planes. Crates of incendiaries and fragmentation bombs already offloaded."
"And the pilots?"
