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Halts were made at Gibraltar and Malta, and Egypt was reached on the 17th July. Pilot Officer Woodhead reported to No. 40 Squadron, Shallufa, Western Desert, on the 21st July 1942. With this squadron as pilot of a Wellington bomber he took part in thirty-six operational flights which together with his ferry flight from England to Egypt brought his total of operations to thirty-nine. His thirty-six operations with the squadron comprised nineteen attacks in the Tobruck area, six attacks on enemy motor vehicle concentrations in the Western Desert, five missions over the battle area, attacks on roads at Matruh and Fuka, and on El Daba, Halfaya Pass, and Sollum.

His tour of operations completed, Pilot Officer Woodhead returned to the United Kingdom by air as a passenger in a British Overseas Airways Corporation aircraft, which leaving Cairo on the 14th December 1942 ascended the Nile as far as Khartoum and then turning westwards flew across Equatorial Africa to Bathurst, Gambia. From here a flying boat flew him by way of Lisbon to Poole Harbour, Dorset. On his arrival back in England he was posted on the 20th January 1943 to No. 92 Group Instructor's Flight, Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, for an instructor's course, prior to being posted on the 7th February 1943 to No. 16 Operational Training Unit, at the same place for duty as an instructor. On the 14th April, 1943 he was posted to No. 3 Flying Instructors' School, Babdown Farm, Gloucestershire. On the conclusion of this course he returned on the 9th May 1943 to Upper Heyford to instruct with No. 16 Operational Training Unit and No. 92 Group Instructors Flight. He was next posted as an instructor on the 20th August 1943 to No. 14 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, Ossington, Nottinghamshire. This was succeeded by an instrument flying course early in September 1943 with No. 1512 Beam Approach Training Flight, Banff, Banffshire, Scotland, at the conclusion of which he returned to No. 16 Operational Training Unit, with which unit he stayed for the remainder of his service, flying both fighter and bomber aircraft.

On the 19th August 1944, Pilot Officer Woodhead took off in a Martinet aircraft for an air test. Shortly after take off the

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