From December 1943 until the end of the war anti-submarine patrols were flown from Gibraltar by Ventura GR Mk Vs. The first of these were flown by crews from 500 (County of Kent) Squadron but from July 1944 they were replaced by 22 Squadron SAAF.The South Africans had flown their Venturas up from South Africa to take over the protection of this sole access point to the Mediterranean Sea, which allowed 500 (County of Kent) Squadron to take its own Ventura GR MkVs to La Senia, near Oran in Algeria where they soon converted onto the Martin Baltimore. Other Ventura squadrons were based throughout the Mediterranean area in the maritime role and these were quite nomadic, moving up and down the North African coastline as the situation at sea dictated. Another British Ventura GR Mk V unit to serve in the Mediterranean was 13 Squadron RAF, which operated the type between October and December 1943, and the Aussies of 459 Squadron RAAF replaced their old Hudsons with the same Ventura variant during December 1943, making good use of them until July 1944. In both cases the Venturas were eventually replaced by the Baltimore.
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