I was there

I recently watched a TV programme about the bombing of Mosta church on April 9, 1942. The programme was full of quotes from experts and researchers but not a single one from a person who was there.

I always thank the Almighty God for the miraculous failure of that bomb to explode, preventing a massacre and the destruction of the monument called Mosta church.

I was leaning against one of those magnificent columns, along with many others, when the attack started. The gunfire intensified especially from the nearby battery when some younger boys on the outside edge of the parvis shouted "look, there they are".

I crossed over and saw a small formation of Ju 88s flying in from the side of the church heading to the Ta' Qali airstrip, under attack by RAF fighters, and a few seconds later I heard the whistling of bombs.

I ran towards the church and when I arrived at the first chapel by the door (St Sebastian) the dome came down. At least that's what we thought at that moment, when nobody could see anyone through the amount of debris and chunks of stone, big and small, that fell from the ceiling. Nobody knew at that point that the bomb had only pierced the dome, hit the wall and skidded into the chapel of St Paul. On the way to its hiding place it did not hit anybody and neither did the falling debris scattered all over the church, even though a few hundred people were waiting in the church for the hour of adoration to begin.

A replica of the bomb is in the sacristy to remind us of that lucky afternoon and to give thanks to God, as we always do on the anniversary. I saw the actual bomb, as did many others. I saw it when the bomb disposal squad took it safely out of the church and rolled it on the parvis to load it onto their truck. In fact they broke one of the hard rock steps, whose repairs can be seen to this day.

Several bombs came down in that incident. One hit the belfry and came to rest on the parvis without exploding, having been lighter than the one that came through the dome. A similar one hit the left side of the church just below the dome and exploded but did negligible damage due to the thick walls. Another one landed at the lower end of the sacristy stairs on the left. This one also failed to explode but broke in half. About three other bombs fell on buildings nearby and pulled houses down.

This load of bombs cannot be carried in a ME110. A German individual once said that he was the pilot of a ME110 that dropped the bomb. In fact what I saw was a formation of Ju 88s.

The bomb that came through the dome, which I saw, was never emptied of its explosives but was dumped into the sea along with others.