Account of a wartime sea tragedy

The full story of the disintegration of the battleship HMS Barham a few minutes after it was hit by three torpedoes in 1941 will be recalled in the fifth issue of volume four of Malta At War.

The battleship was steaming in line with two other battleships, HMS Queen Elizabeth ahead and HMS Valiant astern. A photographer aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth went on the open deck to take shots of the three ships proceeding on a calm sea. He heard three thugs and the Barham heeled over to blow up in a matter of minutes.

Eight hundred sixty two crew perished that day and 450 survived. One of these was Paul Camilleri who describes how he swam free from the explosion.

This issue of Malta At War has a number of features that highlight Malta's part in World War II, including Polish President Wladislaw Sikorski's visit to Malta, which is recounted together with his death in a plane crash in Gibraltar.

The publication also records the early stages of Operation Crusader that saw the Eighth Army challenge the Axis forces in the Western Desert in 1941 in a bid to lift the siege of Tobruk and relieve some of the pressure on Malta.

The issue also recounts Hitler's concern at the losses being sustained by the Axis convoys plying between Italy and North Africa and Maurice Mifsud Bonnici tells how he planted a dummy bomb in the inner grounds of St Aloysius College so that he and the other students would be given time off.

Malta At War is published by Wise Owl Publications and sells at Lm1.85 per issue.