The picture of HMS Illustrious entering Grand Harbour which appeared on The Times on February 27, revived memories of the first Illustrious and her historical sojourn in Malta with the resulting blitz in January 1941. However, more than the ship in the picture which is the fifth one to have that name, it was the remnant of the lighthouse on the right part of the breakwater that triggered my memory to that fateful day, January 16, 1941.
Until that day, what is now the stub of a building, was a lighthouse, matching its still intact sister on the left part of the breakwater, which could also be seen in the picture. But then it was blown up during the attack on the Illustrious.
This, however, was not caused by enemy bombs, but when it was hit by shells from an anti-aircraft gun forming part of the harbour's defences, and thereon hangs a story which I faithfully depicted in my book The Battle of Malta.
The gun in question was a Bofor positioned on the ravelin of Lower Baracca which was manned by men of the 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Malta Artillery. As this gun position stood at the same height as Fort St Angelo and other buildings, there was installed a depression rail so that the gun could not be depressed beyond the level of such buildings, and indeed this rail served its purpose during the first part of the attack on the Illustrious.
The Junker 87 (Stuka) dive-bombers flew in very high, and then dived on to the carrier and harbour to release their bombs, but then they pulled out of their dive and flew so low across Grand Harbour that the gun could not be depressed enough to fire at them. This more than annoyed the Maltese gunners, and more so when they saw the German pilots grinning at them as they flew past while they were unable to fire at them.
The gun commander who was a lieutenant became desperate and could not accept such a situation, so he ordered his men to remove the depression rail, and when the second wave of bombers came in, dived to release their bombs and flew out at a lower height than the gun position, he ordered his men to depress the gun and open fire on the enemy aircraft, while he stood on the ravelin crossing his right arm over his left, transmitting the vulgar Maltese message to the German pilots as they flew past. This time there was no grinning from them.
It is not known whether that Bofor gun hit any of the enemy aircraft. But some of the fired shells smacked the rampart of St Angelo, and also the lighthouse on the breakwater.
The damage to St Angelo was repaired years after the war ended, but the lighthouse on the breakwater has remained half demolished till these very days, as could be seen in the picture.