The day war came to Malta

An air raid warning siren wailed over Grand Harbour just before 7 a.m. today, recalling the moment, exactly 70 years ago, when Italian bombers dropped their first bombs on Malta.

A few hours earlier, in the evening of June 10, 1940, Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in a speech in Rome had declared war on Britain, thus casting Malta, a British colony, into the front line.

The first day of the war in Malta saw eight enemy sorties sowing death and destruction over a wide area around the harbours. 22 lost their lives and another 50 lay wounded. The first bombs fell on Fort St Elmo and the area of Portes des Bombes. The first raids also triggered the evacuation of the inner harbour population to other parts of the island. Many people started a life in air raid shelters.

The air raids were to continue until 1943, increasing in intensity when the German air force entered the Mediterranean theatre of war in January 1941. Malta suffered 3,340 raids, causing the death of hundreds of civilians and servicemen and reducing the population to near starvation as convoys increasingly found it difficult to fight their way through with supplies. The bombing also cost Malta several important buildings, including the Opera House, auberges and churches.

The air defence of Malta in the first few months of the war was weak, consisting of a few Gloster Gladiator biplanes and later, Hurricane fighters, which were inferior to the Italian and German fighters.

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Work was the last thing on Carmel Mallia’s mind when, 70 years ago today, he woke up to air raids and had to move his wife and one-year-old baby out of their house in Cospicua.

Malta was under siege – after Italy declared it had joined the war the previous day – and the 25-year-old civil servant had one priority: to take his family to a safer house in Żabbar.

Their home town was close to the harbour and this made it a target during World War II.

In between air raids Mr Mallia, who has since passed away, walked back to their Cospicua home to retrieve his family’s belongings and secure the house that had been damaged by the heavy bombing. All this kept him away from his office, at the Public Works Division in Valletta, for two days.

One would think that the terror and destruction that gripped the island was good enough proof of what kept Mr Mallia, and others like him, away from work. But his employer demanded he justified his absence if he wanted to get paid for those two days. So, on June 15, 1940, Mr Mallia typed out a letter – keeping a carbon copy for himself – explaining that he was busy rescuing his family and home from possible death and looting.

“On June 11, the air raids were so frequent (I think there were nine that day) that it was practically impossible to cross the harbour... On the morrow, June 12, enemy bombers, coupled with nervous and physical strain, again kept me away from work... I felt that, even if I came to the office, I would be no use in the mental state in which I then was,” he wrote.

His son, Michael Mallia recalled that his father’s employer eventually accepted the letter as a good justification. In fact, his father moved on to serve on the War Damage Commission and became an Ambassador to Malta in various countries including Italy.

He noted that, at the time, he was not yet born and the baby mentioned in the letter was his elder brother, physics professor and environmentalist Edward Mallia.

When World War II broke out, on September 3, 1939, Maltese civilians did not feel as threatened. Britain had declared war when Adolf Hitler’s regime ignored Britain’s ultimatum to withdraw Germany’s attack on Poland by 11 a.m. that day.

Despite the gravity of the news, the Maltese did not fully absorb the reality of the threat that was veiled by the comfort of distance. But the people’s peace of mind was shattered when, on June 10, 1940, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini declared war on Britain and France and turned colonial Malta into a bomb target. The following day aircraft of the Italian Royal Air Force attacked Malta, one of Britain’s most important naval bases.

“A total of 239 bombs fell on us that first day to a total of 54 tons. The Maltese islands would endure 3,340 air-raids lasting a total of 2,357 hours where a total of 16,000 tons would fall on them in the next 51 months... I was hoping that the authorities would commemorate the sad but historical date appropriately to remember the hardships that our forefathers had to endure in those dark days of 1940-45,” Robert Camilleri wrote in a letter to The Times today.

Joseph Martin, in his 90s, remembers seeing an Italian reconnaissance plane at about 7 a.m. on June 11, 70 years ago. The plane must have been studying the island prior to the attacks that followed a few hours later.

His sister, Blanche Martin, who was 20 years old then, recalled: “I lived with my family in Balluta. I remember having to help my younger brother down the steps. There were 96 steps. We then took shelter in a large garage underneath the apartments and were later told how dangerous that was... After that, whenever there was an air raid, we took shelter in a tunnel leading to the sea located across the road.”

She recounted that the bombing was worse in 1941 when the Germans attached. Once she was thrown out of the apartment by a blast. Thankfully, they were living on the ground floor then. Her brothers then started shouting “shrapnel, shrapnel” as they called her back into the building.

COMMEMORATION

The sounding of the air raid warning siren today was organised by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna, which is holding a commemorative weekend at the Malta at War Museum, Couvre Porte, Vittoriosa. Tomorrow, the Malta at War Museum will remain open till 8.00pm. Special guided tours around the museum and underground shelters will be offered in Maltese and English.

On Sunday at 11.00am a public lecture on the first day of the war in Malta will be delivered at the same place by Mario Farrugia, Chairman FWA. This will be followed by a short re-enactment of air-raid warning procedures during WW2. Throughout the same period there will also be an exhibition of wartime photographs.

Entrance to all of these events is free except the entrance to the museum itself which will be specially discounted for the occasion at €5 instead of the normal €8. Children under 16 years and FWA members will enter for free.

The museum is near the original main entrance into Vittoriosa (Birgu).

For more information contact Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna on Tel: 21800992, 21803091, Malta at War Museum Tel: 21896617or email them directly at info@wirtartna.org