Fallen heroes remembered
The 3/11 Regiment Royal Malta Artillery (T) Association, in collaboration with Birżebbuġa council, held a memorial service on March 3 near the plaque that commemorates the six soldiers killed at a Bofors gun position sited on the rocky foreshore of the...
The 3/11 Regiment Royal Malta Artillery (T) Association, in collaboration with Birżebbuġa council, held a memorial service on March 3 near the plaque that commemorates the six soldiers killed at a Bofors gun position sited on the rocky foreshore of the main Kalafrana Road, Birżebbuġa,in 1942.
Prayers were said and a wreath was laid by the president ofthe association, René Grixti, and by Birżebbuġa mayor JosephFarrugia.
Towards midnight on July 20, 1942, an enemy bomber dived low on Kalafrana and released a stick of bombs. Of these, one landed straight onto the gun position and the other on its nearby Troop Headquarters, just across the road.
Everything within the gun emplacement was destroyed and six of the eight men on the spot were killed outright; two survived after being dug out from under the smothering rubble caused by the explosion.
The soldiers of the 10 LAA Battery – 3rd Regiment Royal Malta Artillery who lost their lives in the defence of their country were Lance Sergeant Fedele Zarb (he had been decorated for bravery, barely three weeks before) and Gunners Saviour Sillato, Francis Baldacchino, Albert Zammit, Joseph Ellul and Francis Agius.