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Laurence Mizzi: Dizzjunarju ta’ Malta fil-Gwerra. Klabb Kotba Maltin, 2013. 96 pp.
Laurence Mizzi is the author of readable and informative books about Malta in World War II, mainly in Maltese but with a couple also in English.
In this new book, little in size but large in its coverage, Mizzi has presented a useful compendium of information in dictionary form. The compendium is useful not just to readers who find themselves comfortable reading in Maltese, but also to the many other readers seeking quick information about matters related to Malta in that great conflict.
The first entry is Air Raids while the last one is Żwiġijiet Imħallta (mixed marriages). This is a good indication of Mizzi’s desire to include both matters relating to the activities of war and those referring to ordinary life, as lived in the abnormal situations of a vastly destructive war.
The entries vary in length from the one sentence about Bini Mwaqqa’ (buildings destroyed by enemy activity) to, for example, the one page and a bit more dedicated to Deportazzjoni (deportation).
At times there is an overlap between one entry and another, such as between Deportazzjoni and Internati (internees), and it would have helped if there had been some link between such entries, such as a See Also note. The author, however, has thoughtfully provided bibliographical footnotes to texts included in his short, but well-chosen, bibliography placed after the text.
In his entry on Michael Gonzi, bishop of Gozo and later Archbishop of Malta during the war, he could have been more helpful by appending a footnote referring to Dominic Fenech’s important little book, The Making of Archbishop Gonzi (1996). This was the first book that gave a good account of the circumstances leading to Gonzi’s putting pressure on Gozitan farmers to send a good amount of wheat to Malta in 1942, when famine was a terrifying possibility.
Maltese girls could look glamorous in wartime Malta, even when wearing ordinary clothes and a tin hat
Entries on education during the war, though certainly useful, remind me of how little has been published on schools and schooling between 1940 and 1945. Many other children of school age must have had experiences similar to mine: a church school for some months in 1940, then periods of instruction in a couple of skejjel tan-nuna (dame’s schools), a period in a government primary school in Ħamrun, and another period in a private school in its temporary premises at Blata l-Bajda, and finally, and best of all, a couple of years in 1943-1945 back in my old church school in Valletta, going there by bus every day with my older cousin, a girl. The miracle is that so many of us managed to pass the entrance exam into the government secondary schools.
People who lived through the war will all have different memories, and so will look for different entries in this book. I was glad to read the entry on the famous Victory Kitchens, in front of which, as a little boy, I often queued for the food that would permit us to keep going for another day or two. I am also glad that there is an entry on mica. This was the tough, but transparent, material used in war planes’ canopies. In those days, it used to be salvaged from planes downed on Malta, and then used to make little ornaments like crosses for girls to wear. I coveted something made of mica, but never managed to get one.
The entry on Sptarijiet (hospitals) mentions, of course, the Blue Sisters Hospital (later renamed Zammit-Clapp Hospital) which has a special memory for me: my operation for a perforated appendix in 1941 or 1942.
The entry with photo of the kenur (a stone cooking stove) will remind many readers who lived through the war of the ones they used, with wood or coal as fuel, when no paraffin oil was available, whereas younger readers will find the entries on leading personalities of great interest: Governors Charles Bonham-Carter, William Dobbie and John Gort, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Winston Churchill, and others.
Many readers will be interested in the entries listing the various war planes that fought over Malta, such as the Italian Macchi, the German Stukas and Messerschmitts, and the British Hurricanes and the more famous Spitfires. Mizzi reminds us that, following the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, no fewer than 2,000 German prisoners were brought to Malta and, we are told, were not released before 1948.
There are many illustrations, all in black and white, and of varying quality. I was struck by the photo showing the tremendous devastation caused to Senglea. The group picture showing a good number of Valletta’s air raid wardens reveals how Maltese girls could look glamorous in wartime Malta, even when wearing ordinary clothes and a tin hat.