In 1938, The Royal Malta Artillery (RMA) consisted of one regiment of 500 all ranks, commanded by a lieutenant-colonel. By the spring of 1942 it had expanded to two coast defence regiments, two heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) regiments, one light anti-aircraft (LAA) regiment, one AA searchlight battery and the regimental depot at Fort Ricasoli.

There was also the 5th HAA Battery RMA in Egypt – the whole battery having volunteered to serve overseas. The battery had sailed to Alexandria in May 1940 when Benito Mussolini was still undecided whether to join the war. Mussolini finally took the plunge on June 10, 1940, convinced it would be a short war and that the spoils would only be shared by those on the winning side. It was a disastrous decision.

Adolf Hitler had already annexed Austria, liquidated Czechoslovakia and invaded and conquered Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and half of France.

Not to be outdone, Mussolini invaded Albania in April 1939, and in October 1940, without informing his Axis partner Hitler, he invaded Greece. He soon found himself in great difficulty and Hitler had to pull him out of the mess. He had, however, opened the way for the Germans to enter the Balkans and eventually occupy Albania, Greece, Crete and Yugoslavia. In the Atlantic, German U-boats were playing havoc with the British Merchant Navy.

The German war machine was a truly formidable force. Hitler’s momentum had been halted with difficulty at the English Channel in the Battle of Britain. Meanwhile, he had turned his eyes on the strategic British colony of Gibraltar.

To capture Gibraltar, he needed General Franco of Spain to join the war on his side, but Franco wisely left his decision open indefinitely. With Gibraltar in Nazi hands, Malta’s survival would most probably have been impossible.

At one stage, the unstoppable Germans were only being resisted in the United Kingdom and in Malta; they seemed well on the way of achieving Hitler’s first main objective, that of occupying the whole of Europe. His final objective was world domination. Fortunately, on June 22, 1941, Hitler decided to attack Russia, and like Napoleon before him, this proved to be his big mistake.

In the Far East, the Japanese had also been very successful. In a short period of time they had conquered all before them, including Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, and were in the process of occupying the whole of Burma to gain access to India. Two British battleships – HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse – that had ventured into the China Sea without any air cover, were promptly sunk.

The Japanese made their big mistake in December 1941when they attacked Pearl Harbour. The attack struck a massive blow to the US Navy in the Pacific but it gave the dormant giant no alternative other than to declare war on Japan, and a few days later, on Germany and Italy. Perhaps at that point the scales had started slowly to tilt in favour of the Allies.

Mussolini was very much the lame duck. Soon after Italy joined the war in June 1940, it lost its colonies in East Africa to the Allies and its large but not very efficient army in Libya was pushed back from the Egyptian frontier to Benghazi; it also looked very likely that it would be ousted out of the African continent altogether. Hitler could not accept such a situation and sent Erwin Rommel, one of his best field generals, and the Afrika Corps to stop the rot. As a result, the Luftwaffe turned up in Sicily in December 1940.

The air raids on Malta suddenly became very real indeed. Up to then, three or perhaps five Savoia Marchetti or CANTs, flying in strict V formation, used to turn up occasionally, presenting HAA gunners with the ideal target – a plane flying in a straight line at a constant height and speed.

They usually dropped their bombs hastily when they encountered some real opposition, such as the sight of Hurricane fighters or accurate HAA gunfire. There were occasions when two or even three of the sortie were shot down to the cheers of the civilian spectators as the formation crossed the island from Dingli to the Grand Harbour.

Now the Luftwaffe often came in sorties of 50 bombers or more from several directions. They seemed fearless. Hardly any civilians remained outside the shelters to watch the dog-fights any more. Their line of flight when attacking made it more complicated for an accurate shoot by HAA guns, so anti-aircraft operations room (AAOR) used to have to resort to firing box barrages that were quite often effective but very heavy on ammunition.

When a big raid was expected, a total hush fell on the HAA gun position, following four loud sounds of steel hitting steel, indicating that the breech of all four guns was open to receive a cartridge; guns and instruments all pointed in one direction, where the enemy planes were expected to appear. Then anyone of those with the best eyesight would shout “plaaane” pointing at a distant area in the sky. He would have seen a glint and then another and another until these changed into a mass of planes approaching the island.

The hush was over. If AAOR had not imposed restrictions on HAA gunfire, the shoot was on. More orders and reports were given in a loud and clear voice and in quick succession. In seconds, every gun and instrument was on the same target and the Gun Position Officer (GPO) gave the gun sergeants permission to fire.

The gun layers and the fuze operator followed a pointer on their self-aligning dial fed by a thick cable from the command post. The five ammunition numbers, in turn, placed their round, now with the correct time-fuze, in a tray for ramming electrically into the breech that closed and fired automatically. The ammunition number would have by then collected another round and joined the end of the queue.

All four guns often fired at exactly the same time with a terrific bang and lots of smoke in daytime and huge flashes at night. The bangs hardly over, each breech was opened by hand, ejecting with force the empty brass cartridge to the ground with a loud clang. More clangs followed as it rolled over the concrete ground often helped on the way with a kick from an ammunition number. Every minute each gun fired 10 to 12 rounds.

The raid over, the empties had to be counted and reported for entry into the gun’s log book, then placed into steel boxes and replaced by the same number of rounds from the magazine. As there were well over 3,000 air raids on Malta, it is no wonder that the drill became second nature.

When the HAA gun position was about to be itself the target of a dive-bomber, the GPO would order “gun control”. The guns would no longer be controlled by the predictor – the sergeant took full control. The gun layers would point the gun at the target through his sights and the gun would fire fuze 2 at the approaching target and fuze 4 at a receding one. The fuzes were special ones; the shell did not explode at the time set but instead fired its fuze cap and a number of large steel pellets just like those of a shotgun.

The complete destruction of Malta by the Luftwaffe started in mid-March 1942 but became even more intensive in April and May

The Italians were being urged by the Germans to invade Malta as the island was being a big nuisance, especially to shipping supplying North Africa. Two plans for the invasion of Malta, one in the spring of 1941 and the other in the spring of 1942, were approved in full detail but both were eventually abandoned. Hitler had even personally agreed to provide a parachute division, hundreds of German aircraft including troop carriers, landing sea-craft and much more in support of the 1942 invasion.

The Italians, however, still seemed to remember their disastrous, unsuccessful sea exploit to enter the Grand Harbour in July 1941 and were sure that an invasion would result in huge casualties and would quite possibly be unsuccessful, after all. Hitler, who was also still smarting because of the heavy German casualties, especially of his elite paratroopers, during the invasion of Crete, eventually agreed to neutralise Malta by bombing it flat instead of invading it.

When Rommel pushed the British back to the Egyptian frontier, capturing Tobruk on the way, Egypt seemed in the bag. Malta would fall like a ripe plum and Mussolini would ride into Cairo on his white steed already shipped to Egypt. An invasion of Malta was not necessary.

The complete destruction of Malta by the Luftwaffe started in mid-March 1942 but became even more intensive in April and May. The Royal Navy could no longer make use of Malta’s facilities, and the ships being repaired in the dockyard left in a great hurry; even the submarines that used to submerge during raids at their moorings at Lazaretto, had to be withdrawn.

For many weeks, the RAF never had more than four serviceable fighters, and often there were none. When airborne, the planes flew at 4,000 to 6,000 feet to get some protection from LAA guns and also to avoid that the planes would be destroyed on the ground.

Kingsway (Republic Street) in Valletta was completely blocked with rubble from bombed buildings; walking meant climbing up and down mounds of rubble a storey high. The Royal Opera House was gutted and a bomb was dropped on Mosta church, where 300 people were attending a service – it left a round hole in the large dome, did not explode and no one was hurt. St Publius church in Floriana was extensively damaged and both sides of St Anne Street, Floriana, were completely destroyed – and much, much more.

At the time the Royal Malta Artillery was deployed as follows:

1st Coast Regiment RMA – St Rocco, Tigné, Ricasoli and St Elmo – RHQ St Elmo.

11th HAA Regiment RMA(T) – St Peter, Sta Maria, Nicola, Delimara, Giacomo and Hompesch – RHQ Żejtun.

2nd HAA Regiment RMA – Kala Hill, Albert, Tarġa, Nadur, Wardija and Salina – RHQ St Paul’s Bay.

3rd LAA Regiment RMA - Marsaxlokk, St Rocco and Grand Harbour East areas – RHQ Żejtun.

5th Coast Regiment RMA – Campbell, Delimara – RHQ Campbell.

8th Searchlight Battery RMA – 3,000 yard spacing between stations – BHQ St Paul’s Bay.

5th HAA Battery RMA – Egypt. In October 1942, its eight HAA guns took part in the artillery bombardment – ground role – prior to the El Alamein advance.

In 1942, there were over 10,500 gunners defending Malta, nearly half of whom were Maltese serving in the RMA. In May 1942, the AA gunners were acclaimed as having saved Malta as for two months they had provided the only defence against the Luftwaffe’s determined and fierce blitz to erase Malta off the map.

The historian Alan Moorehead wrote: “It was a siege of annihilation. One after another, all the other great sieges were eclipsed, England and Odessa, Sebastopol and Tobruk. Malta became the most bombed place on earth.”

The only opposition to the Luftwaffe came from the AA artillery, so the Germans started directing many more of their attacks to individual AA gun positions.

Such was the situation when on April 3, 1942, the senior commander of the RMA was informed of the following message received by General Dobbie, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta, from King George VI:

“I have been watching with admiration the stout-hearted resistance of all in Malta – service personnel and civilian alike – to the fierce and constant air attacks of the enemy in recent weeks.

“In the active defence of the island, the Royal Air Force have been ably supported by the Royal Malta Artillery, and it therefore gives me great pleasure in recognition of their skill and resolution, to assume the Colonelcy-in-Chief of the Regiment.”

The King was already Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

On March 27, the Air Officer Commanding, Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Lloyd, after watching an air raid on Ta’ Qali, wrote to the Commander Royal Artillery, Brigadier CT (Joe) Beckett, with whom he often did not see eye to eye on the air defence policy:

The anti-aircraft gunners saved Malta as for two months they had provided the only defence against the Luftwaffe’s determined and fierce blitz

“I wish to express my greatest admiration of your officers and men for the excellent way in which they are defending this island… For sheer guts, determination and hard work your men can never be beaten. The attack on Ta’ Qali was directed quite as much against your gun positions as against the aerodrome. You must feel very proud of them... It takes terrific courage. Your officers and men have it and to spare. It is superlative and epic. Well done – all of you. Magnificent.”

And some days later he remarked: “If it was not for the soldiers we should be out of business.”

The defence of Ta’ Qali airfield was the main objective of 2nd HAA regiment RMA. General Ian Hay, in his book The Unconquered Isle – Malta, published in 1943 wrote: “If it was the Royal Air Force which finally deprived the Luftwaffe of the command of the air over Malta, it was the Royal Artillery which saved the island during those hectic and critical months in early 1942.”

On April 15, 1942, the King awarded the George Cross to Malta, now proudly part of the island’s national flag. Including the civilians as recipients of the award was most appropriate. There was never any sign of defeatism; on the contrary, the determination and composure of the civilians under heavy and continuous bombing, hunger and shortages were an inspiration especially to their kinsmen defending them and their country and also to the other siege defenders.

Having been unsuccessful in neutralising Malta by bombing, the enemy decided to blockade and starve the island. However the brave sailors of convoy Operation Pedestal managed to deliver five ships, including the only tanker SS Ohio, at great cost of life and shipping to both Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, and so avert the island’s surrender.

Brigadier Beckett was promoted to Major General in May 1942 and was posted to a new command in the UK in December 1942. This is his Special Order of the Day published before he left:

“On vacating command of the Royal Artillery, Malta, I wish to express my deep appreciation of the honour of having commanded the Royal Artillery, the 16th Fortress Squadron, Royal Engineers and the Royal Malta Artillery for the past 18 months.

“You have successfully protected His Majesty’s fleet in harbour from surface attack. You have won the admiration of all by your fortitude and skill with which you have not only protected the population in their homes and the Royal Air Force on their aerodromes but also supported them in their operations. Furthermore, there have been times when the defence of these islands has rested above all others in your hands...

“Your searchlight technique has been developed to the marked confusion of the enemy and to the assistance of our night fighter aircraft in their pursuit. To your fortitude the island has looked for example and encouragement and you have not failed. You may yet be called upon to win fresh laurels. Lift up your hearts and keep your powder dry.”

(To be concluded)

Maurice Agius served in a Heavy Anti-Aircraft regiment of the Royal Malta Artillery during World War II. He is the author of Recollections of a Malta HAA Gunner, published by Allied Publications.