By the end of June, a big part of the Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean had moved to the Russian front where it was more urgently needed. There were still heavy raids but fewer and smaller. Instead the Germans had decided to starve us.

It became very difficult for any ship to reach Malta. Everyone lost weight. We took some food with us when we went on 24-hour leave. There were, of course, no restaurants or food stalls, and our families were even worse off than we were. Once a day, a member of the family lined up to take home a hot watery meal from the local Victory Kitchen. However, the civilians never complained; not sticking it out to the end was never an option.

Children playing and talking beside demolished buildings. Photos: National War Museum, Heritage MaltaChildren playing and talking beside demolished buildings. Photos: National War Museum, Heritage Malta

Sometimes, we, in the services, were issued with a bar of plain chocolate. I used to treasure it and make it last as long as possible. I took a whole bar with me one day hoping that my girlfriend and I would share a block or two before she took the rest home. I was wrong; she took the whole bar home to share it with her mother and two siblings.

I had once seen my mother making rikotta. Milk powder was not popular; there was half a sack of milk powder in the ration store. I managed to persuade my cooks to make rikotta – solids precipitating at exactly boiling point when milk and sea water are heated – the recipe from my mother next time I went home. The cooks’ amusement while stirring the mixture turned to open-mouthed surprise. It was a big success and the men loved it.

By August the situation had became very precarious. Food, ammunition and aviation fuel were in very short supply. Once again, Churchill decided that a convoy to Malta must get through. Convoy Pedestal sailed through the straits of Gibraltar very heavily escorted for some of its way; the enemy was fully prepared to sink the whole lot. The Royal Navy suffered heavy losses, including the loss of an aircraft carrier and two cruisers; the merchantmen also had an extremely tough journey, some sailing completely unescorted for many hours before making port. Of the 14 merchantmen that entered the Mediterranean, only four and the tanker SS Ohio made it.

They limped into the harbour one at a time. One of the ships had been hit by a torpedo that left a gaping hole in its prow. The last to arrive was the tanker strapped to a destroyer on either side and its decks awash.

It had been torpedoed, bombed and even had a Ju 87b finishing on its deck. It would not sink until it had delivered all its precious load. It did just that and then broke its back and sank at its moorings. SS Ohio had made port on August 15 – a very special day in Malta when six villages hold their annual feast day in honour of Santa Marija.

Operation Pedestal has always been referred to locally as Il-Konvoj ta’ Santa Marija. An annual memorial service is held each year close to the spot where SS Ohio sank. It is well attended, including by members of embassy staff. Wreaths are laid at a small recently built monument in memory of sailors lost at sea.

Malta had been given a temporary reprieve. The civilians cheered each ship as it sailed inside the harbour – even Lord Gort joined in the cheering. The Royal Malta Artillery Band played welcome music from the ramparts of the bastions of Fort St Elmo, as the ships entered the harbour. The crews were entertained – the officers for lunch at the Casino Maltese, with a large part of its side missing, and the rest were taken sightseeing. They came to Tarġa gun position because it had one of the largest bomb craters on the island. We could not offer them any refreshments but the whole troop gave them a long ovation as they left the gun position.

At 5 am on June 20, 1943, the loudspeakers in the squares announced that King George VI would be making a brief visit by sea that morning. It was completely unexpected, especially as the enemy was still only 60 miles away. In no time all vantage points around the Grand Harbour were full of people, including me, as I had made myself one of my troop who could be spared. The huge crowd gave an enormous loud welcome when HMS Aurora entered the harbour escorted by four destroyers, with the King standing alone on the bridge saluting the George Cross island.

Of the 14 merchantmen that entered the Mediterranean, only four and the tanker SS Ohio made it

A Royal Malta Artillery guard of honour was at the Customs House steps as the King landed. When he moved towards the guard, its commander saluted but his salute was not returned; instead the King put out his hand and shook the officer’s hand. My brother, wearing his new blue and white ribbon of the military cross over his left breast pocket, was one of the officers of the guard.

The royal visit was a huge success, the King was wildly cheered wherever he went. To the remark made as he was being bade farewell that he had made the people of Malta happy, his reply was “but I have been the happiest man in Malta today”. The King later described the visit to Malta as “the real gem of my tour”.

One day our commanding officer disappeared and my battery commander was promoted to lieutenant-colonel to replace him. Soon afterwards, I found myself posted to regimental headquarters (RHQ) in St Paul’s Bay. I slept in a villa at the water’s edge and had a swim every morning before breakfast.

People saying the rosary during an air raid.People saying the rosary during an air raid.

One day as I walked out of our sleeping quarters, I met and spoke to my first US army sergeant standing on the quay. He had arrived that night and was waiting for his gun and his mates to arrive as he was sitting a light anti-aircraft (LAA) gun right there. Preparations for a sea landing operation had now started in earnest. My erstwhile commanding officer (CO) was required because he spoke Italian well and had been to Sicily and Italy a number of times. He ended up as the mayor of Naples.

The build-up continued at a fast pace. There were so many planes that the Americans had to build an airstrip on Gozo. It only took them a few weeks using bulldozers – marvels that we had never seen before.

My posting at RHQ was cut short – I went back to heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) duties. Wherever you went you came across tented army camps; the harbours were full of landing craft. Generals Eisenhower, Alexander and Montgomery set up their advance headquarters in Malta with the War HQ at Lascaris. D-Day for Operation Husky – the Sicilian Landings – was July 10, 1943.

Eisenhower, the supreme commander, felt he had to express his feelings to the people of Malta before he left. It included: “The United Nations will be forever indebted to Field Marshal Lord Gort, the fighting services under his command and to every citizen of this heroic island.” He was later to be the supreme commander at the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and later still, President of the United States.

Many Maltese officers and some other ranks joined the Allied force as interpreters – there were already many others serving as interpreters in prisoner-of-war camps in India and elsewhere. A number of voluntary aid detachment members (VADs) who had been serving in military hospitals in Malta, also joined the British troops.

The siege had come to an end. On August 4, 1943, Malta was declared a main fleet base once more and an assembly point for convoys. I had meanwhile been moved to Marsa XHD 11 – the 2 by 3.7-inch HAA mobile guns deployed on the old Marsa horseracing track and living in tented accommodation.

The enemy still wanted to know what was happening in Malta even though Sicily had been captured. On August 27, I was in the officers’ mess tent when the orderly sergeant informed me that a Miss Chalmers was at the gate. Sheila Chalmers happened to be my future wife. She had borrowed a bicycle and had freewheeled down from her wartime home a mile away – the way back home must have been a very different matter!

We were having a cup of tea when the air alarm went. I was a little apprehensive and told her to be calm as it was probably a false alarm. A Ju 88 approached and flew high over the Grand Harbour from the north, then over Marsaxlokk and left for home.

The civilian population never faltered nor showed the slightest signs of wanting to surrender even when they went hungry or when the island became the heaviest bombed area in the world

It was in range of our guns for some seconds and we fired 12 rounds. In all, four rounds of 4.5-inch and 38 rounds of 3.7-inch were fired at the plane. It was the last time Malta fired its AA guns at an enemy aircraft. I hurried back to the tent immediately the engagement was over. Miss Chalmers was ready for her second cup of tea.

On September 7 another Ju 88 approached the island a couple of times at night before finally turning away; meanwhile, a Mosquito was airborne and shot it down. Next day – on September 8 when each year the Maltese celebrate victory over the invading Turks in the Great Siege of 1565 – Italy capitulated.

A woman hanging the washing outside her house.A woman hanging the washing outside her house.

The Italian navy sailed to Malta; a few did not make it as they were sunk on the way by the Luftwaffe. A message was signalled to the Admiralty: “The Italian fleet lies at anchor under the guns of the fortress of Malta.” As far as the Maltese were concerned the war was over.

Malta started the siege very unprepared. In 1938, except for the Admiralty, who considered as vital the use of the dockyard facilities, leaving Malta poorly armed and unable to resist an enemy attack was still an option. One of the main reasons for the plan’s final rejection was that almost deserting Malta would have been, quite rightly, politically disastrous.

Once the final decision was taken, General Sir Charles Bonham Carter, the last pre-war governor, went out of his way to make Whitehall urgently provide some form of modern defence and the recruitment of local young men. When Italy joined the war the agreed plan had started being implemented but was far from complete; in fact, the whole plan was never completed.

In 1938, the army units manned by Maltese consisted of a coast defence regiment of 500 men and a territorial infantry battalion. By April 1942, Malta had over 10,500 gunners, nearly half of whom were Royal Malta Artillery personnel. Also under arms were three smart and properly trained infantry battalions of the King’s Own Malta Regiment plus many other smaller units. Meanwhile, reinforcements of British units and armaments continued to reach Malta even in 1941.

The planners in Whitehall must have had a very difficult task, in the late 1930s. They probably imagined very sticky situations in this tiny overpopulated island with a Mediterranean temperament just a few miles south of Sicily and hundreds of miles from friendly land.

Hysterical women, some carrying babies and young children hanging onto their skirts, demanding protection or surrender especially after an enemy attack, and many more difficult problems. Nothing of the sort; the civilian population never faltered nor showed the slightest signs of wanting to surrender even when they went hungry or when the island became the heaviest bombed area in the world.

They were convinced that the fight was for a just cause and against evil. Their faith in God was also a great help. The mothers were, however, sometimes concerned when they ran to collect their six-year-olds playing soldiers hoisting a red rag up a flag mast as a warning that a big air raid was on its way. In between raids the boys stood in a line and saluted the officers, especially fighter pilots, when these walked past. The officers had to return the salute.

The civilians’ behaviour was an inspiration not only to their men folk in uniform but also to all in Malta and to many others abroad. One of their admirers must have been the long-term US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1942 in Casablanca he said to Winston Churchill: “Some day we would control the whole of the Mediterranean and then I would go to Malta”, and when he visited Malta in 1943 he presented a scroll that started: “In the name of the people of the United States of America I salute the island of Malta, its people and defenders, who in the cause of freedom and justice and decency throughout the world have rendered valorous services far above and beyond the call of duty.” Note: ‘Its people’ came before ‘defenders’.

In 1945, World War II at last came to an end. Malta had helped to stop Rommel’s success in north Africa. The loss of Egypt, the Suez Canal and eventually the Middle East oil reserves to Nazi Germany would have prolonged the war by, at least, many months. As usual, peace meant discharges from employment by the services and the dockyard.

Luckily Malta had become popular within the Commonwealth and thousands of Maltese, including many highly trained artisans, emigrated to Australia, Canada and elsewhere, integrating well in their new environment. Shortages of housing, food, clothing and other essentials lasted well into the 1960s. There was still a food ration card in use up to the early 1970s. Helping to restore Christian civilisation and democracy to most countries of western Europe had been very costly to Malta.

Since then, Malta has become an independent republic and an active member of the Commonwealth and of the EU. Our friendship with the UK and the Commonwealth has become even stronger. Our former enemies are among our best friends.

The George Cross is now incorporated in our national flag. It is a permanent reminder of the gratitude that we owe to those, both servicemen and civilians, who took part in the siege, and especially to those who gave their lives so that the rest of us would not fall under the heartless Nazi regime.

Unfortunately many young Maltese and even those not so young, have only the haziest idea of what their forefathers went through in Malta in the 1940s. Maybe one day that part of Malta’s history will also be given the importance it deserves.

Many distinguished personages went out of their way to shower praise on Malta, not only as an encouragement while the battle was raging, but also after the danger was over. The Maltese, with their British partners, successfully repulsed the Nazi scourge that had enslaved most of Europe. Maybe one day historians will start referring to the Battle for Malta as Malta’s finest hour.

(Concluded)

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