The air battle for Malta featured in Australia TV’s Channel 9 In Their Footsteps series that paid tribute to Spitfire ace John Livingstone Boyd.
In each episode an everyday Australian embarks on a powerful personal journey retracing a close ancestor’s intense wartime experience. The “searcher” in the Malta episode was Megan MacDonald, a 39-year-old mother of three from Gayndah, in central Queensland, who shares her great uncle’s love of flying.
Born and raised in Queensland, “Tony”, as his mother chose to call him, enrolled in the Royal Australian Air Force and after training on Tiger Moths in Australia and Harvards in Canada went to England where, between July and August 1941, he flew Miles Masters with No. 59 Operational Training Unit.
He joined No. 135 Squadron, based at Honiley, Warwickshire, flying Hawker Hurricanes Mk.IIa. In October 1941, he volunteered for service in Malta and was transferred to No. 242 Squadron which, together with No. 605, flew 24 Hurricanes off the decks of HMS Ark Royal and HMS Argus to Malta on October 11.
On January 22, Mr Boyd scored his first success by heavily damaging a Junkers Ju 88. His log book entries for February 1942 show he flew Hurricanes belonging to Nos. 249, 126, 242, 185 and 605 squadrons. His first “kill”, a Messerschmitt Bf 109G, was confirmed on February 23. In April, he moved to No. 185 Squadron at Ħal-Far, still flying Hurricanes, even though Spitfires had arrived in Malta in March.
On April 20, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal.
He shot down a Junkers Ju 88 on May 8, 1942. By that time, Mr Boyd was itching to get his hands on a Spitfire. Operation Bowery brought 64 Spitfires to Malta on May 9 and a few of these were earmarked for highly-skilled Hurricane pilots like Mr Boyd. His log book entry after his first Spitfire flight reads: “It’s excellent at high altitude, a real wizard machine.”In the morning of May 14, 1942 he flew Spitfire Vc BR349, coded 3-C, and shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109G. Shortly after midday, he took off again to confront a flight of Macchi C.202s. One of the Italian fighters turned onto his tail and he was hit. Mr Boyd’s Spitfire began to slowly spin down and crashed just outside the perimeter of Luqa airfield. The following day, the Australian pilot was due to terminate his Malta tour and return to England for a rest period. Instead, his remains were laid to eternal rest at the Capuchin Military Cemetery in Kalkara.
Ms MacDonald, together with a crew from Channel 9, came to Malta in February after, the previous month, senior researcher Amanda Brown requested the assistance of aviation artist and historian Richard J. Caruana. Among other things, Mr Caruana proposed that Ms MacDonald should fly on the Aviation Museum’s restored Tiger Moth, the type on which Mr Boyd had learned to fly.John Mizzi, editor of the Malta At War series, took Ms MacDonald to visit Xara Palace, where Ta’ Qali pilots were billeted. The following day, he guided her into the wartime shelter at Luqa.
At Luqa airport, Ms MacDonald met Clive Denney, a highly-experienced UK warbird pilot, who invited her to fly in the Tiger Moth. The biplane was acquired in 2000 by the Malta Aviation Museum and David Polidano and his team professionally restored it to flying condition.The footage of the flight is extraordinary, filmed when the sun was already beginning to set, showing Malta from the air at its best with its honey-coloured buildings, green and brown fields, shimmering sea and the cliffs along the south-west coast rising majestically out of the water.At the Malta Aviation Museum, Mr Caruana showed her around the two priceless and unique exhibits inside the Air Battle of Malta Memorial Hangar: the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. She listened attentively as Mr Caruana explained the most important entries in Mr Boyd’s log book.
Mr Caruana then took Ms MacDonald to the crash site as described in several eyewitness accounts. The field where Mr Boyd crashed was located about 200 or 300 metres from the Luqa airport perimeter road, down into Wied il-Kbir.
There, Ms MacDonald spent some time in solitary contemplation.
As it happened, this was the only field in the valley where poppies were growing wild!Ms MacDonald’s final visit was at the Capuchin military cemetery in Kalkara, where Mr Boyd is buried in plot P, collective grave 15.
She brought a small jar of soil with her from the ranch where he had worked as a jackeroo before joining the RAAF and left it on the headstone. It was the first time in nearly 70 years that anyone from Mr Boyd’s family had visited his resting place.
In Their Footsteps always ends with a Memory Box being presented to the searcher. In this box, Ms MacDonald found photographs of her great uncle and an exclusive signed print by Mr Caruana commissioned by the producers, illustrating Mr Boyd’s Spitfire superimposed on a portrait of the pilot and the crest of No. 185 Squadron.