When 68 years ago, 18-year-old seaman Allan Shaw came to Malta on the SS Ohio in a convoy, he thought it would be just another consignment, like others he had been on around North Africa.
“It was just another convoy, another trip. We went to different places, South Africa and Egypt. Nobody had any idea it was going to be so important at the end – we had a hell of an escort with us,” Mr Shaw says.
Mr Shaw is in Malta for the annual Operation Pedestal reunion, which was first held in 2002, the 60th anniversary of the convoy which saved Malta when it was running desperately low on supplies during World War II.
The Santa Marija Convoy Commemoration, organised last night by the Apostleship of the Sea by the old Customs House in Valletta, started with an ecumenical service, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony in the middle of Grand Harbour to remember those who died during the operation.
While 105 people involved in the operation had turned up for the 2002 reunion, veterans are a dying breed and this year Mr Shaw is joined only by Jim Hutchison and by Terry Mahon, who lives in Malta.
“That was the largest armed convoy of the war,” said Mr Hutchison, a gunner and diver on HMS Phoebe, the anti-aircraft light cruiser which formed part of the Santa Marija Convoy.
Joining the navy at 15, Mr Hutchison had the honour of being its youngest diver at 16. And he only retired from diving two years ago, aged 86 and with 54,000 dives under his belt.
“It’s probably a record,” the bright-eyed veteran said, happy to be in the place he calls his second home.
Things on the island have changed since the providential convoy was being bombarded in the harbour. Before and after serving in the Korean War, Mr Hutchison, on HMS Belfast, called back at Grand harbour a few years after the Santa Marija Convoy.
“You could see the building work was starting; it certainly improved over time. Each time I come I see the difference in the country,” the veteran says.
“I love Malta, I don’t care about what anybody says, there’s no place like it. It was a pleasure to be able to do something for the country.”
And even though he clearly loves the island, his memories of wartime Malta are far from pretty.
“Our job during Pedestal was to act as an anti-aircraft escort to HMS Indomitable. The guns we carried were 5.25 anti-aircraft guns, and we used to fire a box barrage to protect the carrier from diving bombers, but in the end it got so hard with the bombing that it was badly damaged.”
How does it feel to fight a war?
“I would never want to be in another war. Wars are a terrible thing. Nobody gains. We say we won the war, but did we?”
This year’s reunion also has a particular significance for Graham McSweeney, the son of Peter McSweeney BM, a diver who was part of the salvage operations to refloat the sunken Ohio.
Mr McSweeney passed away last year and his son, who was also in the army, has come to Malta to spread the ashes of his father in the sea, in a spot where his father had a photo taken during the war.
“He was a very reserved man; he never told us what really happened behind the scenes during the war, even though this is now history,” Mr McSweeney said.
“He had requested we spread his ashes on HMS Belfast, in London, but I’m sure he also wanted part of his ashes to be spread here.”
The son will now retrace his father’s footsteps in Malta, based on a letter he had sent to Simon Cusens, a Maltese researcher who holds the convoy veterans close to heart.
“Malta was his second home,” an emotional Mr McSweeney says.