In March 1942 the courage of a young naval officer averted what could well have been the greatest disaster of the war, nothing less than the destruction of Valletta, Floriana and the entire Grand Harbour region. The account of one of the most dramatic moments of the Luftwaffe blitzkrieg on Malta during World War II is unfolded in text, diagrams and photographs that give a day-by-day, almost minute-by-minute, narrative of the siege in the latest issues of Malta at War, No. 2 and No. 3 of Volume Four.
During the Second Battle of Sirte the escorting squadron of five light cruisers and 18 destroyers was confronted in very stormy seas by a greatly superior Italian surface force. The convoy also came under attack from several hundreds of German and Italian aircraft operating from Sicily, Libya and Greece. Undaunted, the Royal Navy ships shepherded the four merchant ships under the cover of smoke screen in mountainous seas to keep the battleship at bay until at dusk, the Italian squadron, unable to fight a night action, withdrew back to Messina and Taranto.
The four merchant ships managed to steam towards Malta but one, Clan Campbell, was sunk by the Luftwaffe just short of Grand Harbour and another, Breconshire, was disabled and later sank in Marsaxlokk Bay.
The Luftwaffe then carried out a massive attacks on the two ships which had made port, Talabot and Pampas, and set them on fire. Talabot was anchored below Floriana and as the fire spread, the inhabitants were ordered to the shelters as there was the possibility that the ammunition in its holds would explode and devastate the area. At that stage there seemed to be only one solution to avert disaster - to sink the ship. Lieut. D.A. Copperwheat, the anti-aircraft defence officer of HMS Penelope, which had just arrived with battle damage, undertook to place scuttling charges to the side of the ship, these opened up the plates and flooded the holds. He was awarded the George Cross.
The story of Convoy MW10 was later to be overshadowed by the convoy of Operation Pedestal in the following August, but it was no less vital to the survival of Malta.
The latest issues of "Malta at War" again display photographs never before published, including sequences of the naval battle from the album of Admiral Vian who commanded the naval squadron, now archived in the Wickham Collection at Żurrieq, supplemented by Italian Navy records.
During this period the Luftwaffe destroyed a number of prominent buildings in Valletta, including part of the Palace, a foretaste of the destruction that was to come in subsequent weeks.
Malta at War is published by Wise Owl Publications and sells at €4.31 an issue.