What do you know of Malta's Great Siege of 1565?

Not much, except, perhaps, the romantic myths that have evolved around that adrenaline-rushed event when the knights of the Order of St John and the Maltese had to wrestle against a formidable enemy. This included the mighty armada they had to withstand and the barbaric practice of displaying the heads of the enemy on poles to dishearten the opponent.

That is just about all the facts most of us know about the Great Siege.

But was the Turkish armada as large as it was made out to be by most contemporary chroniclers? What about the artillery and armour used by both sides? What about the strategies employed by the two opposing camps? How well prepared were the knights for this terrible onslaught? How did the fortifications, including the bastions, look in those days?

To answer these questions one would need a well-researched book incorporating years of painstaking work. This is exactly what Stephen C. Spiteri has just come out with: a highly animated book explaining the incursions, the fights, the strategies, the logistics, the psychological and military warfare that the diehard eternal enemies came up with during the bloody siege.

The 640-page colour book, called The Great Siege, Knights Vs Turks, MDLXV: Anatomy Of A Hospitaller Victory, is the result of 20 years of research by Mr Spiteri.

The book will do for the Great Siege what the Star Wars series has done for the infectious interest in inter-stellar travel and warfare.

While most other books on the Great Siege have been based on a narrative format, notably on the writings of such chroniclers as Bosio and Balbi, the author describes the days and the anguish in the life of the siege, including what the soldiers ate, what they wore, their feelings and the manner in which they bore the brunt of the battle.

Through his skilful artistic capabilities, Mr Spiteri has graphically reconstructed many aspects of the Great Siege scenario - how the knights and the Turks fought and the arms they used and the fortifications as they looked then.

The tome includes copies of historic documents, an extensive bibliography and documented sources, together with sketches that assist the reader to follow a detailed road map of the siege as it evolved.

What one sees today of the fortifications is a far cry from the times of the siege considering that a lot of changes had been made to them over the past centuries.

"I set out questioning the details that have been left to us by chroniclers trying to put the whole battle into a realistic perspective based on known facts, technical data and the day-to-day reality of the time.

"For example, the Spanish and Italian mercenaries who were sent to garrison and defend Fort St Elmo nearly mutinied because they did not want to be sacrificed simply so that the Grand Master could gain time... they owed no direct allegiance to the Order of St John and the Grand Master had great difficulty asserting his control over them. "Chroniclers had made out the Turkish armada as being much bigger than the probable 20,000 it was in order to put pressure on their Christian allies when calling for assistance.

"In the D'Aleccio frescoes at the President's Palace in Valletta no Maltese are shown fighting the enemy but the Maltese made up half of the force of the knights of St John which numbered some 6,000 men.

"Many of these locals wore no armour or little at all and most were still equipped with their pre-1530 issue of cotton quilted vests for protection."

The author dedicates time and space to the war wounded and how they were treated medically and the life pension issued to those who lost a limb.

He manages to put, for the first time, the Great Siege in a more tangible historical context in terms of time and place.

In his introductory chapter, Mr Spiteri writes: "There remains much that needs to be discovered, studied and understood.

"Many aspects of the story have still to be disengaged from the web of romanticism and legend and then scrutinised for their veracity and corroborated by documented facts... As long as the new researched material continues to be woven into the fabric of the old tale, then the Great Siege will always remain a story worth retelling".

And what a great story it is.