An 1942 aerial photo showing the four runways of Luqa of the period (at top) and the Y-shaped runways of Safi Airfield taking shape in the lower part of the photo. The bent road linking the aerodromes can be clearly seen and was used to taxi the aircraft away from the hot spot that Luqa Airfield was. The road (which is still there today) continued towards Ħal Far and Kalafrana. Courtesy of the National War Museum Association.

The invasion of Sicily by the Allied Forces of the US, Britain and the Commonwealth countries, code-named Operation Husky, started 70 years ago on the night between July 9 and 10, 1943, with massive aerial support from Malta and Gozo. This was the first invasion by the Allies of mainland Axis-held Europe and was the precursor of Operation Overlord, the invasion of France on June 6, 1944. It would aid the Allied commanders no end towards learning lessons for that huge undertaking.

Plans to increase and further develop the airbases on the main island of Malta had started in November 1942 as the situation before that date regarding the aerodromes was dire indeed. Most of their above-ground hangars, runways, accommodations and workshops had been bombed to kingdom come by the German Air Force based in Sicily in April and May 1942.

An invasion plan of Malta by German Field Marshall Albert Kesselring had been shelved by Adolf Hitler in August 1942 after the casualties incurred by his elite paratroopers in the invasion of Crete in 1941 had persuaded him to bypass Malta – a mistake that was one of the turning points of the war in favour of the Allies.

Bishop Michael Gonzi famously dealt with the farmers who protested at the destruction of their arable land. He was knighted for his efforts

The new Air Officer Commanding (AOC Malta from July 15, 1942, to March 25, 1944) Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park had found the three main airfields of Malta more resembling Swiss cheese than airfields ready to handle the 600-plus aircraft envisaged to be based on the island for Husky. So he set out to remedy this with a vengeance.

A new Priority List of Works Services was approved by the AOC and an airfield construction team was requested to be sent from the Middle East with the utmost haste. No. 5051 Airfield Construction Squadron, comprising over 900 officers and personnel, began to arrive, with the third and final party of 153 men arriving by sea on March 31, 1943.

At the same time, a Royal Engineers Tunnelling Company and four Pioneer Companies – three Mauritanian and one Basuto Company, arrived. Unskilled local labourers and Air Raid Precautions personnel, who were now less loaded with work, were recruited to help out, as well as 300 Shelter Construction labourers, who were stopped from excavating more public shelters.

These were ordered on January 25, 1943, along with 950 labourers and 24 skilled tradesmen from the Public Works Department to help out with the first priority work – the building of three new airfields at Qrendi, Safi and Xewkija. A total of 2,300 army personnel were employed in underground work in which all ancillary equipment was to be placed – huge fuel depots at Wied Dalam and Tal-Ħandaq, underground power plants and bomb dumps as well as an operations room, workshops and stores, sick bays and personnel shelters for the aerodromes.

All these labourers were needed for the biggest construction project in the Maltese archipelago during the war. However, all this sweat, blood and broken fingernails would be useless without the huge influx of equipment needed.

Due to the now more relaxed situation of the sea routes from the east with the fall of Benghazi from enemy hands, convoys began arriving with the necessary field equipment, starting with the arrival of 60 three-ton metal-bodied tipping trucks and 15 one-and-a-half and two cubic yard dumpers on February 15, 1943.

Thirteen angle dozers, 21 tractors, 27 rollers, three excavators, two scrapers, four graders, seven Macadam mixers, 22 air compressors, 19 crushers, nine granulators, six half cubic yard concrete mixers, 13 250/400/500 gallon tar boilers, 18 tar sprayers and 18 dumpers were in service at the airfield construction sites by July 1943.

Compared to the 33 pieces of plant equipment available to the Air Ministry Directorate of Works the year before, this was an increase of 724 per cent in available equipment.

The original plan required the airfields to cater for 25 aircraft squadrons, but this figure was increased to 33-and-a-half squadrons that actually operated to cover the invasion.

At Safi Airfield, a 1,200-yard-long by 50-yard-wide runway in an east-west direction was constructed (by hand, as no heavy earth-moving equipment had arrived yet) between the end of February and May 1, 1943. To achieve this, several buildings and fields were destroyed at Kirkop.

Early in May 1943, AOC Park and the Governor, Lord Gort, decided to construct an airstrip in Xewkija, Gozo to accommodate the 76 aircraft to be based there. This was achieved in a record 20 days by a detachment of 220 American aviation engineers, augmented by about 200 Gozitan labourers.

The Bishop of Gozo, Mgr Michael Gonzi, famously dealt with the local farmers who protested at the destruction of their arable land. He was knighted for his efforts.

No plan is known to exist of the airstrip, but one can still see the runways’ footprints. After the demise of the strips one year later, the field walls were reconstructed as square land parcels, which is unique for the area.

The Mġarr-Victoria main road now passes through the airstrip area. When driving along in their cars, few consider that the tides of war in 1943 were turning in the Allies favour, and it started beneath their feet 70 years ago.

The Gozo Airfield was constructed in record time by the Company E, 21st Engineer Aviation Regiment, then stationed at Bone, Algeria, under the command of Captain Robert Sexton. They received marching orders on May 27, 1943, and proceeded to Gozo on June 1 aboard nine lightly-armoured Landing Craft Tank boats.

Passing via Sousse in Tunisia, the convoy contained several heavy plants required to construct an airfield, which included four D8. 12 cubic yard scrapers, 24 one-and-a-half yard dump trucks, three 12-inch power blade graders, three D4 bulldozers, two compressor trucks, one 3/8 cubic yard shovel, one D4 loader truck, two rollers, one rubber-wheeled roller, one eight-ton low loader, one 12-ton rooter and one 1,000-gallon water sprinkler.

On their way to Gozo, they had adventures of their own, with several separating from the convoy. The main convoy ended up in a minefield and had to be rescued by a friendly destroyer.

One LCT developed troubles with its steering gear, which was repaired on the go, and then the rest of the armada, as a result of faulty navigation, nearly started the invasion of Sicily on their own after ending only 10 miles from the coast of the Axis-held island.

Eventually they arrived at Marsalforn Bay on June 5, much to the amazement of the locals who thought they were being invaded themselves with secret weapons. After three days setting up camp, works started with the clearing of the 400 fields from their dry-rubble wall partitions and the demolition of the historical Torri Gourgion.

After a visit by AOC Malta, Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park on June 10, it was decided to build another 1,200-yard-long landing strip and bomb-blast pens for 78 aircraft. On June 15, the first landing strip was finished, and one D4, one D7 and 70,000 sand bags were sent over from Malta to facilitate works on the second runway.

Several other heavy plants arrived from Bone on June 18. Half of the 24 one-and-a-half-ton trucks were sent on the same LCTs back to Algiers as work was progressing nicely, so much so that the landing strips was completed by June 20, and three days later, two Spitfires landed, marking it the first time that the sister island had an aircraft safely land on it.

The famous pilot, Wing Commander Adrian Warburton, landed later that day. After being told to put on an exhibition, he gladly obliged, buzzing the airfield so low that two lieutenants tried to dig foxholes in the ground. A marvellous time was had by all.

During their stay in Gozo, the construction team members were invited to several Gozitan homes, and many young female hearts were broken when they departed to Ben Hagen in Tunis to start a new job there. The Gozo Airfield hosted three USAF Spitfire squadrons from the 31st Group (307th, 308th and 309th Fighter Squadrons) and a P-40 squadron.

The airstrip fell in to disuse soon after the invasion as aerodromes in Sicily were liberated by the advancing Allied forces, and by July 19, the last plane had left. The Gozo landing field was turned into an emergency airfield and eventually ripped up as promised and returned to the farmers.

To be concluded.