Malta is an island in
the Mediterranean situated midway between Tunisia
and Sicily. It became part of the Roman
Empire in 218 BC. Given the name Melita by the Romans, it was conquered
by Muslim Arabs in 870. The Normans captured it and held it until
it came under the control of Spain. Under
Emperor Charles V the island was given to the
Knights Hospitallers (1530). In 1798 the island came under the control
of France but two years later it was taken
by the British.
On the outbreak of the
Second World War, Malta was Britain's only military
base in the central Mediterranean area. When Italy
declared war on the Allies in June 1940, Britain feared that the island
would be invaded by the Italian
Army. At that time it was only defended by only five infantry
battalions and ten aircraft. Only sixty miles from Sicily,
the Allies considered Malta to be important for future offensive operations
against Italian supply routes to North Africa.
Adolf
Hitler began to plan an airbourne invasion of Malta. However,
the airborne assault on Crete between 20th
May and 1st June, 1941, was very costly when 4,000 parachutists were
killed. Hitler was shocked by the scale of these losses and decided
that no more large-scale airborne operations should
be undertaken.
In 1941 the Luftwaffe
began continuous
night and day bombing attacks on Malta. Fighter aircraft were flown
to the island but supplying the besieged island became more and more
difficult. Only two merchant ships reached Malta in the first-half
of 1942. After most of a new consignment of Supermarine
Spitfire
fighters were destroyed on the ground there were only six aircraft
left on Malta by April, 1942. The people of Malta were forced to live
in air raid shelters that had been hewn out of the coastal rock. As
a result of the people's bravery, the island was awarded the George
Cross by George VI.
In the summer
of 1942 Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe
to concentrate
on providing support for General Erwin
Rommel in
the Desert War. The situation in Malta
improved after the Allied victory at El
Alamein and
the Allied landings in north-west Africa.
In 1943 the Royal
Air Force was able to establish new forward air bases and the
Allies now had air superiority over Mediterranean supply routes. Later
that year Admiral Andrew
Cunningham set
up his headquarters in Malta where he planned the large amphibious
invasion fleets for landings in southern Europe.
(1)
Anthony Eden, diary entry (13th October,
1940)
After
dinner continued our flight to Malta which we reached about 7.30 a.m.
I again had a splendid view of our approach
from my conning tower. We learnt later that we had flown too far to
the south, and had been with difficulty reached by radio and redirected.
Spent the whole day in
conference with Lieutenant General William Dobbie (the Governor) and
tour of island and visits to troops. It was unhappily difficult to
see much of the last who were in small detached posts. Not greatly
enamored of dispositions for defence which seemed to me to concentrate
too much on beaches. No depth and too small a mobile reserve. All
the men I saw certainly seemed fit and cheerful, but in some battalions
officers appeared to be only a moderate lot. The company commanders
too old and too sedentary. We must give the good youngster his chance
and make it for him.
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