The Battle for Malta Page #4

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which had to do everything for the day.

And do you remember reading

the Times of Malta?

Oh, yes.

- We couldn't do without the Times of Malta.

- Yes!

- I know.

- It...

- It was used for everything!

- Yeah, I...

- Not only reading!

- Yes.

Although the suffering was

shared, for Anne Agius Ferrante,

there was a marked divide

between British and Maltese.

My father was really

very fond of the British

but disapproved certain things,

like us girls during the war

going a bit wild with the...

.. RAF and others.

But there was this colonialism,

and we were treated as colonials.

But there was no ill feeling as such.

It was just that they

felt we were inferior,

rather than that we were no good.

But as historian Simon Cozens has found,

it's a sentiment that could cut both ways.

This is a diary for the whole of 1941.

This belonged to a Maltese

civilian who lived in Sliema.

"25th of October 1941.

"Today is the worst day of my life.

"At noon, Italian planes

bombed a petrol dump

"which blazed fiercely indeed.

"In the afternoon,

"we discovered that Gemma

"has been carrying on with an airman.

"With the atrocious name of Clive!

"She told us a packet of lies

"and has indeed disgraced us. "

The relationship between

the Maltese and British

may have been uneasy at times,

but most accepted they were

fighting for a common cause.

In a very real sense, they

were all in it together.

But each had their own set of problems.

Malta was a very difficult

place to fly from,

because the island itself was just

a series of very small fields

with rock barriers everywhere.

And if you had an engine failure in

Malta, you usually killed yourself,

because flying into a rock barrier,

er... the aircraft burst into flames.

But one of our great problems was

the aircraft weren't up to it,

and a lot of people were killed

as a result of engine failures.

Britain regarded Malta as a base

from which to attack Axis shipping.

It meant her defenders were neglected

in favour of strike forces.

This is the lazaretto on Manoel Island.

During the war it was home

to the 10th Flotilla,

Malta's submarine force.

Although never more than 12 submarines,

they sank half a million tonnes of

Axis shipping in just 18 months.

Tubby Crawford was second-in-command

of Britain's most successful submarine,

HMS Upholder.

Well, at that stage, it wasn't too bad.

Food and drink were there.

Each submarine had a cabin area,

the captain had his own cabin.

There was a big veranda

all round the lazaretto,

where armchairs and things were available

so you could relax out there.

At the lazaretto, the submariners

lived in some comfort,

a necessity for morale after the

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