The Siege Of Malta: The Most Bombed Place On Earth (Part 4)

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Speaker 4 Number two and three bodyyard machinery shop demolished. Santa Teresa Tunnel completely wrecked.
Church tunnel partly collapsed and completely blocked.

Speaker 4 Sewage system and water supplies almost completely out of action. Temporary engineering and electrical departments.
Drawing offices and many other offices and storehouses have been destroyed.

Speaker 4 The residences on top of Scheer Bastion and buildings on St. Michael's Bastion are completely wrecked.
The problem of finding alternative accommodation is acute, but will be solved.

Speaker 4 Numerous large craters in roadways and on wharves, and large masses of masonry on roadways, which have brought practically all-wheel traffic to a standstill.

Speaker 4 These are filled in or cleared as soon as possible, but seldom possible to attain clearance before further similar damage is caused by next raid.

Speaker 4 Joiner shop, ship repair shop, chain smivery, and smivery sustained considerable damage. Further extensive damage to electrical cables.

Speaker 4 At present, there is practically no light anywhere in the dockyard except in number four and five dock area.

Speaker 4 Shortage of cables, etc., for the affecting repairs is acute, and supplies of cables are almost exhausted. Very few of the most essential telephones are in operation.

Speaker 4 Visual communication employing naval signalmen has been established across French Creek. That is a message from the AS Malta to the Admiralty on April the 7th, 1942.

Speaker 4 Paints a pretty grim picture, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 It certainly does. Welcome to We Have Ways to Make You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland, for our fourth episode of Fortress Malta.

Speaker 1 And this episode has a title that reflects that opening message from the AS Malta to the Admiralty, which is the most bombed place on earth. So strap yourselves in, everybody.

Speaker 1 In the last episode, of course, we began with the newspaper item that said the Maltese are cheerfully taking it. Well, let's see how cheerful you needed to be to take what's coming.

Speaker 1 I mean, this is an extremely dramatic month, April, and it doesn't start off brilliantly for fans of the Royal Navy and the Nelsonian Royal Navy because ABC Admiral Cunningham is sent to Washington.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 we're not happy with that, are we, Jim?

Speaker 4 Really? Right now? I mean, is this wise?

Speaker 4 Actually, it works out very well because he gets to hang out with Hap Arnold and King and all the various naval types and war types and get to know Marshall and all sorts.

Speaker 4 So it works very well for future collaboration. But, you know, he didn't particularly want to go.
He's not a desk jockey kind of type. He likes being on the bridge.

Speaker 1 He's a fighting admiral. He's a fighting admiral.

Speaker 1 admiral he's a fighting admiral who wants to have a climactic battle with the italians and defeat them in the in the nelsonian style it's all he wants not too much to ask is he no it's very reasonable he lowers his flag on the 1st of april and is taken over by admiral sir henry harwood whoever he is

Speaker 1 is he on your list of well-known second world war british admirals he's not jim he's not then anyone following abc would be you know a diminished figure perhaps by comparison perhaps let's say but by the 1st of april malta has suffered 117 days of continuous bombardment, which is twice that suffered by London during the Blitz.

Speaker 1 There are 275 air raids alerts in March alone. That's almost 10 a day.

Speaker 1 Governor Dobby, I mean, let's be honest now, Jim, at the end of our last episode, James rather let his feelings out about Governor Dobby and the organization of the island.

Speaker 4 Yeah. It's not the most impressive.

Speaker 1 No, you spoke your truth, though, Jim, and that's what's very important. You told us how you felt.

Speaker 4 I feel better for it, to be honest. I got it off my chest.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, it's good. It's better out than isn't it? Let's some air to the poison and all that stuff.
He broadcasts to the island. Malta has suffered much and has been called upon to endure much.

Speaker 1 And this ordeal has been going on for a long time. I mean, yeah, well done.

Speaker 4 And your point is what?

Speaker 1 Precisely.

Speaker 1 But in the interests of Malta itself, of our empire, and of the most righteous cause for which we are fighting, I call on Malta to endure still further and to continue to show the same courage, which has won the admiration of the world.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's fine, but there's 10 air raids a day, Chief.

Speaker 1 But the March convoy has proved that you can get ships to Malta, across the Mediterranean, but that the planning on the island is inadequate, basically.

Speaker 1 And also, the problem is you do one convoy, you try another, the enemy are going to have a better estimation of how to defeat it, perhaps.

Speaker 1 They've had a go now. Maybe they'll decide that they don't even want it to get to Malta in the first place.
And Kesserine's plans... continue.
He wants to neutralize the enemy's fighters.

Speaker 1 He wants the Air Three airfields to be attacked relentlessly to the point where they're unusable and the aircraft are destroyed. He wants harbor installations and shipping attacked.

Speaker 1 He wants daylight attacks to be constant and incessant with powerful fighter protection. Nuisance raids by single aircraft as well at night.
Dive bombers to attack any shipping.

Speaker 1 I mean, this is the kitchen sink, isn't it? Dive bombers to attack any shipping and mines dropped outside the harbor entrance. And once the island is neutralized, Zenvisch will make a decision.

Speaker 1 This is what he says in February to Flinker Corps II. And he's really in favor of invading.
He thinks it's a great idea.

Speaker 1 And General Kutch Student, the Fauscibjäger Supremo, is asked to draw up a plan of attack with paratroopers and an Italian seaborne assault.

Speaker 4 Operation Hercules. Yes, Hercules.

Speaker 1 And they're getting their ducks in a row for this exact thing. And Kussering is proceeding as planned, isn't he?

Speaker 4 Yeah, but the amazing thing is a bit like sort of Battle of Britain not starting till officially till Adelatag. The main offensive hasn't begun until the 2nd of April 1942.

Speaker 4 So everything else is just the kind of sort of the warm-up act. So he's got all his ducks in a row.
It's a a bit like the sort of, you know, the canal camp in July.

Speaker 1 Well, yes. Yeah.
So, I mean, but this is the ratcheting up. They don't want to do the full assault until basically they're ready for it to succeed, I think, is what you've got there, haven't you?

Speaker 4 The administrative council, the governor at all, you know, they want the people of Malta to be ready should the worst arrive.

Speaker 4 So they issue a pamphlet back in January called What to Do in Invasion, which it basically says, keep cover and get off the road. You know,

Speaker 4 no way. I mean, who'd have thought it?

Speaker 1 Yeah. And troops are given regular anti-invasion training, gunners, ground crew, everybody.

Speaker 1 And one of the irks, a fellow called Pete Watson, who's an irk at Tikali, says, looking back, these were farcical, to say the least.

Speaker 4 What, from this mob? You do surprise me.

Speaker 1 Anyway, 2nd of April, Kessering blows a whistle and it starts. 100 aircraft, more than 100 aircraft, on a raid on the harbour and airfields.

Speaker 1 However, because ammunition has been recovered from the March convoy, there's more ammo for the anti-aircraft guys. So they're able to put up proper box barrages.

Speaker 1 They're able to deny the Luff Affair some of the airspace ken griffiths who's 32nd light anti-aircraft unit he and his mates feel vulnerable because the heavy battery next to theirs at spinola has been hit and there's bits of body parts all over the place as he puts it it's the anti-aircraft crews are taking the strain aren't they really because there aren't enough planes what what's in hugh pughlloyd's locker jim he's got eight spitfires and 19 hurricanes

Speaker 4 It's going to do a lot against 100 plus, isn't it? But anyway, they do shoot down some Stookers on the 1st of April. Times of Malta claims 27 enemy aircraft shot down.
That's probably a bit high.

Speaker 4 But you know, Truth is pilots on fool. They know this is absolutely terrible situation.
You know, one of the first of those flying in the beginning of April is our old friend Ral Daddo Longley.

Speaker 4 He's flying one of nine available fighters when he does. He attacks and hits a Junkers 88, but then struck in turn in the radiator by the bomber's rear gunner.

Speaker 4 Managed to get the Spitfire back to Tikali, but the plane's in a bad way. And so that gets hauled off for repair.
So I mean, there's only eight available now.

Speaker 4 And he doesn't fly again for 10 days because, you know, there's 60 plus pilots and not enough planes.

Speaker 4 Actually, middle of April, they they paint over the squadron markings because they're just being shared. Yeah.
And five days in April, there's just one Spitfire available.

Speaker 4 And on two days, there's none at all. None at all.
But, you know, the pilots aren't, you know, allowed to just doss about. So that they're put to work helping build the blast pens as well.

Speaker 4 On one occasion, Raoul is, uh, delongle is helping to build a pen at the far end of Tikali.

Speaker 4 There's an air raid and they they dash for the slit trenches and they huddled, cowering with the others, hoping for the best.

Speaker 4 You know, the ground shaking, you know, huge clouds of smoke and bits of metal stone fizzing around all over the place above them.

Speaker 4 And they look up again as the bombers have gone, only to quickly put their heads back down again as fighters hurtle over.

Speaker 4 And once the bombers and fighters have gone, they emerge and sort of stagger out onto the ground and covered in dust. And they all realize, all the pilots, they all realize they're shaking.

Speaker 4 You know, they're okay in a plane because they've got something to do, you know, and their kind of adrenaline is going.

Speaker 4 But when they're just sitting ducks, but the truth is, by the end of, you know, end of the first week of april luftwaffe has total mastery total mastery of the skies i mean you know great you can get five spitfires up i mean or two hurricanes or whatever or seven hurricanes and one spitfire but i mean that doesn't up to a hill of beans you know the luftwaffe can then do what they like and you know the truth is 7th of april is a pretty bad day which is the day that that report was written about the docks by the way um you know so we've had a week pretty much of the of the intensification of the bombing effort on malta and and the 7th of april is a really particularly bad one that really strikes in the gullet for the maltese i mean what's interesting is we get to this point in the battle how can the germans blow this is the the question yeah it's a very good question which we should be getting on to they've got it they've done it haven't they they've done it yeah the place is at their mercy they should just press proceed put a division of fausion jaeger on and that's that it's over job done but job done and all the you know all the stuff we were saying previously about how when it's going well in malta it's going well for the allies when it's going bad it's going it's going badly in North Africa and elsewhere.

Speaker 1 This could be a decisive blow taking Malta. Now, how on earth are the Germans going to mess this up? You know, there's a, I mean, it's not a cliffhanger.

Speaker 1 It's a rhetorical question to leave dangling over this entire thing because the cities have been smashed up.

Speaker 1 It's theirs, the Germans to lose now at this point, right?

Speaker 4 You'd have thought so.

Speaker 1 42-0 ahead, as it were.

Speaker 4 Well, and some, I would say.

Speaker 1 That description you gave at the start of how smashed up Malta is by this point. You know, the Royal Opera House is now a pile of rubble.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it gets hit in the evening raid on the 7th of April. You know, it's a real shock.
You know, this is, it's world famous. It is world famous, the Royal Opera House.

Speaker 4 You know, some of the greatest opera stars and classical musicians and singers have performed there. And it was a beautiful, beautiful building.
And it's still a wreck to this day.

Speaker 4 Never been repaired.

Speaker 1 Yeah, been left as. Everyone knows how intense these raids are.
So

Speaker 1 there's an an RAF clerk, Jean-Arjus, who makes it home when the siren rings out. And his parents and his brothers are all at home.

Speaker 1 It's only his sister who works for the Times of Malta with Mabel Strickland is not there.

Speaker 4 Yeah, their house is in Sleema, I should say, which is just

Speaker 4 to the north of Marsham Shet Harbour, so north of Valletta.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they hear explosions, they're getting louder and louder. They start to worry.
After the all-clears sounded, they emerge to find their family home. It's been destroyed as just a hole.

Speaker 1 This is the ordinary Maltese people's experience. Valletta's absolutely

Speaker 1 smashed to pieces in the days that follow. Church, the Sacred Hearts, hit.
There's a nurse, Mimi Cortis, whose local church, The Sacred Heart, is hit.

Speaker 1 She loses a cousin in the attack who had had six children, including a six-month-old baby. On the 9th of April, the church at Mosta is hit.

Speaker 1 This is the third largest suspended dome in the world, and it's another major landmark on the island.

Speaker 1 During a service at 4.40, where there are 300 people in attendance, a bomb falls through the dome, bounces off the wall, hits the nave, and skids to a halt and does not explode.

Speaker 1 And this is regarded as a miracle. Of course it is.

Speaker 4 Right? Well, it is a miracle. Exactly.
Not one person hurt the same day.

Speaker 1 A shelter at Looker is hit and 25 people are killed. So it's complete mayhem, isn't it?

Speaker 4 Total mayhem. So the island's electricity supply is now invariably off, as is the water system.
The telephone lines are down.

Speaker 4 So is the re-diffusion system, which you may remember is the radio network. Roads are blocked by rubble.

Speaker 4 Food distribution is made very difficult, and government is forced to place a notice in the Times of Malta saying, when a lorry is sent to take some goods from one place to another, there is no guarantee that it will be able to reach its destination.

Speaker 4 Well, that's hardly cheering, is it? Phone calls

Speaker 4 are replaced by dispatch riders on bicycles. One of the main bakeries is hit, and this is right at the far end of Grand Harbour.

Speaker 4 So there's problems of producing bread, and this is one of the very few staples that is still not rationed. You know, they've got quite a lot of stocks of flour.

Speaker 4 You know, as we mentioned at the beginning, the dockyards are absolutely butchered.

Speaker 4 Force K has left Malta a while earlier, but not HMS Penelope, which had been undergoing repairs after being attacked during the March convoy.

Speaker 4 And Penelope has splintered so badly that it's been renamed HMS Pepper Pot. And with some poles plugged with wood, it eventually slips out of Grand Harbour on the night of the 8th of April.

Speaker 4 But, you know,

Speaker 4 it is intolerable, and it's becoming very intolerable for the 10th Submarine Flotilla over on Manuel Island in Mars-Machette Harbour, just to the north of Valletto.

Speaker 4 And the Magic Carpet submarine, the Pandora, is hit while unloading in Grand Harbour 25 are killed and then it sinks um the U-class submarine p-36 is also sunk while berthed at Lazaretto yeah Simpson's getting worried upholder has been suffering with an epidemic of flu while they've been on patrol so they come back you know this is all part and parcel isn't it of everyone just being run down you know you get ill don't you when you're overtired you're not getting enough sleep you've too much expected from you.

Speaker 4 So Shrimp knows that Wanklin needs a rest, knows that the whole of Upholder need a rest. So very reluctantly, he orders him back to the UK.
So Wanklin writes to his wife on his last night on Malta.

Speaker 4 He goes, well, darling, count the days, but not so many, only 59. And then Upholder sails from Malta for the last time on the 6th of April, 1942.

Speaker 4 Inches out of Mars-Machette Harbour and out into the Mediterranean.

Speaker 1 Well, and on a special job as well, to drop off two agents in the Gulf of Sousse en route, which they do successfully on the 9th of the 10th of April.

Speaker 1 Then on the 15th, Upholder is supposed to rendezvous with Urge and Thrasher, but never appears.

Speaker 1 And the previous day, on the 14th, an Italian reciplane had spotted a sub that afternoon, relayed that information to an Italian destroyer, the Pegasus, who spots a periscope and picks up the sub on sonar.

Speaker 1 And Urge, which is not far away, he has depth charging, which is almost certainly what hit Upholder. And nothing was ever heard of Upholder or her crew again.

Speaker 4 Never been found. Rex never been found.

Speaker 1 That underlines the dangers of the Mediterranean.

Speaker 1 You are spottable because it's shallow. You can be spotted and aircraft are a threat.

Speaker 4 Well, and the waters are clear. That's the thing.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 Urge is sunk at the end of the month. Lieutenant Commander Edward Tonkinson and Wanklin, as you said before, Jim, were very, very good pals.
And Urge is second only to Upholder.

Speaker 1 But she hits a mine leaving Malta for the last time and is lost with all hands.

Speaker 4 Yeah, she was also on her way home.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And she's been found a couple of miles out.

Speaker 4 Yep, Rex found in 2021. By a great friend of the show, Timmy Gambine and his team.
Seen footage of it. It's only about two miles from Grand Harbour.
I mean, it's awful.

Speaker 1 The cheerful people of Malta need a lift and they need some good news, don't they?

Speaker 4 They're still remaining cheerful, but just a little bit of help is required.

Speaker 1 What's required at this stage of the war is a gesture, isn't it, Jim? And luckily...

Speaker 4 A fruitless gesture.

Speaker 4 No, no, this isn't fruitless. I'm not saying it's fruitless.

Speaker 4 15th of April, King George VI awards the George Cross to the entire island. This is something that he's brought in.
And this is the highest award for gallantry, not in the face of the enemy.

Speaker 4 you know, you know, when you're not fighting.

Speaker 4 So, it's it's it's a kind of you know, it's for people detonating unexploded bombs or fire service or yes, rescuing people from a collapsing building to honor her brave people.

Speaker 4 I award the George Cross to the island fortress of Malta to bear witness to a heroism that will long be famous in history. I think from now on, I should always do George VI.
I think absolutely 100%.

Speaker 1 You're our go-to guy for Georgia VI. I'm surprised we didn't make that decision sooner.
He was born to being king. You're born to doing his impression.

Speaker 4 Anyway, it is still an unprecedented award because in the past, it's only been issued to individuals rather than entire islands. And there's no question about it.

Speaker 4 I mean, you know, it is a morale boost and it is greatly appreciated.

Speaker 4 You know, to know that they're being watched by the rest of the free world and all the rest of it, it does become known as the George Cross Island, and it still is. And it's still

Speaker 4 officially Malta GC.

Speaker 1 But you can't eat a George Cross, can you?

Speaker 4 That is the problem. That's the problem.
You know, the island is absolutely dying. And, you know, and everyone is

Speaker 4 really, really stretched to breaking point. And

Speaker 4 it's very clear that, and it's, and it's made worse, isn't it, by the fact that this is an island, there's no escape, you're stuck on it, it's very small.

Speaker 4 You know, even if you did get a day off, what are you going to do? Go sort of swimming in the sea. I mean, you know, it's just not going to happen, is it? So, so it's, it's really bad.

Speaker 4 And I remember talking to Frank Rixon, who was in the Royal West Kent, and doing all the kind of filling in bomb crates. He just said it was just utterly relentless.

Speaker 4 You know, you spent your entire day carrying a set trench, occasionally firing a bren gun at the sky, filling in bomb craters, making blast pens. That's all you did all day, every day.

Speaker 4 And he said, you know, you didn't get counseling back then for picking up bits and pieces of your mates. No.
Really grim. You know, so naval operations completely ground to a halt.

Speaker 4 The two fleet air armed squadrons have merged into one, which becomes a naval air squadron, but, you know, they're barely flying at all. Wellingtons have gone.

Speaker 4 Blenheims have largely been destroyed on the ground. You know, Malta's offensive capabilities have just ceased.
I mean, it

Speaker 4 can't do anything. And it's very tantalizing for Dobby because he's been promised a convoy and then cancelled.
You know, there's been the title bulls-up of the March convoy.

Speaker 4 But he's told there's going to be another one in April, but then that's called off. And then he's promised one for May instead.
But on the 15th of April, the same day they get the George Cross.

Speaker 4 announcement that is also cancelled and Dobby is now told that it's just impossible before June.

Speaker 4 And this is really problematic because, in amongst all the bombing, they're also just running out of absolutely everything, as well as their ability to distribute the small bits that they have got.

Speaker 4 So, you know, he writes to the chiefs of staff and he says, the decision materially reduces our chances of survival, not because of any failure of morale or fighting efficiency, but because it is impossible to carry on without food and ammunition.

Speaker 4 It is obvious the very worst must happen if we cannot replenish our vital needs, especially flour and ammunition, and that very soon.

Speaker 4 This out-of-action mill at the end of Grand Arbor is becoming really, really pressing. And he points out there's enough flour until the end of May if the mill can be restarted.

Speaker 4 And most other food will be finished by the end of June. The heavy anti-aircraft gunners will be out of ammunition by the end of June.
The light anti-aircraft gunners by the end of July.

Speaker 4 Fuel situation is only marginally better because there's now fewer aircraft, so there's fewer demands on that fuel.

Speaker 4 By current standards, it's going to run out by mid-August, but that's hardly very cheering. And he says, you know, if Malta's to be held, drastic action is needed now.
It is a question of survival.

Speaker 4 And they start talking about a target date, a target date by which, if things don't improve, they will have to surrender because they haven't got anything. That is the stark situation.

Speaker 4 And Churchill now determines that Malta should not fall. It must be reinforced forthwith.
Yes, all that.

Speaker 1 And interestingly, so they want to set up, he wants more magic carpet service and more Spitfires to claw back the initiative.

Speaker 1 So he asks FDR for the loan of USS WASP, President Roosevelt, which has the capacity to carry 84 Spitfires. Kind of, because after all, Spitfires aren't designed for this sort of thing.

Speaker 1 Let's gloss over that. It does have the capacity to carry 84 Spitfires, and it's in British waters at the beginning of April.

Speaker 1 So WASP sails up to the Clyde, and 48 Spitfires are loaded onto WASP from 601 and 603 squadrons, and then she sets sail for the Mediterranean.

Speaker 4 Yeah, and of course, 48 Spitfires is two squadrons. As we all know, they're double the size of what they would ever have in the air.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So what we'll do is we'll take a break there.
and when we return, the Spitfires sailing for Malta. Maybe they'll get there.

Speaker 1 We'll see you after the break.

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Speaker 1 Welcome back to Way of Ways of Make You Talk. The USS Wasp.

Speaker 4 American flag, American crew, but full of British pilots and Spitfires. Yep.

Speaker 1 British pilots who are dismayed that there's no gin, basically.

Speaker 4 What is there? No gin? Yeah.

Speaker 1 What do you mean your ship's dry?

Speaker 4 Don't worry, Albert. I've smuggled some in.

Speaker 1 So they set off from the Clyde, and we've 601 and 603 squadrons. The men doing this are the likes of Dennis Barnum, aren't they, Jim?

Speaker 1 We, a long time ago on the podcast, I read his memoir, One Man's Window, about being a Spitfire Fighter Pilot on Malta. And it's the most extraordinary book.

Speaker 1 Every now and again, you do get a memoir that's written by someone who's trained as an artist. So who's their depictions of things are truly incredible.

Speaker 4 I recommend anybody that that you read one man's window or as it's also known malta spitfire pilot which is a bit more um prosaic that's worth having a look at isn't it jim 100 yeah it's a it's a terrific book i i mentioned um earlier on that we were going to sort of focus on a couple of pilots raul daddo longley um but the second one is is dennis barnum and dennis is one of the 601 squadron pilots he's he's served with 609 squadron uh with a chap called john bisdee and when bisdee moves to take command of 601 squadron he takes dennis with him and dennis becomes a flight flight commander.

Speaker 4 So he's got something like 16-plus sweeps over France to his name.

Speaker 4 And he's a very, very experienced pilot because he'd always he was slightly spoilt as a child, I think. And, you know, his parents bought him a studio because he's an artist.

Speaker 4 They also let him learn how to fly when he was 16 and stuff. So he's got this, he's got the experience and has been flying for ages.

Speaker 4 Then he's gone and done his training in Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe then was,

Speaker 4 and has joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. By this time, he's 22 years old.

Speaker 4 He's newly married only a couple of months earlier to the lovely Diana, who I got to know very well and was just a lovely, lovely person. And she was absolutely gorgeous as well when she was younger.

Speaker 4 And Dennis wasn't bad looking either. So they have this brief holiday in Scotland before he's posted.

Speaker 4 And he just knows something about the situation in Malta, knows he's going, knows that it's besieged, surrounded by the enemy, facing 500 German-Italian aircraft 60 miles away, and the odds are stacked against them.

Speaker 4 So, you know, he's very, very not sanguine in any shape or form about this upcoming experience. And he doesn't want to be separated from his gorgeous new wife.

Speaker 4 Anyway, you know, they're told that they're going to have to fly off from this aircraft carrier, which is something that none of them have ever done before.

Speaker 4 They've never flown off an aircraft carrier before, and then fly 700 miles to Malta. And, you know, he's keenly aware.

Speaker 4 He spends a lot of time worrying about his future, worrying about being killed, as you might. and feeling frightened about what he's what he's got to do.

Speaker 4 And he has terrible kind of paranoia about his body being crushed and splintered and blown to pieces. And, you know, he thinks this every time he's about to fly.

Speaker 4 And he finds that when he gets in the air and he's concentrating, you know, the fear goes a bit. But he finds it very, very wearing.

Speaker 4 His mood isn't remotely improved by talking to squadron leader Jumbo Gracie, who's a Battle Britain vet and who's already been out on Malta, but has been flown to Gibraltar and then onto, transferred onto WASP to lead the guys, the new squadrons back to Malta.

Speaker 4 And the whole point is that Gracie, you know, will give him a few pointers. But he's taciturn and gruff and kind of, you know, hard as nails.
And Dennis sketches him.

Speaker 4 And while he's sketching him, picks his brain about what to expect. And Gracie says, well, Bomber Force is pretty wrecked on the ground.

Speaker 4 And if you're lucky enough to fly, then you're generally outnumbered 40 or 50 to one. It's like, you know, great.
You know, it's hardly the confidence boost you need, is it?

Speaker 4 But anyway, they sail into the mouth of, you know, into the mouth of the Mediterranean, past Gibraltar, 700 miles away.

Speaker 1 And now it's the 20th of april 1942 yeah and the pilots are up at 3 45 in the morning on wasp they have a breakfast a final briefing dennis gets into his spitfire at quarter past five in the morning he's got his painting kit his contraband with him that he's not supposed to have in the plane with him he's hoisted on by lift onto the flight deck and they're told gun the throttle get off the deck and hope for the best And they're carrying a big, a big belly tank, aren't they, to make the range?

Speaker 1 So the Spitfire is not handling as it might normally.

Speaker 1 And of course, no one has flown no one has flown off an aircraft carrier i just it's all it's all completely amazing it's a four-hour trip roughly four hours later he's approaching malta he turns to land and he sees a burning ship in the harbor with black smoke rising but all but one of the 48 spitfires being sent make it which is remarkable really you know this is blokes navigating with maps in their laps and compasses and stopwatches and the and the like isn't it it's a tricky business um once he's touched down and reached the end of the runway, two Irks leap out onto his wings and they tell him he's missed the 9am raid.

Speaker 1 And then with bayonets, they open the gun panels of the Spitfire's wings to retrieve the cigarettes, because then, so the plane's lighter so it can fly further, and tools as well that Dennis has in his wings.

Speaker 1 And then a clapped-out bus, already full of other pilots, arrives to pick him up. And off they go, gears grinding, dust, of course, dust, dust, dust in Malta.

Speaker 1 The bus heads back towards the mess, dodging the newly formed craters. And there he is.
Welcome to look at airfield. And he's shocked by what he sees.

Speaker 1 There's craters, there's destruction, piles of rubble, crushed glass. There's 109s overhead already.

Speaker 4 Yeah, circling like vultures. Yeah.

Speaker 1 He desperately wants to run for cover, but he doesn't because his guide, these new pilots' guide and the commanding officer, the CEO, they stroll on hurriedly down the dusty road.

Speaker 1 So he has to try and amble along as well. keep a lid on things.

Speaker 1 They pass an airman who's hacking away at the ground by a post which has has a small red flag on it.

Speaker 1 He's told it's a UXP. It's an unexploded bomb.

Speaker 1 Only when the red flag's hoisted, they finally run for it, dashing to the entrance of G Shelter at the looker control room, which is carved into the rock below the edge of the airfield.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, as an introduction to the place, first glance.

Speaker 1 And there is obviously, of course, there's a raid heading for Tikali.

Speaker 4 Just all the time, yeah. So

Speaker 4 while Dennis is trying to kind of walk slowly towards G shelter and sort of, you know, and not feel too panicked, Raldado Longley is taking off from Tikali with five others from 249 Squadron and flying for the first time in six days.

Speaker 4 And, you know, they climb as fast as they possibly can to 17,000 feet and they spot Stukas heading for how far.

Speaker 4 But the 109s then dive on them and Raul has a has a squirt at a Stuka, then at a JU-88 and then does actually shoot down a 109. But it's all pretty hectic.

Speaker 4 You know, the sky is awash with swirling, turning aircraft. And, you know, another 109 attacks Raul.
So he turns and attacks in turn.

Speaker 4 and as it passes Raul clips the German fighter before it dies and falls into the sea and for a split second he thinks he's going to die too but despite the huge crash and a large chunk of the end of his wing being taken off his spitfire is still flying but obviously with some difficulty so clearly he needs to get down and he needs to get down on the ground pdq but the problem is is that toler is still under attack So he's got a damaged Spitfire, plenty of 109 swirling around, and he wonders how he's ever going to make it.

Speaker 4 The problem is, is

Speaker 4 he's running out of ammunition and he's running out of fuel. So he's going to have to get down somehow.

Speaker 4 So he goes out to sea, comes over the cliffs, looks as, you know, gets as low as he possibly can, constantly looking up. And he can see all these 109s still sort of circling around, ready to pounce.

Speaker 4 But he just thinks, well, I'm just going to have to do it. So he looks for the most favourable moment he can to land and does and goes for it.

Speaker 4 And he looks out of his wing and realizes he's lost about 18 inches of one wing.

Speaker 4 It's completely squared off at one end and on one side so you can imagine what that's doing to the balance of the aircraft anyway nearing to Kali another 109 comes in and shoots him up so he's now dropping much faster than he wants to so quickly pulls up the undercarriage and thinks well I'm just gonna have to belly land it gets lower and lower and lower hits the ground everyone's watching you know all the rest of the parties are watching this happening And he slews across the airfield of screech and grinding of metal and clouds of dust and thinks, oh my God, you know, comes to a halt.

Speaker 4 He's still alive, desperately trying to get rid of the oxygen leads and the radio leads and everything, jumps out of the cockpit, runs across the open ground as bullets sort of, you know, following him like they do in a movie.

Speaker 4 And he's made it. And guess what he writes in his logbook? Collided with 109 head on, pranged on landing, 1109 confirmed.

Speaker 4 I mean,

Speaker 1 I love it.

Speaker 4 It's just amazing, isn't it?

Speaker 1 The soul-foi is something else. Although, you know, you haven't got room in your logbook for all of that, have you? That full account.
That's not what it's for.

Speaker 1 There's another raid that afternoon, and there are two Spitfires still that still haven't been scrambled.

Speaker 1 So, Dennis and another pilot from 601 squadron volunteer to take them up to protect the other planes as they come into land.

Speaker 1 Because the Germans are picking them off, as we've seen with Raoul's experience, that the Germans have got such air superiority they can pick people off while they're landing, which is when they're really vulnerable.

Speaker 1 And they're told that they're in different blast pens, but they can't find them. They go around the airfield, can't find them.

Speaker 1 Eventually, Dennis finds a plane with some airmen who tell him to fuck off basically no thanks can't have this plane.

Speaker 1 I know who you are go away They do find then another but there's no starter on hand and by the time Dennis has gone off to get help the raid's over that later the afternoon another attack on Takali 60 bombers.

Speaker 1 This is I mean this relentlessness of it is how are the Germans ever gonna lose?

Speaker 4 Well, I know and it's amazing because after it goes after it's gone and all the kind of dust and smoke has settled all they can see is these little sticks of black smoke going up into the sky, like little sort of vertical threads.

Speaker 4 And Dennis says, you know,

Speaker 4 what are those? And a guy turns to him and goes, that's all the new Spitfires burning.

Speaker 4 They've all been hit on the ground. So that evening, Dennis and the rest of the new pilots are taken by that same old knackered old bus up to the Shara Palace.
You know, there's no lights.

Speaker 4 There's no glass. It's got bullet holes all over it and, you know, splinter.

Speaker 4 It's not quite spitchered, but it almost is. And they're ushered into the Shara Palace into this huge sort of cavernous hallway.

Speaker 4 And Dennis pauses at the foot of the stairs and sees the shadows of this one hurricane lamp of the pilots passing him diagonally up the staircase.

Speaker 4 They go up into this long gallery, and then they're ushered into this long room. And he kind of thinks, well, where should I put myself? And he sees that there's a sort of alcove where the windows is.

Speaker 4 He thinks that would be the safest bit. He's completely paranoid that all they're there and that a bomb's going to come over and go straight through the ceiling and kill them all any minute.

Speaker 4 I mean, he's really kind of just thinking, this is, you know, what have I come to? This is a complete madhouse.

Speaker 4 Eventually, Hugh Pugh Lloyd comes in and says you know i i fought the hun in the last war and i'm fighting him again now and he's exactly the same he's bully and and stupid suddenly the siren rings out and the you know bombs they hear the whistling of bombs

Speaker 4 dennis is just thinking oh my god this is really really close huge crash dust from the ceiling everyone kind of hits the deck there's another one even closer and then it seems to have gone past you know this is just a nuisance raid basically So everyone gets back onto their feet.

Speaker 4 And Lloyd goes, as I was saying, the Germans are bullies and incredibly foolish. The manner in which they're conducting their offensive against the island shows us that.
Dennis is thinking, what?

Speaker 4 I can't think of anything wrong with their offensive. It seems incredibly effective as far as

Speaker 4 he's concerned. And Lloyd continues.
He says, Malta is like the famous statue of Achilles in Hyde Park, London.

Speaker 4 Our bombers, torpedo-carrying planes and submarines, are striking power, like Achilles' sword. Our sword has been blunted, but we will sharpen it.
Until then, Achilles must rely on his shield.

Speaker 4 That anti-aircraft defenses and you pilots flying your hurricanes and spitfires are that shield. Malta relies on you.
I mean, it's not the most inspiring, is it?

Speaker 1 File under man has to say something in appalling situation. Can't possibly admit to how appalling situation is, right?

Speaker 1 That's that form of inspirational speaking, isn't it? We're going to carry on as though this isn't happening.

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 4 that is basically it. Anyway, so pilots from Lucca aren't staying at the Shara Palace.
That is not their mess. They're being taken to another place, which is the Palazzo Parizio, which is in Nashar.

Speaker 4 Nashar involves them getting back into their dilapidated bus, by which time it's now completely pitched black. There's no lights at all, and just a sort of faint light from the moon to guide them.

Speaker 4 They go down the hill from Medina, along a rickety road, back up another hill for about, you know, three or four miles, and eventually they get to the center of Nashar. And there they're told, right,

Speaker 4 here's your digs. And the bus just drops them.
They all troop out and they're left to their own devices. And someone, like, you know, they go through the front door.

Speaker 4 It's completely empty, completely, not empty, but it's sort of dark and cavernous. And I mean, this place is absolutely huge.
Someone

Speaker 4 lights a match, which is a little sort of beacon of light in the kind of darkness. And they basically kind of tramp around.
They go upstairs and look for a room.

Speaker 4 Realize there's loads of other pilots and other people sleeping there on camp beds.

Speaker 4 And eventually, Dennis and the other flight commander in 601 squadron find a single room with a couple of camp beds in.

Speaker 4 And that's their digs and and he goes to lying on his camp bed with his tin helmet on his head hearing bombs crashing and anti-aircraft guns going and crashes and shakes and he just thinks oh my god you know what what what have i come to and the amazing thing is that within 48 hours only seven of the new spits are still serviceable so 40 have been destroyed damaged gone in 48 hours and you know you have to say it this is the lowest ebb there's your bottom line though if you're doing your defensive calculations you need 40 spitfires a day for the next month no you need a better plan for the arrival of these spitfires that's what you need

Speaker 4 it's exactly the same as the march convoy and this time you can't get away from Lloyd you're still saying they're fatally disorganized that somehow reflects a deep deep irresponsibility and incompetence at the top i don't know um anyway well uh the next day denes has his first flight Okay.

Speaker 4 There's only three Spitfires available at Luca at the time, the moment that he's asked to go up on this flight.

Speaker 4 So he goes up with John Bisdee, his squadron commander, and with Jumbo Gracie, the aforementioned Jumbo Gracie. And before they get going, Dennis asks Gracie for advice.

Speaker 4 So shall I do Dennis and you do Gracie? Yes. Sir, what are the best tactics to use?

Speaker 1 You'll learn, but don't go chasing the bastards all the way to Sicily.

Speaker 4 Um, if we're separated from you, with formations of one-on-ones around, what's the best technique then?

Speaker 1 If you're by yourself, weave around at naught feet all over the island, or better still, do steep turns in the middle of Takali Aerodrome, inside the ring of Bofors.

Speaker 1 But don't take any notice of their fighters. It's the big boys we've got to kill.

Speaker 4 So, I mean, okay.

Speaker 1 That's not great, is it?

Speaker 4 And Gracie says to me, goes, okay, well, our Spitfires are at different places.

Speaker 4 So I'll take the left-hand side of the runway and come towards you, the rest side of the track, and you come up on the right.

Speaker 4 And Dennis is thinking, well, if I'm coming from the other end and I'm coming on the right and you're coming to the left, aren't we going to collide? And so they do. They nearly, very nearly collide.

Speaker 4 And he gets into a Spitfire. He can't see anything because the moment the propeller goes, it's just dust absolutely everywhere.
Suddenly, he sees Gracie just hurtling towards them. Bloody hell.

Speaker 4 You know, what's going on? Anyway, they take off. Busy gets shot down almost immediately, has to bail out.
And he's presumed dead. Though he isn't, actually.

Speaker 4 And Dennis managed to hit a JU-88 and sees smoke and stuff. And then he's just shooting it.

Speaker 4 And suddenly, right in front of him comes the oil-streaked, pale belly, like a fish of a 109, hurtling straight up in front of him. He just thinks, oh my God, you know, where did that come from?

Speaker 4 He looks around. He just sees this pairs of 109s absolutely everywhere.
There's this sort of complete tangle of aircraft. And suddenly he's out oversea.

Speaker 4 And there's the little tiny island of Philflar and they're the dingly cliffs ahead of him. And he thinks, what am I going to do? So he's attacked.

Speaker 4 So he turns in, as he's been told to do, always turn into the attacker.

Speaker 4 hits a 109 and shoots it down. But then he's attacked again.
So he's constantly doing it.

Speaker 4 And and every time he's turning in towards him of course he's he's he's losing height and losing speed and this is the problem because you're effectively corkscrewing down and down and down and down and down suddenly he's hit there's a massive crash and he's hit and his plane is just spiraling and he just thinks oh my god this is it i'm i i'm dead actually feels incredibly calm about it land and the sea are swapping places over and over and over he's hurtling downwards and suddenly he feels control and he thinks oh my god actually i'm i might be all right after all but he thinks how am i going to get out of this i've got i've got to touch back down again It's a bit like Raul the Daddy Longle the previous day.

Speaker 4 You know, all these swirling aircrafts. He thinks, well, if I can get low, then maybe they'll just ignore me or something.
You know, no such luck.

Speaker 4 So he gets low, sees the cliffs in front of him, thinks, well, I'm just going to have to get up and just try and land somewhere because his plane is in a really, really bad, bad way.

Speaker 4 And he thinks, well, I'm just going to have to belly land. But he looks around, all he can see is sort of stone fields and nothing.
And eventually he spots how far, right at the south of the island.

Speaker 4 So he crash lands there. As he lands again, a bit like Raul the previous day, glides to crashes and screeches, grinding metal to a halt.

Speaker 4 And gets out, but has forgotten to undo his radio leads and his oxygen leads. So nearly kind of breaks his neck in the process, then rips them off, makes a run for it again, you know, as

Speaker 4 109s are shooting up the airfield as he's sort of running for cover. Eventually gets back to Luca, sees Gracie.
Gracie's already reported him dead. He goes, you nearly collided with me on takeoff.

Speaker 4 Anyway, you're back then. And that's it.
You know, I mean, what an introduction.

Speaker 1 But there were, you know, two, there were three Spitfires serviceable that morning. Bisney's been shot down, and Dennis's has been trashed.
So,

Speaker 1 you know.

Speaker 4 Yeah, his is, is, that's two more gone.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so that's two more gone. There were three that morning.
This is not a good ratio, is it? And by the end of April, the fighter force is basically, it's done.

Speaker 1 Again, it's on, it's on the end, on its knees. Spits are pretty much all gone.
The airfield's been smashed up, the wrecks.

Speaker 1 Dennis is acting as squadron commander because Bisney's in hospital after being wounded on that first flight. He keeps this really fantastic diary.

Speaker 1 And like I say, get one man's windows or listen to it on our Patreon. In fact, I think it's still up, me reading it.
And then on the 30th of April, Dennis' diary goes, 30th of April.

Speaker 1 Bombs and bombers screeched all night long. Seemed as though all pillars of air were being flattened violently.
One against another until they crushed our eardrums and left our ears ringing.

Speaker 1 Couldn't sleep. 1st of May.
Same again. No sleep at all.
2nd of May, third night without sleep. 3rd May, yet another night without sleep.

Speaker 1 So the intensity, even though there are no planes to fly, the intensity of it is really, really something else. But what's interesting.

Speaker 4 Yeah, the attacks are, they are lessening.

Speaker 1 But this goes back to what we've talked about all this time with the Luftwaffe. They can't be everywhere.
They can't do everything.

Speaker 4 And what's emerging in April is different plans because there's two plans.

Speaker 4 There's the Rommel plan, which is to trash 8 Farmy and get all the way to Egypt and the Suez Canal and then the oil fields of the the middle east blah blah blah blah blah or there's invade malta and rommel's going you don't need to you know malta's neutralized we don't need to we don't need malta anymore we've done it that job's done and castle's going yeah but i really think we should you know we absolutely having brought malta to its knees we now need to do the coup de grace and invade it and of course hitler is you know he's listening to the guy he likes the most at the moment, which is Rommel.

Speaker 4 And he likes the sound of going into Cairo and getting the Suez Canal and getting to the oil fields of the middle east. That sounds much more fun.
And, you know, hasn't Rommel got a point?

Speaker 4 I mean, you know, Malta's been neutralized. Why bother invading it?

Speaker 4 And, oh, and by the way, last time we invaded an island, like Crete, the previous year, I lost half my parachute force and half my Juncker's 52. So, you know, I'm a bit down on airborne operations.

Speaker 4 On the other hand, a land battle. Now, that's something I understand.
So, lo and behold, he goes with Rommel. And, of course, he offers the compromise, which he always does.

Speaker 4 Yeah. You know, which is, don't worry.
You know, he says, keep your shirt on, Kessering. We'll still do it, he says.
You know, we'll just do it a bit later.

Speaker 4 Once we've won in North Africa, then we'll just walk into Malta.

Speaker 1 This is Hitler unable to dot I's and cross T's, isn't it? Strategically. He can't see that actually, if we've got Malta, then the land battle for Rommel will proceed far more smoothly.

Speaker 1 There will be fewer impediments offered to that piece of strategy if we've got Malta. So the Luftwaffe move to Libya.
rather than Sicily.

Speaker 1 They do retain a presence on Sicily, but basically they're moving to Libya to help Rommel. So that means that the blitz on Malta is over, although the defenders on Malta don't know this yet.

Speaker 1 It's this serendipitous timing, really, that kind of comes to the island's rescue.

Speaker 1 Malta's gunners have done well, though. On the 29th of April, they've shot down 99 aircraft that month.
And the Times of Malta is saying maybe they'll make their sentry for the end of the month.

Speaker 1 They do this. On the 30th of April, they shoot down three more planes, so that's 102.

Speaker 1 But, I mean, how many rounds do you need to fire to shoot down 102 aircraft jim well 160 829

Speaker 4 but you know but i'll just remind everyone that you know if you think about the destruction of casino town that's 196 000 rounds fired in one day you know so it is a lot it's a hell of a lot but it's not as lot as it might you know it could have been more you know yeah and of course you know cussering has lost more than 100 planes you know and if you think you've only got 500 in the first place you know that's over a fifth of your force gone.

Speaker 4 That's a lot. And you're stretched because actually, you know, Rommel's about to have a launch offensive, so you need to move most of them to North Africa, where

Speaker 4 you know, the RAF is building up strength there. And, you know, this is not straightforward at all.

Speaker 4 And you've got to move all your supplies over and everything else. So that's quite tricky.

Speaker 4 And you need to keep a presence because you can't kind of take your foot completely off the off the gas against Malta.

Speaker 4 But the truth is, in April, 99.2% of all Rommel's men and supplies safely reached Libya. So that is indisputable.
And that's not good enough, is it? No, no.

Speaker 1 And I think if you've been listening to this series so far, you know who Jim blames for this. But what we're not going to do is do a five-minute hate like at the end of the last episode.

Speaker 4 We're going to leave on a slightly positive note. Positive note.

Speaker 1 So there is a faint glimmer of hope.

Speaker 1 And as ever, it's the Germans never quite, I mean, obviously the British are not reading the strategic situation brilliantly here by defending Malta so so sort of in such a sort of slapdash manner.

Speaker 1 But the fact that the Germans can't read the strategic runes...

Speaker 4 No, you know, it's the Halt Order, isn't it? It's the Halt Order at Dunkirk. It's the turning on London away from the airfields in September 1940.

Speaker 4 It's just, you know, they just, time and time again, because they don't, because Hitler particularly doesn't have that clear strategic vision. He doesn't...
really understand what's going on.

Speaker 4 Opportunities are repeatedly missed. They don't make the most of what they've got.
And it's a big mistake with Malta.

Speaker 1 It's not to say Malta's been offered on a plate, but it's as near as damn it, really, isn't it? By allied negligence, really. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Anyway, if you want to find out what happens next immediately, then you need to join our officer-class Apple podcast channel for the price of probably not even an entire pint now, the way things are going.

Speaker 1 You can get these episodes without adverts listening to them all in one wholesome lump.

Speaker 1 What I love about this, the story of the Siege of Malta, is this is, you know, no screenwriter would dare write this. You know, Malta's done for, Jim.

Speaker 4 It's on its knees, but can it be kicked down onto its face? That's the thing, or can it get back onto its two feet?

Speaker 1 And if you want to know this right now, then of course, join the Apple channel or go to our Patreon.

Speaker 1 Uh, livecasts, the other thing that we do where you can watch Jim and I waffle about this sort of thing on usually on a Monday night.

Speaker 1 Anyway, join us for our next episode when the siege of Malta continues. Can the Allies turn the corner? Find out in our next episode.
Cheerio!

Speaker 4 Cheerio!

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