Tragic stories from April 1942 - II

The worst enemy onslaught of the entire war caused the deaths of many Services personnel on land, sea and in the air. John A. Agius, MBE, shares his records of the war-time heroes who gave their lives in Malta`s defence in April 1942 with Joanna Ripard.

At least 35 Royal Navy submarines were lost in Malta between 1940 and 1943 - the blitz of April 1942 alone claimed three and their entire crews.

On April 1, HM Submarine Pandora was lost with her 27-man crew; 33 men were lost in Upholder on April 14, and 41 in Urge on April 28.

"The captain of Upholder, Lieut-Cdr Malcolm David Wanklyn, VC, DSO,** was married at the Holy Trinity Church in Sliema on May 5, 1938, while serving in HM Submarine Shark," Mr Agius noted.

"Wanklyn was the first submarine officer in World War II to be awarded the Victoria Cross on December 11, 1941, while stationed in Malta. Of his 33 crew, 13 were decorated and four of them had a Bar. Another four received a MiD (Mention in Dispatches). In the case of Urge, nine were decorated, of whom three received a bar to their decoration; six received a MiD."

HMS Kingston, a destroyer, was sunk by air attack at Malta on April 11. Eight of her crew died on April 4; another six were killed the next day.

Still she was useful, Mr Agius recalled. "About a year later, the dock she was in was required for other use and it was cleared. The Kingston, in this damaged condition was towed out and positioned between the mainland and St Paul`s Island to block that passage to St Paul`s Bay."

The dock was then filled with invasion barges which were being serviced for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.

AB George Gordon Frederick Carter, 20, in HMS Havoc was wounded in action and was left in a Maltese Services Hospital. He died on April 5 and is buried at Mtarfa. Soon after sailing for Gibraltar, Havoc, by a sad error of judgment, ran aground on the Tunisian coast on April 6.

"Unfortunately, the crew and some passengers were interned by the French. Very soon after the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch), they were released along with other British servicemen," Mr Agius explained.

HMS Penelope, a cruiser, was so riddled with holes in her hull, she was nicknamed "HMS Pepperpot". Mr Agius recalled how the holes were plugged with bits of wood. Lieut. Jack S. Miller, DSE* and four crewmen were killed in action between April 1 and 8. They are buried in the Capuchin Naval Cemetery.

"HMS Penelope undocked on April 8," Mr Agius explained. "Three hundred enemy aircraft attacked Malta but she was not hit. By the evening she had to replenish with anti-aircraft ammunition and she shifted alongside a wharf to do so. Her captain, Capt A.D. Nicholl, CBE, DSO, was wounded at that time but insisted on staying with his ship. At 9.55 p.m., after a very eventful day, Penelope sailed for Gibraltar."

She was attacked several times during her voyage but reached Gibraltar safely on April 10, her magazines almost empty. HMS Penelope was eventually sunk in the Italian campaign.

Of the seven who were killed at HMS St Angelo, the shore establishment, Mr Agius has only managed to trace how and where two lost their lives. Signalman Elems and Telegraphist Overton were killed at Castille signal station when it was hit on April 7.

Tug C308 was lost on April 7, HMS Christmas on April 25, both with one casualty each.

Army

In April 1942, the British Army lost 152 British and 35 Maltese personnel.

"Throughout April, the majority of the Army personnel killed were artillery. The number of infantry personnel was much smaller. However there were others - men from the Royal Engineers (RE), the Royal Army Pay Corps (RAPC), and the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)," Mr Agius explained.

On April 3, King George VI, who 12 days later would award the George Cross to Malta, assumed the Colonelcy-in-Chief of the Royal Malta Artillery.

In his message to the Governor, General William Dobbie, he said: "... In the active defence of the Island, the Royal Air Force have been ably supported by the Royal Malta Artillery, and it therefore gives me special pleasure, in recognition of their skill and resolution, to assume the Colonelcy-in-Chief of the Regiment. Please convey my best wishes to all ranks of my new Regiment, and assure them of the added pride with which I shall follow future activities."

There were four particularly bad days. On April 1, 16 men died - seven were tunnellers from the Royal Engineers. Another 16 were lost on April 7, all but three were artillery personnel and included seven Maltese. It was a similar picture on April 19 - 16 casualties and all except three were artillery.

On April 25, 36 British and four Maltese army personnel lost their lives. Of the 12 gunners killed, two were patients at St Patrick`s Hospital, Pembroke, which was hit in spite of a huge red cross painted close by. Eight RAMC personnel were also killed.

Four infantry personnel were killed at St Vincent De Paul, the modern day residential home for the elderly, which at the time housed billets.

Five personnel from RAPC were also killed that day. The RAPC had already lost five men when Villa Rosa near St George`s Bay, St Julian`s, was hit on April 2. Four died that day; Cpl Leslie Beckett died a day later. Some Maltese civilian personnel were also killed on both occasions.

On Saturday, April 25, Signalman Richard Mifsud, 18, died along with gunners, of the Royal Corps of Signals, who were manning one of the guns at Fort Spinola.

Mifsud was one of four Maltese who lost their lives that day. Two were killed at the KOMR depot, Mellieha: Pte John Sammut and Pte Nazzareno Grech (who died of wounds at 90 General Hospital, now occupied by the Danish village). The fourth man was Pte Anthony Baldacchino of the 10th KOMR. He was 24.

The 4th Searchlight Regiment RA/RMA lost seven British personnel in April - two on the 6th, one on the 7th, and four on the 20th.

"It is worth mentioning another tragic event on April 8. Three Maltese men were killed by enemy action while they were manning defence electrical lights at Sliema Point Battery," Mr Agius pointed out. They were Gnr George Falzon, L/Bdr John Mary Grech and Gnr Emanuel Mizzi, of the 1st RMA.

In April 1942 a defence battery was organised at HM Dockyard. Eventually it was embodied into No. 30 Bty of the 3rd RMA. Three men died while manning it on April 11 - Gnr Theodore Dalli, 29, Gnr Joseph Faella, 29, and Gnr Lawrence Spiteri, 30.

Royal Air Force

That dreadful month claimed 74 RAF lives.

"The real crux of the situation is that not all were fighter pilots. There were Blenheim light bombers who went out and never came back. Many were from Canada, Australia and Britain. Some are buried in Catania," Mr Agius recalls.

"There was an order that any friendly or enemy aircraft which crashed was to be guarded until such time as some good material could be made use of later."

A German aircraft was shot down on April 1 on Delimara. Six men from 501 Air Ministry Experimental Station (AMES) at Tas-Silg and two Army personnel who were in the vicinity approached the plane. A bomb exploded in the fire and killed them all.

April 1 was also the day ace LAC Albert Matthew Osborne died in a fire-fighting operation. He had dealt with several fire-fighting operations at Hal Far and Luqa. He was awarded the George Cross posthumously.

A huge attack on RAF Station Kalafrana on April 18 claimed the lives of one officer and three men. Two Dockyard policemen were also killed.

A Wellington bomber was lost on April 23 on its way towards Italy. There was one survivor, Lt A.R.H. Hayter of 148 Squadron, who was transferred as a POW from Italy to Germany. He was one of the 50 RAF men who were shot after the `Great Escape` from Stalag Luft III.

In the air, the pilots faced great dangers. Adolph Galland, a prominent German crack fighter pilot, wrote of his experiences while flying over Malta during attacks in his memoirs The First and the Last: "When an anti-aircraft shell explodes 100 feet below your aircraft, the whole plane rocks!"

"You can imagine what they experienced when they flew lower!" Mr Agius told me.

"To demonstrate the intensity of the massive air attacks, one can only look at the table of anti-aircraft ammunition expended by the AA gunners in Malta during 1942," he pointed out.

"Undoubtedly, this table has been obtained from either a military museum or from the Public Record Office. It was not possible for any lay person to keep such a record and one is indebted to Denis Rollo and his book The Guns and Gunners of Malta."

Mr Agius recalls how his office kept records of fighter pilots.

"I remember that in our office there was a metal container in which was enclosed the state of actual fighter pilots - those fit to fly, those in hospital, those on leave, those due to finish their tour of duty. It was padlocked and the key was with the senior Personnel Staff Officer.

"Likewise the technical officer had something similar showing aircraft state, those ready to go into action, those undergoing repair and so on. The Supply Branch had records of state of aviation fuel and ammunition. As was to be expected all these were classified `Top Secret`!"

Concluded