On June 26, 1941, the Malta Police received Circular No. 188/41, which stated that “regarding the use by the enemy of booby traps in the shape of cigarette lighters, fountain pens, shaving sticks, etc., suspect objects of this nature are not dangerous unless efforts are made to strip or unscrew them”.

The police were instructed to carefully place these objects in a bucket or a similar container and store them in a safe place until a bomb disposal officer arrived to deal with them. However, there is no evidence that any of these booby traps were dropped on Malta.

But during the early hours of November 1, 1941, four Italian bombers crossed the Maltese coast and dropped canisters of lethal AR-4 anti-personnel bombs over Valletta and near Għargħur.

The AR-4 was more widely known as the Thermos bomb, since it looked like a Thermos brand vacuum flask. Around 30 centimetres long and cylindrical in shape, the bomb contained one kilogram of explosive. It would detonate if handled, spreading deadly shrapnel for some 35 metres.

The Valletta police had no idea how dangerous these strange contraptions were; they reported that “20 highly [sic] unexploded bombs and 19 fuses were picked up by the police and conveyed to Valletta police station to prevent interference by the public”.

The bomb disposal officer was not amused; he ordered the immediate evacuation of the police station, which was situated in the basement of the Royal Opera House. Three days later, the police were belatedly warned that “in no circumstances, is any unexploded bomb of any size or type to be handled or touched…, as it immediately explodes when somebody moves it after it has landed”.

It was only at the beginning of December that the bomb disposal officer found time to remove the bombs from the Royal Opera House, and he had to build a sort of mechanical grab to do so.

The usual method used to get rid of these bomblets was to blow them up with a rifle shot, or by attaching a long string to them and giving it a jerk from a safe place.

To make things worse, these devices were temperamental. For example, on November 4, Police Inspector C. Saliba was placing a chair to mark the position of an AR-4 at the Connaught Hospital, Mdina, when it blew up of its own accord, severely wounding him and another man.

Some were armed with a delay-action fuse, which triggered the bomb between 60 and 80 hours after it had been armed.

Some were armed with a delay-action fuse, which triggered the bomb between 60 and 80 hours after it had been armed

Inevitably, there were fatalities.

On November 11, 1941, 16-year-old John Parnis and his brother Joseph, 29, were walking in a street at Tal-Qasbi, Birkirkara, when they hit or touched what the police called an anti-personnel ‘destructor’ bomb. Joseph Parnis was killed on the spot while his brother died the following day in hospital.

Despite attempts by the police to locate all these bomblets, some remained hidden. One such device, dropped on November 9, lay undiscovered for a whole month in a heap of stones, again at Tal-Qasbi, Birkirkara.

Then, on December 10, Edward Micallef, 32, started loading the stones in his truck. He never spotted the Thermos bomb and it detonated, its splinters peppering his right hand and both his legs.

Less lucky were four persons at Ta’ Saura Hospital, Rabat. Despite the repeated warnings on newspapers and on the Rediffusion not to touch any unidentified objects or ordnance, on Christmas Eve, 1941, 17-year-old Carmel Muscat found a Thermos bomb in the garden of the hospital and was tampering with it when it exploded, grievously wounding him and killing Vincent Cachia, aged 65, Samuel Cauchi, 55, and Anthony Abdilla, 30. Four other persons were hit by shrapnel, including two nursing sisters. Muscat lost his life in hospital three days later.

Some of the bombs buried themselves in the soft ploughed soil, remaining hidden from sight until disturbed by some unlucky farmer. In February 1942, Joseph Farrugia, 38, was digging potatoes in a garden at Buskett Road, Rabat, when his forked hoe struck a hidden bomblet. He breathed his last in hospital.

The following month, Anthony Bonaci, 51, was tilling his field at Tal-Maħluġ, Rabat, when his ploughshare unearthed a Thermos bomb, which blew up, injuring him in the face and also wounding his mule.

As if AR-4s were not enough, on the morning of June 6, 1942, Żebbuġ, Luqa, Ta’ Qali and Dingli were showered with a new explosive device – the German SD2

As if AR-4s were not enough, on the morning of June 6, 1942, Żebbuġ, Luqa, Ta’ Qali and Dingli were showered with a new explosive device – the German SD2, or as it was infamously known, the butterfly bomb.

These bomblets were carried in containers that held from 24 to 100 bombs each; the container opened after it was released from an aircraft. The SD2 had two wings, hence the name butterfly bomb. These sprung open and spun in the airflow when the bomb fell, arming the fuse.

Some were set to blow up on impact or some seconds after reaching the ground. Others had a fuse that would trigger an explosion if the bomb was handled. Although the butterfly bomb was small, it contained 225 grams of TNT and could kill anyone within 25 metres and

injure those within a radius of 100 metres. With the introduction of these new bombs, accidents and deaths, especially among civilians, increased dramatically.

Again, warnings were issued in the daily newspapers and on the Rediffusion. The Times of Malta informed its readers that “the yellow butterfly bomb is a small, round, yellow box, shaped like a top of a flit gun, and three inches in diameter. It is attached by about six inches of wire to four curved metal fins, two of them with red bars painted across them. The bomb is a delayed action one and may explode within 20 minutes of reaching the Earth. If it does not explode then it will do if it is moved. On no account touch it.”

The day after the bomblet was introduced, Anthony Sciberras from Birkirkara was driving a truck loaded with 16 Maltese labourers when one of them noticed “an iron object the shape of a pendulum” in the bed of the lorry. Not knowing what it was, he handed it to Sciberras, who put it in the cabin. When they arrived at Ta’ Qali airfield, Sciberras took hold of the butterfly bomb, tinkered with it for a while and then decided that the strange object was worthless and threw it away.

After a few seconds, he changed his mind and decided to have a better look at the contraption. After satisfying his curiosity, he flung the bomb for a second time. When it hit the ground, it detonated, injuring him and eight of the workers who were still in the vicinity. Two of them died later in hospital.

Again, many of the casualties were children. Eleven-year-old Paul Vella from Naxxar was playing in a field at Iklin when he touched a butterfly bomb and was killed instantly. Joseph Vella, 7, from Marsa, found one such device while playing in a demolished building and tried to pick it up. The explosion wounded him and two other persons.

On June 28, 1942, Carmela Cachia, 10, from Safi, found what she may have believed to be some kind of toy lying in a field and decided to take it home.

Her mother Kunċetta, 34, was on the doorstep when she saw Carmela approaching with an SD-2 bomb in her hand. Kunċetta started shouting at her daughter, who panicked and dropped the bomb. It went off, wounding Carmela and her brother Nazareno, 8, and killing Kunċetta and John Farrugia, 5.

Another tragedy occurred on August 27, 1942. Michael Cachia, 11, Emmanuel Zammit, 7, and his brother Joseph, 6, were playing in a field at Tal-Kanonku, Mqabba, when they spotted an anti-personnel bomb. Curiosity got the better of them and they touched the deadly object, which killed all three of them.

Farmers, too, fell victim to these bombs.

Joseph Spiteri, 38, from Siġġiewi, was killed when he hit an SD-2 with his hoe while tilling his field at Tal-Qronfla.

In June 1942, Lawrenz Spiteri, 63, from Żejtun, discovered an anti-personnel bomb on his threshing floor. He picked it up and carefully placed it on a rubble wall, presumably so he could continue with his work. It blew up, killing him and a farmer in an adjoining field, and grievously wounding a 14-year-old boy.

The most recent victim of a butterfly bomb was Paul Gauci, 41, from Rabat. At the end of September 1981, Gauci picked up what seemed to be a solid chunk of iron but was, in fact, the explosive charge of an SD-2. He decided to turn it into a mallet and was welding it to a pipe when it detonated. He died of his wounds in hospital.

There may still be a few anti-personnel bombs lying around. As recently as 2020, one that was found in a field at Ħal Far had to be blown up by the Malta Bomb Disposal Unit.

 

More information about anti-personnel bombs can be found in Malta War Occurrences – The Police Logbooks 1940-1942 and 1942 – Malta on the Brink by Jeffrey Sammut, and UXB Malta ‒ Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal 1940-44 by S.A.M. Hudson.

 

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Ethan Borg, David Bartolo, Ruben Vella and the staff at the National Archives of Malta, without whose assistance this article would not have been possible.