Mosta residents during the Second World War believed that the Rotunda church was strong enough to withstand enemy bombs, 82-year-old Fr Salv Magro said in an interview.

In fact, the church was open day and night with people living under the misconception that the enemy would not hit the Rotunda because it was such an important landmark.

This week, Mosta council and the Mosta parish are marking the 60th anniversary of the day the Rotunda was hit by German bombs.

"People used to think that the church was even safer than a shelter cut into the rock face," Fr Magro said. People used to assemble in the church every day for an hour of adoration and prayer during the Ora Santa (Holy Hour) at 4 p.m.

The church was hit on April 9, 1942, a day highlighted by one of the most intensive attacks during the war.

The coordinator of the commemoration, Loreto J. Dalli, said that the climax of this event would be a re-enactment of the attack as it unfolded.

With the help of small planes flying over Mosta to the sound of gun fire, that terrifying day will be re-created tomorrow at about 11.30 a.m. Spectators will be able to assemble in the car park by the Rotunda.

The re-enactment will be based on professional advice given to the council by Joe Ciliberti, an aviation expert who is in charge of airshows over Malta, Mr Dalli said.

Fr Magro, who was a seminarian at the time, said the bomb thundered through the church dome, at an acute angle, hitting one of the lunettes and landing with a deafening thud on the church floor, crushing the marble cover close to the pulpit.

"It was a terrifying moment. People started screaming and crying, scattering and running out of the church because some of the congregation were shouting that the bomb would explode," Fr Magro said.

Contrary to what many people think, the bomb on display at the Rotunda is not the one that crashed through the roof. That bomb was carted away by the bomb disposal unit on the very same day.

"To give you an idea of how heavy the bomb was, its weight was equivalent to that of 50, 10-kilogram sacks of cement. According to the late Anthony Camilleri, a historian who wrote a booklet about the attack, the string of bombs that fell close to and on the Rotunda were not fused and therefore could not explode.

"The German pilot had noticed the anti-aircraft guns at Ta` Qali as he approached Mosta and he jettisoned the bombs before turning away," Mr Dalli said.

The foundation stone of the Rotunda was laid on May 30, 1833, and the building took 27 years to complete. The design of the church is similar to the Pantheon in Rome and was prepared by a Maltese architect, Gorg Grongnet de Vasse.

In his book, Blitzed but not beaten, published by Progress Press in 1986, Philip Vella wrote that "During April 1942, death and destruction gained a new dimension".

Mr Vella quoted historian Alan Moorehead who had written that "It was a siege of annihilation. One after another, all the other great sieges were eclipsed - England and Odessa, Sebastopol and Tobruk. Malta became the most bombed place on earth."

April proved to be the worst month of the war and other landmarks hit by enemy fire included the Royal Opera House in Valletta and St Publius church in Floriana.

Maria Vella, 71, said that on April 9, her father, Peter, and brother, Frank, had gone to church but when she heard the air raid warning and the rumble of bombers, she rushed down the shelter under the football club in Eucharistic Congress Road.

"One of the bombs hit part of the steeple on the left hand side of the Rotunda as you look at the church. When the bomb went through the dome, people were heard screaming that the church had been hit and word soon spread, getting blown out of proportion with people saying that the church had been destroyed," Mrs Vella said.

Fr Salv Zammit, 72, said boys and young men often stayed at vantage points to watch enemy bombers and at times went to the fields around Ta` Qali to watch downed planes burning.

"There were about 300 people at the church at the time of the attack but no one got hurt. On hearing the approaching planes, a number of people moved to the side chapels thinking that it would be safer there.

"That is why no one was injured by the bomb that fell inside the church," Fr Zammit said.