The remains of several World War Two planes have been discovered on the grounds of the St Vincent de Paul care home in Marsa. 

Workers digging land for a garden came across the parts belonging to Italian, German and British aircraft.

They have been sent to the Malta Aviation Museum in Ta’ Qali to be cleaned, curated and eventually displayed. 

The museum's director, Ray Polidano, said the fighter aircraft probably crashed in different areas of Malta before later ending up in the former quarry site. 

He said: “We are guessing that they were studied by the British... then they were most probably stored in a hanger and eventually dumped when they weren’t useful anymore."

What was found?

The main parts discovered were fuselages of Italian and German origin, both of which are damaged remnants of single-engine fighters that have since been squashed under the weight of the dirt and rock above them.

“They still have paint on them and still have their German letters,” said Polidano.

Other discovered artefacts include parts of a twin-engine British bomber and more grounded historical items such as machine guns used during the war.

Malta came under heavy air attack during World War Two by the Italian Regia Aeronautica and units of the German Luftwaffe. Immediately after the war, the country was littered with aeroplane wreckage.

The British pilot survived this Hurricane V7430 crash near St Paul's Bay during World War Two. Photo: Siege of Malta/Anthony Rogers

The old aircraft parts were uncovered during works on the home’s upcoming garden designed specifically for dementia patients, Jo Etienne Abela said in a Facebook post.

The discovery will lead to delays, he said.

Polidano said some of the main finds, such as the Italian and German fuselages, will be displayed for public viewing while others will remain in storage.

The items will be cleaned but shall be left as found, he said.

Malta suffered heavily during the 1940-42 Siege of Malta and decades later, the debris of the war is still being found. 

In 2016, Water Service Corporation workers came found a number of World War II-era bombs while cleaning a local council well in Qrendi.

Experts from the army's bomb disposal unit were immediately dispatched to the area and quickly gathered the bombs, which sources said were a combination of butterfly bombs and anti-aircraft shells.

Back in 2007, works to extend Qrendi's cemetery had resulted in a similar discovery, with bomb disposal experts called in to remove a 500kg German Luftwaffe aerial bomb.