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but first a look at European events from 1938
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March 14, 1938: German troops invade Austria. Hitler is cheered through the streets of Vienna. Many Austrians longed for their country to become a part of Germany, now the most powerful country in Europe.
Sept. 30th, 1938: "It is peace for our time," British PM, Neville Chamberlain, assured the nation on his return from Munich, after parts of Czechoslovakia had been diplomatically ceded to Hitler in an international bid to avoid war in Europe.
March 15th, 1939: Germany invades Czechoslovakia ! The world is shocked.
Sept. 1st, 1939: Germany now invades Poland; its excuse being that it wanted to reclaim the city of Danzig, which had been a part of Germany before WW1.
Sept. 3rd, 1939: War is declared on Germany by Britain and France. British children are evacuated from London to the safety of the countryside.
Sept. 17th, 1939: Russia too invades Poland occupying as much land as possible before the Nazis get there, leaving the Polish army trapped in between.
Sept. 27th, 1939: British Troops land in France to help fight off the advancing Germans, whose momentum was now building steadily.
April, 1940: Germany invades Norway and Denmark.
May, 1940: Now also Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg.
May 29th, 1940: The British army retreats to Dunkirk in what seems like one of its worse episodes of the War, while German troops advance across northern France.
June 4th, 1940: The Dunkirk rescue of some 300,000 Allied troops takes place across the Channel.
June 10th, 1940: Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini declared that his country was joining Germany in her war against the British and the French, now that most of Europe was under Hitler's rule.
... and now a look at the
Island Fortress of Malta
June 11th, 1940; for the people of Malta, World War Two started today, after Italy's declaration of war against Britain and France; Paris fell to the Nazis on June 19th, 1940. For the many Maltese people who were sympathetic towards Italian culture this was a major dilemma; big brother had now become the enemy! Air raids and war casualties now became the order of the day for Malta.
August 20th, 1940: 'The Battle of Britain' raged across the whole breadth of British airspace as the RAF fought off the mighty Luftwaffe. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." -- Winston Churchill.
Jan. 15th, 1941: The Luftwaffe, Goering's dreaded German Airforce, set up base in Sicily. The war over Malta would now become one long and intense nightmare, with thousands of tons of high-explosives being dropped on military and civilian targets indiscriminatingly, day and night.
Jan. 16th, 1941: The aircraft carrier H.M.S. "Illustrious" limped into Malta port, followed presently by fierce dive-bombings that destroyed much of the old city of Senglea and other areas around the Grand Harbour, The limited number of British fighter planes and Malta's AA gunners engaged the enemy with all they had.
May 20th, 1941: Major-General Sir William G. Sheddon Dobbie, KCB, CMG, DSO, was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta. He had assumed the Islands' administration immediately on the departure of the former Governor, General Sir Charles Bonham Carter, in April.
The range of Malta-based fighter aircraft, at 250 miles (400 Km), brought all of Sicily and even Tripoli within reach so that Axis convoys steaming from Italy to Libya, where they were needed to reinforce Rommel's Afrika Korps, suffered considerable losses. Moreover, the longer-range RAF Wellingtons and Blenheims regularly inflicted substantial damage on the ports of Palermo and Naples, Augusta submarine base, El Khoms (Homs base near Tripoli) and on enemy shipping in the region.
May 27th, 1941: The Royal Navy sank the 'Bismarck' in the North Atlantic. This extraordinary German battleship had previously sunk many Allied vessels and was chased for many miles by the British fleet that had set its aims on sinking her. Meanwhile, the German Blitz over London continued.
Obliterating the bothersome island fortress of Malta, had by now become a top priority for the Germans and the Italians. At dawn, on July 26th, 1941, a daring attack on Malta's Grand Harbour was launched by Italian E-Boats (manned torpedo-boats). But as searchlights exposed the stealthy foe, Malta's batteries mercilessly pounded the assailants and, while the bridge connecting the breakwater to Valletta was destroyed, none of them apparently survived in this assault.
August, 1941: Convoys bring much needed provisions and ammunition to Malta.
Forward by: .
Steve Farrugia
my-malta.com
References:
World War II (Nicola Barber, publ. Evans Bros.Ltd., 1994)
Malta, Diary of a War; 1940-1945 (Michael Galea, publ. PEG Ltd., 1992)
Raiders Passed (Charles B.Grech, publ Midsea, 1998)
Malta, The Triumphant Years; 1940-43 (George Hogan, publ. Robert Hale, 1978)
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