The Battle for Malta

The small Mediterranean island of Malta had been British since 1814 but was 1,000 miles from the nearest British territory -- Gibralter to the west and Egypt to the east. The population was mostly Italian and that was the lingua franca.

In Italy, only a few miles to the north, dictator Benito Mussolini watched as Hitler's war machine drove the British out of continental Europe and decided he'd bet on Britain's withdrawal from the war. So feeling, he declared war on Britain, attacked in Egypt, and bombed Malta.

His judgment was rather like mine when playing poker, pretty poor. The English and colonial troops repelled him in Africa and drove him back into Italian territory. Malta stood firm. The Italian bombers were only half-hearted anyway. They sometimes dropped their bombs in the sea and went home. The joke was "Coraggio. Andiamo a casa." Having lined up with Hitler, Italy asked for help from the Germans and he got in spades -- Rommel in North Africa, and the Luftwaffe on Sicily. The bombers no longer dropped their bombs into the sea. Concentration of force was a tenet of Hitler's tactics. No place on Malta was safe from the serial flights of Stukas and Junkers, which came in flights of 50 airplanes. Every location was on the front line.

There were frequent Axis convoys north and south between Europe and North Africa. Rommel depended on these for supplies. At the same time, Malta was dependent on Alexandria and Gibralter convoys. The shipping lanes criss-crossed with Malta in the middle, lending the island momentous strategic importance. Malta's dozen submarines were sinking about 80% of Rommel's supplies.

The infrastructure of Malta was almost completely destroyed -- water, roads, electricity. No washing hands, no flushing of toilets, and bandages were washed and recycled. Malta's air defense was reduced to three obsolete Hurricanes, nicknamed Faith, Hope, and Charity. And then none. Of course, Malta survived the siege and was perhaps the principal cause of the collapse of the Afrika Korps.

The host, James Holland, walks us around the now-peaceful island, which looks pretty attractive actually. There is combat footage, readings from contemporary written sources, and several interviews with participants.

It's an unsparing documentary. There were multiple blunders on the British side. For instance, in one convoy, carrying desperately needed material, three out of four ships made port in Malta. But no preparations had been made for unloading them, so they sat there for two days until the skies cleared and they were sunk by bombs.

Much of the blame goes to the commander of the island's air force, who was "completely out of his depth." The Hurricanes were improperly serviced and many were lost through engine failure. "It's not the planes; it's the pilots," he maintained. He boasted of now having ten bombers when the Luftwaffe had hundreds in Sicily.