Saturday March 10 was a beautiful sunny day with a high of 19C. After breakfast at the apartment, we started our day with a coffee at Lot Sixty One and then checked out a contemporary art exhibit (very conceptual) in the Malta Contemporary Art Gallery around the corner.
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| Late morning coffee outside at Lot Sixty One |
We then walked to our destination for the early afternoon- the Lascaris War Rooms. The site takes its name from the nearby Lascaris Battery, which was named after Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, one of the Grandmasters of the Order of the Knights of St. John.
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| Walk near the water |
We passed a number of houses with Maltese balconies which are often brightly coloured.
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| Lots of buildings have interesting balconies- a feature of Maltese architecture |
We finally found the well-hidden entrance to the Lascaris War Rooms.
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| The War Rooms are located deep under the Upper Barracca Gardens where we had been on our Free Tour |
We came in the back way, through a long tunnel to the entrance of the Museum.
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| Tunnel leading to Museum Entrance |
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| Old signage |
The Lascaris War Rooms consist of an underground complex of tunnels and chambers that housed Britain's War Headquarters in Malta during WWII. Here, the defence of Malta was conducted and offensive operations in the Mediterranean were directed. We arrived about 30 minutes before the next guided tour was to start. We wandered around a bit on our own and saw a very interesting 20 minute British propaganda film done in 1942 called Malta G.C. (George Cross). Its production was commissioned by King George VI to coincide with Britain's award of the George Cross to the Maltese population on April 15 1942. The music was by Arnold Bax (1883-1953), Master of the King's Music, and the narration was by Laurence Olivier.
We then joined the next guided tour. The Lascaris War Rooms was an ultra-secret complex that housed an operations room for each of the fighting services. There were many entrances and exits to the rooms, and only certain personnel could enter specific locations.
The story of Malta's ordeal in the war is fascinating. It started with Italy's declaration of war on Britain and France on June 10, 1940 and lasted until Italy's capitulation on September 8, 1943. Throughout this period, Malta endured incessant bombing and a complete sea blockade. Our guide explained that Malta was quite close to Italy before the war and that the initial Italian bombers were reluctant to kill Maltese and often dropped their bombs in the sea. However, once the Germans started bombing, the damage increased. Throughout the war, Malta endured 3340 raids resulting in 1468 deaths and 3720 injured along with the destruction of 35,000 homes. The cost of post-war reconstruction of Malta amounted to 30 million British pounds.
We were shown a detailed map drawn up by the Axis for an invasion of Malta that never happened (only two copies exist). The map showed key strategic locations on the island and our guide said that it was speculated that there were spies operating in Malta prior to the war that supplied the information. Some of the spies might have been from the right-wing Nationalist party of Malta.
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| Hello, Hello... anyone there? Old phone from the 1940s |
There was only one room with a lot of signage which we had read before the tour. It featured a poster with the top Axis Air Aces and another poster with the Top Allied Air Aces. Two of the three Allied Air Aces were born in Canada. George "Buzz" Beurling (1921-48), born in Verdun, Quebec,was recognized as the most successful Canadian fighter pilot of WWII. In 1940, the RAF accepted him as a pilot. Eventually, he arrived in Malta on June 9 1942 and by July 27, 1942 had downed 17 Axis aircraft. He became known as the "Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta". In September 1943, he was transferred to the RCAF and discharged in 1944. He survived the war, but found it hard to adjust to civilian life. In 1948, he was recruited by the Israeli Air Force. En route, after a test flight he crashed his transport aircraft and died while landing in Rome.
The other Ace was Henry Wallace McLeod (December 1915-September 1944) who was born in Regina. He joined the RCAF in September 1940. He was transferred to Malta in 1942 and was credited with 13 kills during the Battle of Malta, earning him the nickname of "The Eagle of Malta." He failed to return from a patrol over the Netherlands in 1944.
The War Rooms opened in 1940 and were built in secret (debris was dumped during the night in areas which had been bombed). One room housed a RAF Fight Control Room from where the air defence of the island was conduced. Supporting it was a Filter Room through which all radar traffic was channelled and an Anti-aircraft Gun Operations Room from where artillery fire was coordinated. There was also a large combined operations rooms for all three services, additional administrative rooms and hidden from most military staff- the Cypher Rooms (these latter rooms are still being restored).
In July 1943, General Eisenhower and his Supreme Commanders used the War Rooms as their advance Allied HQ for Operation Husky, the Invasion of Sicily.
After the end of the war, the Rooms were used by the British Armed Forces and NATO up to 1977. It was used during the Suez and Cuban Missile Crisis and throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the complex was used to track the movements of Soviet submarines in the Mediterranean.
The rooms were mechanically ventilated- one of the original features that still work today. Our guide told us that before restoration began in 2009, the ventilation system had been turned off and one of the rooms had two feet of water in it due to leakage through the limestone walls.
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| Keeping track of the air squadrons |
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| Filter Room |
Our guide showed us a small room with "mobile" switchboards that were operated during the war. He noted that the technology was considered advanced at the time. They were small units because nothing larger could be brought into the underground complex.
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| Mobile switchboards |
The Operations room was fascinating. The guide outlined the details of the siege of Malta during the war by German U-boats and the constant bombardment. He also talked about how Churchill, who had visited Malta a number of times before the war, did not want Malta to surrender even though it was running out of food. At one point in 1942, there was only a two week supply of fuel and food left. Churchill organized a huge convoy that, even though heavily attacked by the Germans, managed to get a portion of the supplies to the island so that it could continue to fight the Axis.
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| View watching earlier guide talk about operations |
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| Movement of aircraft around Malta-- Sicily is the large island at the top of the map |
The guide also talked about the invasion of Sicily and how Montgomery and Patton despised each other. This scene showed their body language after Patton beat Montgomery to the north of Sicily.
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| Montgomery and Patton - very competitive and did not get along |
Our guide pointed out a room above the Operations room, where Eisenhower stayed for five weeks in July 1943, planning Operation Husky. He slept in this room which was located over the Combined Operations room.
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| The room where Eisenhower worked and slept while in Valletta |
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| Now a separate room adjacent to the room pictured above- originally one room during the war |
It was a fascinating tour and our guide was excellent. He was Maltese and only 23. He told us that his great-grandmother's house had been destroyed during the bombing. He also noted that September 8 is a huge celebration in Malta-- it is the date that the Great Siege of 1565 ended, the end of the French occupation of Malta in 1800, and also the day that Italy surrendered in 1943 and the Italian Navy was brought to Malta to remain moored there until the end of the war.
One key message of the tour was how strategic Malta was during the war. The Germans really wanted to gain control of Malta. The fact that it was never invaded and never fell into Axis control allowed Britain to launch raids against both North Africa and invade Sicily in 1943. The man reason Rommel failed in North Africa was that he ran out of fuel - had the Germans occupied Malta, this would not have occurred.
After the visit to the War Rooms, we headed out to bright blue skies. We decided to have a bite to eat and a drink. We picked the sunniest place at the cafe outside the outdoor theatre.
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| Cafe outside the outdoor theatre |
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| My first Aperol Spritz of the vacation |
We took a picture of the outdoor theatre-- it would be great in warmer weather. We can see how the locals are a bit sceptical as it is still quite cool in the evenings and the theatre can not be used for a good part of the year.
The weather was so beautiful that it finally felt warm enough for a gelato. Alain had his two favourite flavours- pistachio and coffee and I had sorbetto (non-dairy)- raspberry and chocolate. There was an orderly lineup at Amorino (Italian gelato shop) that we have frequented in Paris. They scoop their gelati/sorbetti in flower shapes. Natural ingredients and very tasty.
We continued our meandering for a while- we wanted to stay outside and enjoy the sun.
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Saint Augustine on a street corner
We passed by the Honourary Consulate of Canada on Archbishop Street in Valletta.
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We headed back to the apartment for pasta with pistachio sauce. On Sunday, we head off to the small island of Gozo just off Malta for two nights.
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