Operation Retirement - Malta

Malcolm has always been interested in all areas of the Second World War and is an avid reader on the subject. Our trips to the Hay Literary Festival always included listening to speakers on a wide range of WW2 subjects from the use of carrier pigeons in WW2 to British historian James Holland. Having heard him speak, and bought and read his books on Malta and Sicily, they were put on our wish list of places to visit.

Looking for a post retirement activity for Malcolm I discovered that James Holland was leading a tour to Malta in May, three weeks after Malcolm retired. It was meant to be.

We made our own way there, rather than taking the group flight, as we were going on to Cyprus afterwards and, assembling at the bar it was tempting to play Spot The Group Member. However, years of experience, especially as a female engineer, has taught me not to judge people by their appearance. I wouldn’t have picked the lively, vivacious lady with the green highlights in her hair and her husband in the Hawaiian shirt as part of our group, but they were. Of the 35 people in the group, aged between 25 and 70(?) only six were women and, while most of us were there as companions, one American lady was there in her own right, proudly wearing her father's wings as a necklace. He had been a WW2 pilot and had actually flown in to Malta on a number of occasions.

I was a bit nervous about having to make conversation with complete strangers for three days, but life has also taught me that few people are as confident as they look. Entering the bar and seeing group members politely introducing themselves I reminded myself that most people find these situations nerve wracking – especially the loudest, confident looking ones. As people tentatively introduced themselves, sometimes hovering on the edge of the group it was clear that many of them were solo travellers, in many cases having left less interested wives and partners at home. Many were fans of James' podcasts. Others like us, through his books. There was a lot of apologising for being ‘a nerd’ and there were indeed a lot of men who knew the difference between one plane engine and another, but, actually, the conversation was varied and interesting. As well as coming from all over the UK there were seven Americans in the group from Alaska, Georgia, Florida and California.

Top left : St Publius Church, Floriana - 1942 and present day. The rest are of Valletta

We set off enthusiastically, on our first morning, on a walking tour of Valletta. I am shockingly unfit at the moment so I was a little worried about being able to keep up - and that was before I knew that Valletta was hilly and that the tour had been organised by a former army officer. As you would expect, Mike Peters was extremely efficient and also very congenial. He did get exasperated by us all and could occasionally be heard muttering about herding cats, and he did slip into army mode, sometimes arranging for us to rendezvous at 0930 hours, but this only added to the authenticity of the trip. This was only enhanced by the gorgeous, charismatic James Holland, with his fantastic booming voice, who set off at a marching pace and occasional directed us to look at something which was ‘at 10 o’clock or at two o’clock’. We were also accompanied by Gabriel Gauci a knowledgeable and charming local guide and Stuart Bertie, the official photographer who completed the team.

Our walk round Valletta took in the Malta Opera House, Lower and Upper Barracca Gardens, The Siege Bell, Lascaris War Rooms, Victory Cafe and the National Museum - and that was just the morning! No room for slackers! It was worth every step. James is obviously extremely knowledgeable, but also speaks with such passion, and compassion, when speaking of the human aspects of war, and we were also sent pictures to the WhatsApp group, of Malta during the war. Between James and Gabriel there were many stories of first hand experience of both the Maltese and the allied forces.

The Opera House hit on 7th April 1942 and today. It was not rebuilt. Kings Street 1942 (now Republic Street)

Siege Bell and statue to the Unknown Soldier

Barracca Gardens

The afternoon saw us enjoy one of a few experiences that were unique to our tour, when we were joined by Professor Timmy Gambin, professor of Maritime Archaeology at Malta University. We were taken by boat around the harbour to see Marsamxett harbour, Sliema Creek, Manoel Island, 10th Submarine Flotilla Base, Grand Harbour and the Frenchmen’s Creek. No half measures on this trip! Thanks to Boots travel pills we were able to enjoy the ride despite it getting pretty choppy at some points and our enthusiastic leaders eagerness to take us as close as possible to some of the sites.

Day two involved a lot less walking with a visit to Malta at War Museum, Air Raid Shelters and Tunnels. These were extraordinary! Most people know that the Maltese dug into the soft rock of the island to create their shelters, but to walk along these claustrophobic tunnels and chambers whilst Gabriel talked about life for the Maltese was moving and chilling.

A special moment for me was a visit to the Naval Cemetery, Cappucini. We were there to hear the stories of two of the individuals buried there. I was on my own mission, however, to visit the grave of a relative of my sister in law Judith, John Granard. His was a rare Star of David amongst the Crosses and it felt emotional for Malcolm and I to add our stones to those left by other family members on previous visits. The black and white photo below is of an attack on Luqa airbase where John died.

However, the highlight of the day had to be a talk from Professor Timmy about the work his team have done to identify and record the many wrecks of planes, boats and submarines in Maltese waters. Promising to speak for only 45minutes he drew breath an hour later having also explained the geography and the history of Malta going back to Napoleon. The black and white photo below shows the layout of all the harbours. He was even more passionate than James, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. This was followed by a 360 degree VR experience recorded by his team of a number of wrecks. It really felt like you were in the water with the divers. You can see their work at UnderwaterMalta.org. Timmy's view is that visiting the site is like visiting a cemetery. Because few people can dive below 50m they created this to allow people to visit.

Day three saw us stopping first at Mosta Dome. A beautiful church, on 9 April 1942, the Luftwaffe dropped three bombs on the church. Two of them deflected without exploding. However, one bomb pierced the dome and entered the church, where a congregation of more than 300 people was awaiting early evening Mass. The bomb didn’t explode, and it was defused and dumped into the sea off the west coast of Malta. Not surprisingly this event was interpreted as a miracle by the inhabitants, and a similar bomb is now displayed in the sacristy at the back of the church. When the church was later repaired the rosettes in the ceiling, where the bomb had come through, were left unpainted.

Wherever you go there is bomb damage on the monuments and buildings in every town and every village, but I’m not sure I would have noticed if it hadn’t been point it out by our specialist guide Gabriel.

Next stop Ta'Quali Aviation Museum followed by a visit to the beautiful town of Mdina. It reminded us of Carcassonne.

Final stop the Dingli Cliffs. What a beautiful end to the tour.

Many participants had a story. Below are pictures of Rich’s grandfather, the second one taken just before Operation Storm; Tuggy with his stepfather's ensign last flown in Maltese waters in 1944; and of course Bobbie with her father's wings.

The Second World War holds particular resonance for me. Half of my family was wiped out by the Nazis, but the other half were given refuge in Britain. Without Britain giving us refuge we would all have been destroyed and without Britain standing up to the Nazis no Jews would be left in Europe. .

Taking this tour was another step in our mid-life adventure. Second World War or James Holland groupies, at the end of the day we were just group of people with a variety of backgrounds, from different countries, with a shared interest in WW2. It was physically tiring, but mentally exhilarating.

Thank you to Stuart and Chiara, and others, for their photographs, some of which I have used in this blog (Stuart's have the white border). Thank you to Mike and James for an outstanding and well organised tour and to James for the years of work building up your extraordinary knowledge. Never having been on a group tour before, I don’t know if everyone is always so friendly, so thank you everyone for your warmth and good company. We didn’t go on this trip to make friends, but feel we have. We have certainly broadened our horizons and opened our minds to the different possibilities that there are out there for holidaying.

After our summer boat trip, described in an earlier blog, I said we would possibly rather than probably do it again, but a tour like this? 100%. Egypt and El Alamein James?