Everyday life in Malta d Uring World War II (1)

Our islands claim to have been the most intensely bombed country during World War II. Military Malta was probably also one of the most photographed.

Compatibly with security defence regulations, which banned camera use in public spaces, authorised photographers recorded thousands of images of warfare – armed personnel, dogfights, maritime convoys, demolition units, antiaircraft gunnery, military sports. You name it. These have, justly, found their place in many published war memoirs.

The same cannot be said of images of everyday life in wartime. Very few photographs seem to have been taken or to have survived – a rarity indeed.

We know that, more or less, life of the inhabitants went on, notwithstanding the daily bombings, the dangers, destructions, racketeers, famines, terrors, underground shelters, epidemics and black markets. But we know this mostly through written and oral tradition, not through visual representations. I thought it my duty to put together as many images as possible of civilian life in Malta under the blitz and to break my rule of limiting any one subject to just one self-contained feature. In this special case, I intend to spread my col

Very few photographs seem to have been taken or to have survived

lection over two or three instalments. I trust readers will agree that it would be unsociable to hide rare historic treasures, many never published before.

The quality of the images will vary. Some come from scans of pristine real photographs while others are copies I had lifted from rare printed publications. Most of the people who appear in them have passed, with possible exceptions of some of the youngest children.

I salute the ‘natives’ and celebrate their memories, their endurance, resilience and stoicism. Without them, Malta’s survival against murderous Nazism and fanatical Fascism would have been unthinkable.

Distribution by the police of gas masks to Maltese families just before the outbreak of World War II.

Unloading supplies of much-needed essentials in 1943. ALL IMAGES FROM THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTIONS

Distribution of water near Kingsgate under police guard. A po

Life resumes close to the bombed Opera House, in Valletta.

Long lines of people queuing for milk during the siege.

People gather around the old-established Gopaldas outlet, in Valletta after it was bombed out.

lice station still open to the public in the basement of the blitzed Opera House.

Children playing on the wreckage of a downed German Stuka plane in Senglea.

Children buying prickly pears from a vendor during the war famine.

Emptying the granaries on the Floriana fossos during the siege.

Mother and daughter find a temporary refuge in blitzed Malta.