Malta in World War 2, the island's second siege and where it still shows

In 1565 Malta survived a four-month siege. Between 1940 and 1943 it survived another lasting more than three years, and Heritage Malta calls it just that, the second siege of Malta. For a British visitor this is the chapter that feels closest to home, and for me it’s the most moving part of Maltese history because you can still touch it. The shelters are still under Valletta’s streets, and the Mosta bomb has its replica in the sacristy.

It started at Fort St Elmo on 11 June 1940

Heritage Malta dates the first air raid on the islands to 11 June 1940, and the target was Fort St Elmo, the same fort that fell in 1565. Italy’s air offensive began that day. The fort now houses the National War Museum, laid out in seven sections with the Second World War as the best-represented conflict. That’s where you’ll find the Gloster Sea Gladiator ‘Faith’, Roosevelt’s jeep ‘Husky’ and the George Cross itself. More in Fort St Elmo.

Heritage Malta’s figures give the scale. Seventeen thousand tonnes of bombs on Malta and more than 50,000 naval mines in its waters in 1942. By that same institution’s reckoning, few places on earth were bombed as heavily as these islands between 1940 and 1942.

A city that moved underground

When the bombs came, Valletta’s people went below ground. Heritage Malta describes the population moving into a dense network of rock-cut shelters, alongside tunnels already used for moving troops, storing grain and carrying water. That network is now open as Underground Valletta, by booking only, with four tours a day on three days a week.

It isn’t the only trace. The Royal Opera House took a direct hit on the evening of 7 April 1942, and its ruins are now the open-air Pjazza Teatru Rjal. In Rabat, St Augustine’s Catacombs served as a shelter, and scratched by the doorway you can still see a Union Jack, a swastika and a note of when one air-raid alarm sounded. It’s one of the strangest traces of the whole war.

The Mosta bomb and the George Cross

The story everyone tells is Mosta’s. In 1942 a bomb came through the dome of the Rotunda and landed on the church floor without exploding. The parish puts it plainly, it didn’t go off, nobody died and the church wasn’t destroyed. The replica bomb and the air-raid shelter are both part of the visit to the Mosta Rotunda.

Recognition followed that same year. On 15 April 1942 George VI awarded Malta the George Cross, a date written into the Constitution. According to the European Commission, no Commonwealth country had received it before, since it is normally awarded to individuals, and the cross has flown on the flag since 1943. I think that says more about what the siege meant to Maltese identity than any monument.

Where was Malta’s war run from?

From beneath the Upper Barrakka Gardens. The Lascaris War Rooms sit 150 feet underground and were Britain’s war headquarters, including the RAF fighter control room. The Spitfires arrived in March 1942, according to Heritage Malta, and Wirt Artna volunteers have been restoring the rooms since 2009.

The high point came that summer. The Lascaris website says that in July 1943 Eisenhower, with Cunningham, Montgomery and Tedder, ran Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, from these rooms as a forward headquarters. In September 1943 the second siege ended in Allied victory, and on the 8th Italy’s surrender was made public, which Malta marks on the same day as the end of the Great Siege.

How I’d see the war in two days

Day one in Valletta. Lascaris first thing, open Monday to Saturday from 09:30, then Fort St Elmo, open daily. If you’ve booked, Underground Valletta runs four morning tours, hourly from 10:00 to 13:00, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, meeting at MUŻA half an hour beforehand.

Day two across the harbour. The Malta at War Museum in Birgu, with its shelters, then the bus to Mosta for the Rotunda. If you dive, Heritage Malta manages wartime wrecks such as the submarine HMS Olympus and a Spitfire off Qala as underwater heritage, visited with authorised centres. And if Wirt Artna runs more than one site on your list, buy its €50 pass on day one, as it’s valid for a week from first use.