Forbidden History - Malta Under Seige

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

The fate of the small Mediterranean island of Malta hung by a thread during World War II. In this episode, we speak with experts as they explore the defences of Malta, the intricate underground tunnel network built by the Maltese people to shelter from the relentless bombing, and the incredible story of the vessel that saved the island from starvation. Cast List: Victoria Taylor: Aviation Historian Katherine Sharp Landdeck: Author and Historian Albert Dimech: Local Guide Guy Walters: Author and Historian Geoffrey Wawro: Military Historian Timmy Gambin: Marine Archaeologist James Corum: Military Historian Robert M. Citino: Senior Historian, The National WWII Museum Matthew Balzan: Principal Curator Fortifications Stephen Prince: Military Historian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. This program is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It contains adult themes. Listener discretion is advised. After braving two years under enemy siege in World War II, the British Island Colony of Malta is awarded the George Cross for heroism. The bombing of Malta was absolutely colossal. It was a scale that wasn't seen at any other point during the war.

To escape the relentless bombing, the Maltese were forced to survive underground. The Maltese lived in cellars and tunnels for months on end. Desperate missions to supply the besieged island led to Britain's worst submarine disaster of World War II. Measuring just 17 miles long by nine miles wide, Malta is home to many historic walled cities, forts, batteries, and citadels. A reminder that over the past centuries, those who have controlled this small island understood its strategic importance and the need to protect it against would-be invaders. But would Malta's defenses be strong enough to resist all-out attack in World War II? Malta is this relatively tiny island, but actually it's absolutely vital to the British

because it's a strategic and tactical staging post. Malta has always been a vital bridge between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Because of its geographic location, it sits in the Mediterranean between Italy and Libya. It gives you all kinds of possibilities for basing air, for basing submarines, for basing surface ships, and wreaking havoc on any enemy attempt to control any of these places. Malta is rich in military history, and the waters are strong. that surround it are no exception. Below the surface, the seabed is riddled with wartime mysteries. Researching and preserving the island's wartime past is Professor Timmy Gambon and his team from Heritage Malta.

He and his team have discovered over 100 wrecked aircraft, submarines and ships from World War II in the waters around Malta. But his most poignant discovery is the wreck of the worst. British submarine disaster of the entire war. The reason for such a high concentration of wartime losses around the island of Malta is because early on in World War II, Malta was identified by the Axis powers as the key to capturing North Africa and controlling the strategic southern coast of the Mediterranean. But initially, while conflict raged across most of Europe in the early months of the war, Malta, due to its remote and isolated location in the Mediterranean, remained relatively

unaffected. As a result, Britain put few resources into strengthening the defenses of its distant island colony. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Britain doesn't really have her eye on Malta. She's not particularly worried about her, because actually when you look at the strategic situation at this period, Malta is not surrounded by enemies. The countries are either friendly like France or they're at the time neutral, like Italy, they're not yet in the war. And so there's nothing for Malta to do. Malta had a relatively lower position in British defense priorities because Germany was obviously the great threat.

So any funding for air defense, anti-aircraft guns, aircraft is going to go to Britain first. There are probably 5,000 troops on Malta altogether. Certainly nothing to hold off any kind of serious invasion were one to take place. On the northern coast of Malta, nearest to Italy, a series of limestone terraces hint at an attempt to modernize the island's defenses. Built by the British in 1937, Fort Campbell today stands abandoned and dilapidated. Fort Campbell is the last major fortification. to be built by the British on the Maltese Islands. It was built as part of the coastal defense

of the Maltese Islands in preparation for the Second World War. Unlike Malta's centuries-old fortifications built to defend against attacks from the sea, Fort Campbell was constructed to combat the new 20th century military threat of air power. Fort Campbell is quite a unique fortification for the Maltese Islands, since it is the only fort which was built

to be camouflaged from the air power. the air. In fact, it is of an irregular shape, so it will blend in its surrounding environment, and from there it will look just like another normal field. In order to provide the best protection against aerial attack, Fort Campbell was designed with its buildings spread out at a distance from each other. This limited the potential damage to the fort from aerial bombardment, while air raid shelters provided protection for the men stationed there. Hidden from view from the air would be the several

important sections to make up a fortification, including the gun emplacements. Two six-inch breech-loading guns were sited out towards the sea. A third was also added during the course of the war. Their emplacements are now standing empty, but the guns, when in action, would have provided a powerful defense. Fort Campbell was Britain's best attempt to construct modern 20th century defenses on Malta, but in many ways it was too low. It was too little, too late.

Malta's previously peaceful wartime experience came to a dramatic end on the 10th of June 1940, when formerly neutral Italy joined the Axis Powers by declaring war on Britain and France. Suddenly Malta is at the hub of the war itself. I mean, she is an absolute hotspot of potential conflict. With Italy now entered into the fray, the Axis Powers opened a new front to the war. war in North Africa. Malta now became one of the most vitally strategic positions in the whole of the Mediterranean. Rommel famously says, without Malta, we will lose the war in the desert. In other words, the Germans and the Italians knew they had to take Malta, because Malta just

sat between the Africa Corps and the Italian Army in North Africa and its vital supply lines. And so not only does she become a place that needs to be defended, but she's also, of course, a place you can use to attack Fromm. Just a few hours after joining forces with Hitler, Italy sent its Air Force on an urgent mission to attack British-controlled Malta. Malta had very little defence against the air attack in the early stage of the war.

The island was defended by three C-glossar gladiators that had been taken away from the Royal Navy and were piloted by the Royal Air Force. And these were known as faith, hope and charity because they were the only ones that were meant to be defending the island, even though there were always some in reserve and some others that were packed in crates. So there were more than these three aircraft, but it became synonymous with Malta and with its underpowering in the early years of the Second World War.

Malta's defenses are just not up to the task. They are completely unprepared for the attacks that are coming. Early on the morning of the 11th of June 1940, air raid sirens around Malta signal the arrival of the Italian Air Force. Malta's gladiator pilots scrambled to their obsolete aircraft. Despite being heavily outnumbered, they put up a valiant effort. But a direct hit on Fort St. Elmo in Valletta brought Malta its first casualties of the war. Six members of the Royal Malta artillery lost their lives in the attack.

The Axis powers were determined to beat Malta into submission. By the end of that first day, there had been seven air raid alerts and three bombing raids by at least 75 enemy aircraft, causing many civilian casualties. The deadly bombardment on Malta's first day in the war signaled the start of one of the most traumatic periods in the island's history. And with Italian air bases, just 60 miles away in neighboring Sicily, more by the island's history, more by the most traumatic. bombing raids were inevitable. War had come suddenly, and the Maltese were scrambling to figure out how to respond. The British, although stretched on many fronts, realized that strengthening Malta's defenses

was now essential. Churchill reinforced Malta, but only to the best of Britain's ability. Of course, Britain had to keep most of its defensive forces at home against the German threat. But he sent what aircraft he could, the squadrons of Hawker hurricanes, a small but significant force of various kinds of tanks, but especially men. One of the areas requiring crucial reinforcement was the Grand Harbor in Malta's capital, Valletta. For centuries, Malta's harbor defenses, such as the iconic Fort St. Elmo, had been tasked with keeping the island safe.

The Grand Harbor was the most heavily defended patch of Malta to start with, because the thing that had attracted Britain to Malta in the first place was the naval. based that. For hundreds of years, two main forts have defended the entrance to Malta's Grand Harbor. To the east is Fort Ricassoli, the largest fortress in Malta. Over the centuries, it has repelled Ottoman, French, and Italian attacks. On the western approach to the Grand Harbor, Fort St. Elmo was rebuilt by the Knights of St. John, after being destroyed in 1565 by the Ottomans during their great siege of Malta. On the edge of the fort, just before the outbreak of World War II,

the British added quick-firing twin-barreled six-pounder guns. But these repurposed ancient fortresses were threatened by frequent Italian bombing attacks. The Grand Harbor was the main target of the enemy planes, that was in a very dangerous place. And so, in 1940, the British, tunneled underneath the saluting battery overlooking the harbor to create the Las Karis war rooms. Safely protected underground from Italian bombing raids on the Grand Harbor, it was from

these headquarters that allied commanders coordinated the defense of Malta. But with Malta under incessant and overwhelming attack, it was a struggle against the odds. The Italian Air Force, they attacked the ports, they attacked the cities, they attacked the towns. And worse was soon to come in the form of the German Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe first arrived off Malta in January 1941 when they attacked the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrius, which was protecting supply convoys en route to Malta. It attacked repeatedly and they managed to drop five bombs on it

and take out the rudder, but yet it still uses its engines to steer its way into port. It's kind of a miracle, frankly, that the Illustrius is still going. The ship limped its way into the Grand Harbor, but the Axis powers were determined to finish off what they had started and completely sink it. Now the Germans and the Italians, they look at this aircraft carrying, they go, that's a big prize. We want to put that right at the bottom of the harbor,

because that represents a real threat. As the maintenance crews worked around the clock to repair the ship in the Grand Harbor, the Luftwaffe closed in for the kill. for the kill. With only a few allied fighter planes on Malta, anti-aircraft guns were the island's main defense against the might of the Luftwaffe. Malta's defenders did what they could to repel the Luftwaffe, but were ultimately overpowered. Despite the smoke screens and the intensive anti-aircraft fire, many German planes got through and bombed not only the illustrious, but the surrounding areas. The airspace, the airs.

urban centers around the illustrious were all but flattened. For those on the ground facing this barrage, the Stuka was as much a psychological weapon as it was a physical one. It was fixed with what we call Jericho's sirens underneath its wings that would scream as the Stuka went into a dive going at 300 miles per hour, so it would have been absolutely terrifying for the civilians below. The ferocity and intensity of the illustrious attack left a massive psychological scar on the local inhabitants.

The death and destruction caused by this ferocious Luftwaffe attack left Malta shaken. But it was just a small taste of what Malta would have to endure in the months to come. We continue the story right after the break. The arrival of the Luftwaffe and the carnage they had unleashed during their attack was a crushing blow for the island. But while Malta's defenders were looking at the skies for more incoming attacks, the Italian Navy was secretly looking below the water for potential weaknesses. In July 1941, Italy mounted a daring raid on Malta's defenses. La Decima, a highly trained elite unit of the Italian Navy, prepared to wreak havoc on the Royal

Navy's fleet stationed in the Grand Harbor. To aid them in the attack, they brought with them a new and top secret weapon, the huge We tend to think of these elite underwater Frogman special forces units as being a kind of British or an American invention, you know, Navy SEALs, special boat service. Actually, it's likely that the Italians got there first. They operated small explosive boats that could be rammed against larger shipping and also human torpedoes, which are effectively a conventional torpedo modified so that Frogman can. and ride it into a harbor, place explosive against a ship, and then seek to escape on the same torpedo. Heavily armed forts overlooked the breakwaters

at the entrance to the Grand Harbor, and the space between them was blocked with metal nets, designed to withstand torpedoes and submarines. The crux of the plan was to cut a breach in the metal net that was under the bridge. Covertly rigging explosives to the net was the job of the human torpedo. The blast would act as a cue for the rest of the Italians

to speed under the bridge in their explosive boats and attacked the British fleet moored in the harbor. The reason for them needing to be quiet and stealthy is this large concentration of lookout posts and gun emplacements. So the Italians were attacking right under the noses of the defenders. Just before dawn, the attack force gathered at their meeting point near the entrance to the Grand Harbor. A human torpedo was sent in to deploy its charge,

but after a long, intense wait, there was no explosion. In desperation, Ariste de Carabelli, a dedicated Italian officer, sprang into action. He drives his fast explosive boat directly at the bridge. Sacrificing himself, Carabelli smashed into the bridge, disappearing. in a huge fireball. Hearing the explosion and assuming their path was now clear, his fellow attackers raced towards the bridge. The force of this massive explosion blows one of the sections of the bridge right off its foundation,

and this literally lands and blocks the channel into the harbor. Stuck at the impassable bridge, the elite Italian unit have nowhere to hide. The searchlights come on, the sea is illuminated, and literally it turns into a Turkish chute. It was a devastating failure for the Italians. 15 men were killed and 18 captured. Not a single member of Laditsima made it home from the disastrous mission.

La Decima, courageous, dastardly, all these things, but ultimately strategically insignificant. Yet despite the total failure of the total failure of, Vladicima's mission, the threat to Malta from the air remained as deadly as ever. Throughout the summer of 1941, the ferocious Axis bombing attacks continued. When we think of bombing during the Second World War, we typically think of the blitz over London and other British cities. I mean, that was a birthday party compared to what was happening to Malta. The bombing of Malta was absolutely colossal, you know, it was a scale that wasn't seen at any other point during the war.

During the most intense period of bombing, the Maltese had to endure repeated heavy bombing raids day after day for a staggering 154 days in a row. By comparison, the London Blitz lasted just 57 days. You have both the Germans and the Italians attacking from the air and flattening cities and towns and ports. In World War II, Malta was working. one of the most bombed places on earth. Its population of around a quarter of a million people desperately did what they could to shelter from the incessant aerial onslaught. In Malta's capital, Valletta, the inhabitants came up with an ingenious solution. Valetta local, Albert Dimec, knows the forgotten history of a tunnel network below the very center of the city.

These shelters were made at the beginning were a sewage system. The sewers below Valletta were originally carved out of the rock in the 16th century. By the 1940s, the old sewers were no longer operational, so the tunnels could be put to use for other purposes. As the bombing intensified, the people of Valletta were forced to use this dark underground system for shelter. Work started on widening the old sewer system into corridors, and the people also began to carve rooms out of the rock. The Maltese lived in cellars and tunnels for months on end,

and it was a miserable existence. Limestone is porous, so it's damp, it's dark, it's wet. People suffered from chronic lung conditions, from living in the caves. For some whose homes had been destroyed, these became permanent living spaces, carefully decorated with floor tiles, cupboards were burrowed into the rock.

Some personal belongings remain, including religious symbols. As a country, we are a very religious country. The stories that I heard from old people that lived in shelters, during the war. That in this silence, it can only be broken by prayers or children crying.

Chaos was totaled in them. Whole families had to cram into little spots in these caves. Parents lost their children. Children got separated from their families. The electricity came in and out. Food distribution within the caves was very, very uneven. Families packed into rooms. But there were so many people that they spilled out

into the entire labyrinth. The overcrowded and unsanitary conditions were barely endurable for the residents. But with bombing raids lasting as long as five months without a break, it was much safer than facing death raining down from the skies. People who lived above the tunnels began to dig access routes directly from their homes so that they could gain quick entry. The government made it legal to dig or expand whatever space people had below their homes. so they could create their own underground shelters.

Thanks to their centuries-old origins as sewers, the tunnels matched the layout of the city streets. During the war, the Maltese survived in what was effectively a parallel underground city hidden from the relentless German bombers. So during the air raid, the people will stay in the shelter. But when the air raid stopped, They used to come here. Opposite the Courts of Justice building,

the tunnel opens out to reveal an unusual feature, a massive water cistern, originally built in the 16th century. The larger space gave people a break from the cramped conditions in the tunnels. It meant that they could see their friends and neighbors, trade information or rations, and feel a little more human.

But they couldn't stay long. If a bomb were to hit Republic Street above, the ceiling could easily collapse. But although the Maltese were just about surviving, the Axis powers were gradually choking the island's supply lines to the point of starvation. So the Allies were forced to come up with a last-ditch secret lifeline. A Malta is an island. It is dependent on supply from the outside. And as the war is ongoing and the continued attacks are there, They are not getting resupplied the way they need to. Women were wearing dresses made out of parachute cloth,

and men were wearing winter coats made out of old blankets, and people were existing on half a spoonful of jam every day. Shipping convoys, attempting the 1,000-mile journey to resupply Malta, came under constant attack from the Italian Navy and Air Force and the Luftwaffe. The treacherous supply route became littered with wrecks of of sunken ships at a very high cost of allied lives. Desperate to save Malta, the Allies came up with a bold gamble. They would try to secretly sneak Malta's vital supplies beneath enemy lines in submarines.

Food supplies, medical supplies, and ammunition. All this had to be conveyed by submarine because the surface ships were taking hits from the Lufofer and from the Regia Aeronautica. The crucial supplies began to flood in on Allied submarines. But while this helped Malta resist the Axis siege, it also resulted in the British Navy's worst submarine tragedy of the entire war. HMS Olympus, one of the submarines bringing supplies to Malta, would meet its fate on the way home.

Naval mines were a major hazard. Over 54,000 of them were laid in the waters around Malta by the Germans and Italians. Although HMS Olympus had originally arrived in Malta carrying supplies, it was mined and sunk while leaving Malta with a much larger crew than usual. In addition to its own crew of 55, the Olympus was also carrying 43 crewmen from other submarines which had been sunk in air raids while in harbor in Malta. As a result, disastrously, the Olympus was packed with nearly twice as a as many men as it was designed for.

But what exactly happened when the greatest British submarine disaster of World War II unfolded? Professor Timmy Gambon has uncovered some crucial clues about what must have happened when the Olympus sank seven miles off the coast of Malta. The hull of the Olympus has two layers. It would only have sunk if the inner layer, known as the pressure hull, was pierced by the mine explosion. We were able to measure the entire length of the damage, something in the range of five or six meters.

The fact that the damage affected less than 20 feet on a submarine nearly 300 feet long suggests the submarine may not have sunk immediately, giving those inside a chance to escape. Actually you can even see that the hatch is open on the conning tower, so possibly indicating where the men exited from the submarine. On the wreck of the Olympus, the exit hatch is open, confirming that the Olympus must have managed to surface before sinking. While water was gradually flooding in from the mine damage, nearly 100 men on board would have desperately tried to escape the sinking tomb.

They obviously were ordered to exit and muster on the mountain. and muster on deck. So I think the majority of them exited from the Conning Tower. And then they must have made their way down this ladder and lined up on the deck. But with the submarine rapidly sinking, those who escaped had no means to call for rescue. In order to survive, they had to swim seven miles back to Malta.

Given the distance, only nine men were able to make it back. Probably the most unusual thing about Olympus is that anybody survives. Most submarine losses are with all hands. Tragically, the fact that the Olympus was packed with nearly twice as many men as its usual crew meant that 89 men lost their lives in the worst British submarine tragedy of World War II. The relentless Axis siege of Malta continued. To survive, the island still desperately required supplies. submarines with their small, confined spaces could only bring in a fraction of what was needed.

So in a last-ditch attempt to rescue the island from disaster, the Allies put together a bold, all-or-nothing plan. Operation Pedestal in August of 1942, dozens of ships leave Gibraltar, sailing towards Malta with supplies of all sorts at a time when the island was at its lowest ebb. The Allies hoped that sheer numbers would enable the convoy to make it to Malta. Two battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven cruisers, and 32 destroyers protected 14 merchant vessels carrying fuel, food, and other supplies, vital for Malta's survival. But determined to stop the Allied rescue mission at all costs, the Axis Powers were ready and waiting for the convoy.

One ship after the other sunk either by German or Italian submarines or German and Italian aircraft. Over the next five days and nights, the convoy battled its way through the incessant Axis attacks. But more and more of the merchant ships were sunk. In Malta, desperate for relief from the Axis siege, all the population could do was wait. But just as all hopes seemed lost, on the 15th of August, limping into the harbor, came salvation. The ship, Ohio, carrying a precious load of fuel, it's hit repeatedly, it's practically coming apart at the seams,

but it manages to get itself to the entrance to Valletta Harbor where tugboats pull it in. That single ship probably saved Malta in its most difficult period. The Allies lost nine merchant vessels, one aircraft carrier, two cruisers and one destroyer during the attacks on the convoy, and as many as 500 lives were lost. But the Ohio and the other four merchant ships that made it to Malta brought the island just enough supplies so it could continue its valiant fight

against the Axis powers. By August 1942, over 150 spit fireplanes were on hand to defend Malta. Useless without fuel, as a result of the successful convoy, they were now refueled and able to carry on the fight. Deciding that Malta was now too well protected, within a few months, the Axis powers had abandoned their attempt to force the island fortress into submission. Malta had survived.

The towns of Malta were leveled, but the Maltese didn't panic of any population that suffered siege in World War II, the Maltese stand right at the top for fortitude and courage in all that time. To honor the bravery of the Maltese people in resisting the Axis siege for so long, the British king, George the 6th, awarded the island the George Cross for heroism. The George Cross was then added to the Maltese flag and remains there to the present day. Malta's wartime past are a stark reminder of the incredible resilience and sacrifice of the Maltese people during World War II. Remarkably, in the end, this tiny island's brave resistance

crucially helped the Allies win the war in the Mediterranean. Thanks for exploring the past with us today. If you like this episode, please be sure to follow for more. We post new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to leave a comment below, and feel free to leave us a rating or review. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners like you. And for more from the Like a Shot Network, check out Where Did Everyone Go, Histories of the Abandoned, a deep dive into the incredible stories behind forgotten places, available now on your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for listening.