The previous Blog Post covered our arrival and a morning ashore in the Three Cities in Valletta, Malta. This was the second shore day on the Saga Eastern Mediterranean Cruise. After Terry, Karen & Lexie decided to head back towards the Old Town of Valletta, I decided to stay in Vittoriosa, one of the Three Cities and head to the War Museum. This looked a really interesting museum as it covered more than just war time items.
The War Museum appears to be cramped, as it packs in lots of information and exhibits into a small number of rooms. There is plenty to see. The museum is focused on the war in the Mediterranean, the siege of Malta between June 1940 and Nov 1942, as well as, how the siege impacted the island's population.
The most unique item in the museum was the George Cross that was awarded to Malta. This medal was created by George VI. It is the highest award that can be given to civilians and it is the civilian equivalent of the Victoria Cross. It is awarded for acts of the greatest heroism or the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger. Only four hundred and sixteen have been awarded since its introduction in Sep 1940.
A crucial part of the German siege of Malta, was trying to ensure that supplies of weapons, food and fuel didn't reach Malta. The Allies made repeated attempts to reprovision Malta during the siege, with the loss of many ships and men in the Mediterranean. However, one year into the siege, they had managed to supply enough fighters and bombers to Malta to help defend Malta. Malta also continued to act as a Royal Navy base with its planes, ships and submarines being deployed to attack German convoys heading to North Africa. This was why Malta was such a crucial wartime base, as it controlled so much of the central Mediterranean and affected the success of the North African campaign for both sides. By Spring 1942, the Germans were back on the offensive in North Africa and the plans to invade Malta still hadn't been agreed. Finally, the Allies had managed to send some Spitfires to Malta. Their appearance, despite heavy losses, helped to achieve air supremacy over Malta by that Summer. Despite this air supremacy, the Allies were losing large numbers of ships, men and provisions in trying to resupply Malta.
One of the key convoys contained the SS Ohio, which was carrying vital supplies of kerosene and diesel. There were many losses to that convoy and the SS Ohio was torpedoed, hit by bombs and broke her back. However, as she remained afloat, some of the Royal Navy escorts were used to tow her to Malta. She arrived badly damaged and the dock crew just managed to unload the fuel before she sank in the harbour. This fuel was vital to resupply Malta and keep her planes flying. Fortunately, by late 1942, Rommel was in retreat in North Africa, partially helped by heavy losses of supply ships caused by Malta's planes. The siege of Malta was finally ended by the Germans, as the German Luftwaffe was redirected to support Rommel.
Having looked around the War Museum, there was an opportunity to look below it. The limestone of the island is ideal for tunnelling into and many miles of tunnels were dug below Valletta. A large part of the population lived below ground during the siege, due to the repeated bombing raids. Tunnels and many small side chambers were dug, which followed the above ground road network. These side chambers formed shelters for the occupants of the houses above. The War Museum has reopened a small section of the tunnels underneath the Museum to provide an example of what live was like living underground.
Back on the surface, I could explore the Old Town Walls in some much-appreciated Winter sun. Unusually, I hadn't bothered to take my decent camera ashore, as I wasn't expecting to see anything worth looking at. However, there was a showy Sardinian Warbler around the walls and I managed to get a good look at the Sparrows, which confirmed they were Italian Sparrows, not the House Sparrows I had assumed when I saw the first female.
I took a circuitous route back to the small boat jetty to explore some of the smaller streets in Vittoriosa.
After a bit of time looking at the old town, I was back at the jetty.
I was back on the Spirit of Adventure just before the back deck restaurant stopped serving food at three. We sailed at five, but there wasn't enough light to carry out any surveying. We had a look in case any Dolphins put in an appearance, but none did. Still we could enjoy a final view of Valletta.
