Malta in World War Two

 

Battle over Malta : Aircraft Losses & Crash Sites 1940-42
by Anthony Rogers
Book Description From 1940 to 1942, supremacy of the skies over Malta was bitterly contested by the RAF, the Regia Aeronautica and the Luftwaffe. Victory was eventually achieved, but at great cost, by the RAF together with Malta-based ground forces, the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine. 

The desperate air battles have since passed into legend, epitomized by the early exploits of a few Royal Navy Sea Gladiator biplane fighters, taken over by the RAF and immortalized as Faith, Hope and Charity. 

More than a thousand aircraft of all types were lost before the fighting was over. Many crashed into the Mediterranean, and others fell on Malta itself. Anthony Rogers has painstakingly researched the background to nearly 200 of these crashes, interviewing eyewitnesses and surviving aircrew, to provide a unique record of events. 

The authors detailed and descriptive account includes a series of narrative snapshots that reveal just how bitter the air battle for Malta actually was. His work is supplemented with more than thirty wartime photographs, many of which are published here for the first time, and includes a usefull section on aviation museums and collections on the island.
Publisher: Sutton Publishing;

The End of the Beginning : From the Siege of Malta to the Allied Victory at El Alamein
by Tim Clayton, Phil Craig
Hardcover from Free Press

The End of the Beginning: From the Siege of Malta to the Allied Victory at El Alamein
by Tim Clayton, Phil Craig, Buckner F., Jr. Melton
Paperback from Free Press

Battle for Malta
by George Forty
Hardcover from Ian Allan Pub

Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege, 1940-1943
by James Holland
Book Description: June 11, 1940. Italian aircraft pummel the idyllic Mediterranean island of Malta. It is the first of more than three thousand raids that the island will suffer as it becomes the most bombed place on earth. 

The day before, Mussolini had declared war on Britain, and in that moment, the tiny island of Malta—slightly larger than Cape Cod—became one of the most important strategic pieces of land in the world. 

Today, this valiant story is largely forgotten, but James Holland offers a riveting portrait of the siege that helped determine victory or defeat in World War II. For nearly three years, Malta held the key to dominance in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Lying between Italy and Libya, Malta was the ideal place from which to attack shipping lines supplying Italian and German forces in North Africa. To save Egypt, the Suez Canal, and the Middle East oil fields from Nazi control, it was essential that the island be held at all costs. 

The Axis powers were equally determined to annihilate Malta. In two months alone—March and April 1942—more bombs fell on Malta than on London during the entire Blitz. A small band of fighter pilots facing the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica; a garrison of British and American troops; and a stubborn local population refused to surrender to vastly superior forces. Despite starvation and disease, the Maltese bravely held out. Not only did they hang on, their torpedo bombers and submariners continued to sink critical amounts of Rommel's supplies. In honor of this tenacity and bravery, George VI bestowed the George Cross, the highest civilian award for valor, upon the entire island. 

Fortress Malta follows the story through the eyes of individuals who were there: the pilots, submariners, soldiers, and civilians who provide the tales of heroism, resilience, love, and loss. Using interviews with survivors, letters, and diaries never-before-published, James Holland brings to life this extraordinary real-life David-and-Goliath battle in a moving, astonishing narrative.
Hardcover from Miramax

Malta Spitfire: The Diary of a Fighter Pilot (Greenhill Military Paperbacks)
by George F. Beurling, Leslie Roberts, Christopher Shores, George F. Buerling
Paperback from Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal

Hell Island: Canadian Pilots and the 1942 Air Battle for Malta
by Dan McCaffery
Hardcover from Formac

Malta: The Last Great Siege 1940 - 1943
by David Wragg
Hardcover from Pen & Sword

Malta: The Hurricane Years 1940-41
by Christopher Shores, Brian Cull, Nicola Malizia
Hardcover from Grub Street the Basement
1994

Malta : The Spitfire Year, 1942
by Christopher Shores, Brian Cull, Nicola Malizia
Hardcover (May 1991)
Seven Hills Book Distributors; ISBN: 094881716X
Special Order

The Royal Navy and the Malta and Russian Convoys, 1941-1942 (Naval Staff Histories)
by C. L. W. Page, the First Sea Lord
Hardcover from Frank Cass & Co

Out of Print - Try Used Books
 

Siege: Malta 1940-1943 (Pen & Sword Military Classics) by Ernle Bradford Paperback from Pen & Sword

Spitfires over Sicily : The Crucial Role of the Malta Spitfires in the Battle of Sicily, July - August 1943
by Brian Cull, Nicola Malizia (Contributor), Frederick Galea (Contributor)
Publisher: Grub Street the Basement; (November )
ISBN: 1902304322

Supreme Gallantry
Tony Spooner
The importance of Malta in breaking Romel's supply lines.
Hardcover - 369 pages
John Murray; ISBN: 0719557062
Special Order

Torpedo Leader on Malta
by Patrick Gibbs
Paperback from Grub Street the Basement

 

Pedestal: The Malta Convoy of August 1942
by Peter C. Smith
Hardcover from HarperCollins Publishers
1986
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 
 
 

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