Conville & Walsh

11 June 1940. Italian aircraft fly over Malta for the first of more than 3,000 bombing raids that the island is to suffer during the longest in British history. The day before, Mussolini had declared war on Britain, and in that moment the tiny island of Malta became one of the most strategic pieces of land in the world.

Today her valiant struggle is largely forgotten, but for nearly three years Malta held the key to the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa – a theatre where victory or defeat depended on which side would win the logistics battle. Lying between Italy and Libya, Malta was the ideal place from which to attack Axis shipping lanes supplying Italian and German forces in North Africa. If Britain was to save Egypt, the Suez Canal and the Middle East oilfields from Nazi control, it was essential that the island be held at all costs.

Under a relentless and determined onslaught from the combined fascist forces, it seemed impossible that Malta would survive. One pilot commented that the fighting over Malta made the Battle of Britain ‘look like child’s play’ in comparison. Yet not only did they hang on by the skin of their teeth, their torpedo bombers and submariners continued to sink critical amounts of Rommel’s North Africa-bound supplies. In the build up to the lynchpin battle of Alamein, this was to prove decisive.

FORTRESS MALTA follows the story through the eyes of the individuals who were there: pilots, submariners, soldiers and civilians who each provide extraordinary tales of heroism, resilience, love and loss, highlighting one of the most remarkable stories of the Second World War.