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Savoia-Marchetti SM 84
REPRISALS FOR ATTACKS ON AXIS BASES AND SHIPPING
Yesterday’s attacks on enemy shipping have prompted immediate reprisals from the enemy today. All three airfields were targeted in a raid at dusk this evening in one of the heaviest attacks in recent days. The enemy action seemed designed to knock out Wellington and Albacore aircraft which have restarted successful offensive operations again against Sicilian aerodromes and enemy shipping.
PROSPECT OF INVASION STILL LOOMS
“The Photographic Reconnaisance Unit had detailed the construction of airstrips in Italy for gliders. Field Marshall Kesselring seemed to have convinced Hitler, Mussolini and General Rommel that Operation Herkules [the invasion of Malta] should go ahead in July. General Student, who commanded the bloody aerial assault on Crete, was developing similar plans for Malta.
On the evening of May 25 a large German air raid on Gasr El Arid, in Libya, intending to knock out as many of the RAF planes in North Africa as possible, started Rommel’s “Operation Theseus”, his last great advance that died at El Alamein. He had decided that the best way to win the Mediterranean was to conquer North Africa first, then take on Malta. His strategy was generally flawed, as aircraft from Malta could intercept his supplies. Especially with the new supplies of Spitfires. As it turned out, Rommel was a much better tactician than a strategician. Kesselring was correct, Operation Herkules was necessary to knock out Malta prior to defeating the Allies in North Africa.
The rest of May would turn out to be the harshest month yet.” (1)
AIR RAIDS DAWN 25 MAY TO DAWN 26 MAY 1942
Weather Wind southerly; slight.
0530-0610 hrs Four Spitfires 603 Squadron Ta Qali airborne on patrol: no interceptions.
0830-0945 hrs Four Spitfires 126 Squadron Luqa are scrambled to intercept a reported plot of enemy aircraft: no engagement.
0855-0930 hrs Four Spitfires airborne from Ta Qali and see two ME 109s but do not intercept.
1420-1550 hrs Eight Spitfires 249 Squadron Ta Qali are scrambled to intercept a 60 strong enemy formation, including three Italian bombers, forty-two ME 109s and Italian fighters attack Luqa.
1457 hrs 16 Spitfires 126 and 601 Squadrons Luqa are scrambled too late to contact the bomber force; they engage the fighter escort. F/Sgt Goldsmith damages one Cant 1007 and one Re 2001. P/O Caldwell fails to return. The Spitfires of 249 Squadron also engage the enemy. F/O West destroys one Italian Re 2001. P/O McNair probably destroys one ME 109. S/Ldr New damages one Cant 1007. F/O Lee damages one Cant 1007 but is then himself hit in the wing and engine. Sgt Brennan damages one Re 2001. Sgt De Nancreds damages one ME 109.
1503 hrs Three Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM 84 aircraft drop eighteen 100kg bombs on the Luqa area from a high level.
1938 hrs Waves of enemy bombers with fighter escort approach the Island. Four Spitfires 249 Squadron Ta Qali and four Spitfires 601 Squadron Luqa are scrambled to intercept the enemy aircraft: no combat is reported.
1945 hrs Nine JU 88s and six ME 109 fighter bombers with an escort of 20 plus fighters attack all three aerodromes, plus Kalafrana and Corradino. Raiders are engaged by Heavy Ack Ack fire. Delimara gun position is hit, killing seven members of 4 Heavy Ack Ack Regiment Royal Artillery.
At Luqa bombs fall near the main stores and damage the aerodrome including a large crater on the main runway. Delayed action bombs are dropped in the dispersal area and near the runway. Two Wellingtons are damaged.
2057 hrs Three JU 88s attack, dropping nine high explosive bombs on the Safi strip and Mqabba areas.
2145 hrs Four Spitfires 126 Squadron Ta Qali are airborne from Luqa to intercept six JU 88s: no engagement. They land at Ta Qali.
Night Eleven enemy raiders come in and drop bombs at various places on the Island including areas around Valletta. In the early hours of the morning, high explosive bombs on Hamrun cause damage to civilian properties, killing thirteen and injuring six. The enemy engaged by barrage gunfire.
2300 hrs One Beaufighter airborne from Luqa at 2035 hrs lands at Ta Qali. Bombs are dropped on Ta Qali airfield, on top of the caves between the western dispersal hut and Imtarfa.
0106-0213 hrs Nine raiders drop bombs on Luqa. An unserviceable Wellington is burned out and a number of craters made in the dispersal area.
0139 hrs One aircraft drops two bombs on Misrah Blandun and two bombs on the Safi strip.
Military casualties Pilot Officer Walter Caldwell, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 601 Squadron; Lance Bombardier Alfred Broadhurst, 4 Heavy Ack Ack (HAA) Regiment, Royal Artillery; Gunner John Fitzsimons, 5 Battery, 4 HAA Regiment, Royal Artillery; Gunner William Kelly, 4 HAA Regiment, Royal Artillery; Bombardier Walter Longville, 4 HAA Regiment, Royal Artillery; Sergeant John McCarthy, 4 Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery; Gunner George O’Brien, 4 HAA Regiment, Royal Artillery; Gunner Harold Ward, 4 HAA Regiment, Royal Artillery.
Civilian casualties Hamrun Carmel Borg, age 35; Stella Borg, age 34; Carmel Borg, age 3; William Brimmer, age 38; Carmela Brimma, age 62; Joseph Darmanin, age 68; Concetta Decelis, age 64; Adelaide Fabri, age 32; Antonia Falzon, age 60; Carmela Felice, age 66; Carmela Pace, age 5; Paul Rizzo, age 70; Doris Rizzo, age 18.
OPERATIONS REPORTS MONDAY 25 MAY 1942
ROYAL NAVY Harbour craft swept Grand Harbour entrance and destroyed one mine. About 20 tons of fuel oil was extracted from Breconshire in drums and landed by small craft.
AIR HQ Arrivals One Lodestar from Gambut. Departures Two Wellingtons, Five Beauforts, two Blenheims to LG 222; one Hudson to Gibraltar. Aircraft casualties One Beaufort crashed on take-off: crew uninjured. One Blenheim damaged while taxiing: crew uninjured. One Spitfire failed to return from operations: pilot missing.
LUQA 0815-1035 hrs One Spitfire photo-reconnaissance Augusta Harbour. 2054-2345 hrs Two Wellingtons 104 Squadron despatched to bomb a train ferry at Messina. Bombs straddled the target and some fell in the south and south east of the harbour.
4th BN THE BUFFS (ROYAL EAST KENT) REGIMENT 0900-1700 hrs Working party of 9 Officers and 200 Other Ranks plus 8 x 15 cwt trucks daily for reconstruction of pens for aircraft at Luqa aerodrome.
1st BN THE CHESHIRE REGIMENT Working parties at Luqa and Ospizio continue.
1ST BN THE DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY Working parties on Luqa aerodrome continue. Summer dress is adopted for all purposes.
FORTRESS ROYAL ENGINEERS Bomb Disposal UXB Reported 3; dealt with 4 (3 x 250kg, 1 x 50kg).
1ST BN THE HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT 17 vehicles, 4 Officers, 150-250 Other Ranks at Safi strip widening and levelling runway.
8TH BN THE KINGS OWN ROYAL REGIMENT Night working parties building pens for aircraft 6 Officers 200 Other Ranks.
11TH BN THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS Luqa working party continued.
8TH BN THE MANCHESTER REGIMENT CSM May was buried in the Military Cemetery, Imtarfa.
(1) Canadian Air Aces and Heroes, WWI, WWII and Korea
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Malta: War Diary 