Word: maltas
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Knights of Malta. Largest of the five diminutive islands which cluster near the Sicilian Channel, flounder-shaped Malta is about 17 miles long, little more than nine miles wide. Steep cliffs rise out of the surf on her south shore; on her north, rocky boulders tumble into...
...Phoenicians first landed about 1450 B.C. For two centuries she was under Greek domination. Later she fell into the hands of Carthage. For some 700 years she was part of the empire of conquering Rome. After the decline of Rome, army after army crossed Malta, leaving their marks. Her gateway was scuffed by the feet of the world-Arabs, Normans, Sicilians, Germans, French, Spaniards-until Charles V. Holy Roman Emperor, ceded her to the pious, wandering Knights of St. John of Jerusalem...
...Napoleon arrived to loot the ancient rococo palaces and churches before he rushed on into Egypt. The French garrison held until 1800, when the English Fleet hove into view, anchored in Malta's deep harbors and took over the island...
Faith, Hope and Charity. For the British, Malta was a naval base, a handy coaling station and therefore a bright military jewel which, with Gibraltar and Suez, gave the empire control of the Mediterranean. This was not to say that the Maltese themselves remained altogether satisfied with the latest rulers. The Maltese farmers, descendants of the Phoenicians, illiterate, pious, aloof, tilling the thin crust of soil which lies on the island's rock, did not much care. But the city Maltese, largely descendants of the retinues of the Knights, fervent Roman Catholics, clever and temperamental, felt uneasy under this...
Then, on June 11, 1940, came the first air raid. It was little more than a token to show Malta that Benito Mussolini was now in the war. Maltese looked up from their stony little cotton, wheat and potato fields. Ironworkers, coppersmiths and lacemakers stuck their heads out of their shops for a glimpse of Mussolini's planes. From emplacements in Malta's limestone rock around the Grand Harbour and His Majesty's Dockyards, anti-aircraft guns boomed. A house front was damaged, a few civilians hurt, but most of the bombs fell...