Malta 15 III - IV 1942

[crolick]

Hello,

I'm looking for the list of German and Italian air raids on Malta's Grand Harbour between 15th of March and 15th of April 1942. Is there any single source which gives the daily records for those air raids?!


Thank you in advance for any help!
Andrzej

[Spanferkel]

Andrzej,

One source you should look at is:

Malta: The Spitfire Year 1942", Christopher Shores, Brian Cull and Nicola Malizia

This is an excellant daily accounting of the air battles/operations over Malta and includes loss listings, claims, ops. etc.

Cheers

Jeremy

[Oxby R]

Another very readable book with an excellent daily account of the action & plenty of detail is James Holland's : 'Fortress Malta - An Island Under Siege 1940-1943'. ISBN 0-304-36654-4 (2003) Published in paperback by Phoenix.

[crolick]

Hello Jeremy and Oxby,

thank you for the titles of the books
Since I'm mostly interested not in losses but in the dates (hours?) and units which made the air raids against Grand Harbour (in Valletta) I hope that description of the days in which I'm interested are not only devoted to the losses sustained during fights between Spitfires and Messerchmitts

[Bruce Dennis]

Hello Andrzej,

I think what you are looking for is ...

AIR 22/392R.A.F. Malta: daily intelligence summaries 193 - 560 Vol. 2 1942 Jan.- 1943 Jan.




Although I haven't seen the dates you are looking for, the standard format for each day includes a section titled 'Enemy Air Activity'. In this are date, time and duration of raids.

Hope you are keeping well,
Regards,
Bruce

[Brian]

Hi Andrzej,

The best I can do for you at present is as follows:

Air Raid Alerts:

March 1942 275
April 1942 282


Cheers
Brian

[crolick]

Hello Bruce and Brian!

thank you for your input but I have something similar. From one of the users (thank you once again!) I have received copies of British intelligence reports (CX/MSS so as far as I know those are sources from ULTRA) in which there are listed daily air raids with given unit names. Though I think those are fairly not accurate. For example on 17 III 42 not a single air raid against Grand Harbour is listed but as we know from other sources there were several ones. So 'Air Raid Alerts' might be a good source.

Cheers,
Andrzej