The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945

57. NAM, Box 14/14, List of Regional Protection Officers, Deputy Regional Protection Officers in Malta and Gozo; Box 21/6, transcript, ‘Broadcast by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government’, 27 June 1940, 3–4.

58. NAM, Box 21/6, memorandum from Lt. Gov.’s office, 18 June 1940; Box 21/7, ARP Department, Malta, ‘Curfew’, 2 July 1940; ARP Officer, Malta to Adjutant of police ‘specials’, 27 Nov 1940; ARP officer to police superintendent, Msida centre, 12 Nov 1940.

59. NAM, Box 21/6, Information Office, Valletta, to all secretaries of clubs, schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, 14 June 1940; ‘Broadcast by His Excellency’, 27 June 1940, 3.

60. Galea, Women of Malta, 53, 59–60, testimony of Tamara Marks.

61. See reports Sept–Oct 1941 in IWM, Italian Series, Box 10, E2532, operational reports, 29 Gruppo (Bombardamento), 30 Sept, 15 Oct, 17 Oct, 18 Oct, 30 Oct 1941.

62. James Holland, Fortress Malta: An Island under Siege 1940–1943 (London: 2003), 87–91.

63. Galea, Women of Malta, 86, testimony of Tamara Marks.

64. Giorgio Rochat, Le guerre italiane 1935–1943: Dall’impero d’Etiopia alla disfatta (Turin: 2005), 333ff.

65. Natalini, I rapporti tra aeronautica italiana e tedesca, 61–2.

66. Bernd Stegemann, ‘The Italo-German Conduct of the War in the Mediterranean and North Africa’, in Gerhard Schreiber, Bernd Stegemann, Detlef Vogel, Germany and the Second World War: Vol. III: The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1941 (Oxford: 1995), 654.

67. IWM, Italian Series, Box 14, E2545, X Corps, Ufficio di collegamento per la R. Aeronautica, ‘Dislocazione reparti di volo del corpo aereo tedesco’, 15 Apr 1941; Air Ministry, The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, 1933–1945 (London: 1983), 126–7.

68. Rochat, Le guerre italiene, 345; IWM, Italian Series, Box 11, E2541, ‘Azioni offensive su Malta dall’ 11-6-40 al 19-4-41’.

69. Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs 1939–1945 (London: 1990), 185, ‘Report by the C-in-C Navy to the Fuehrer, March 18 1941’.

70. IWM, Italian Series, Box 22, E2567, ‘La situazione della base aero-navale di Malta dall’inizio delle operazioni ad oggi’, 31 Oct 1942, 4.

71. For an excellent account of the naval war off Malta see Austin, Malta and British Strategic Policy, 127–35. See too Mariano Gabriele, ‘L’offensiva su Malta (1941)’, in R. Rainero, A. Biagini (eds), Italia in guerra: il secondo anno, 1941 (Rome: 1992), 444–5.

72. Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 240, ‘Report by the C-in-C Navy to the Fuehrer at Wolfschanze, 13 November 1941’.

73. Natalini, I rapporti tra aeronautica italiana e tedesca, 80–83, 86–7; Air Ministry, Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, 131–3.

74. IWM, Italian Series, Box 23, E3003, Fliegerführer Sizilien: Einsatzbefehle, 17 and 18 Dec 1941, 1 Jan 1942; HQ II Fliegerkorps, ‘Befehl zur Bekämpfung von Blockadebrechern für Malta’, 13 Jan 1942.

75. Natalini, I rapporti tra aeronautica italiana e tedesca, 89.

76. Hugh Lloyd, Briefed to Attack: Malta’s Part in the African Victory (London: 1949), 131–4.

77. TNA, AIR 23/5721, HQ RAF Malta, ‘Attacks on Malta February–October 1942’. The raids on 5 April involved 208 aircraft, those on 7 April involved 228. See too Budden, ‘Defending the Indefensible?’, 464–5; Ashley Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War (London: 2000), 132.

78. TNA, AIR 23/5721, HQ RAF Malta, ‘Casualties in Combat off Malta’, Oct 1942. The figures cover the period February to October 1942.

79. Renzo De Felice (ed), Galeazzo Ciano: Diario 1937–1943 (Milan: 1990), 621, entry for 26 May 1942.

80. Mariano Gabriele, ‘L’operazione “C.3” (1942)’, in R. Rainero, A. Biagini (eds), Italia in guerra: Il terzo anno, 1942 (Rome: 1993), 409ff.

81. IWM, Italian Series, Box 22, E2568, Ministero dell’Aeronautica, ‘Esigenza “C.3” per l’occupazione dell’isola di Malta’, 3–4, 12.

82. Ciano, Diario, 614–15, entry for 29–30 Apr; Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 277–8, telegram from Rome to OKW, 12 Apr 1942, and letter from Lt. Comm. Wolf Junge, 1 May 1942.

83. Ibid., 285, Report on a Conference between the C-in-C Navy and the Fuehrer, 15 June 1942.