Malta Command

Malta Command
Malta Command's insignia and shoulder flash.
Founded1915
Disbanded1977
Service branchesOperations, Plans, Intelligence, Logistics, Communications and Medical
HeadquartersValletta, Malta
Personnel
ConscriptionRegular British and Maltese Army
Malta Command staff officers plotting troop positions on a wall map in the Command's underground Lascaris HQ operations room.
Malta Command hosted the combined British command staff as they planned the Allied assault on Sicily in 1943 (Operation Husky).
A high-level meeting involving senior US and UK staffs was hosted on Malta on 31 July 1945, General of the Army George C. Marshall is sat on the right facing the camera.
A Royal Artillery 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun and crew defending Malta.
British Troops come ashore from ships in Grand Harbour, Valletta.
British troops help clear a bomb-damaged Kingsway in Valletta, 11 May 1942.
A pair of RTR Matilda tanks (painted in distinctive Malta camouflage) taking part in a gunnery demonstration.
Infantry 3 inch mortars firing during an exercise. Note helmets are painted in Malta camouflage and the soldiers are carrying SMLE .303 rifles.
A Vickers MkVIc Light Tank on patrol in the Maltese countryside
A 4.5-inch anti-aircraft gun engages Axis aircraft during an air raid on Malta.
The crew of a Vickers Mk VIb Light Tank servicing one of their Vickers machine guns in the field. Note stone wall camouflage paintwork unique to Malta Command.
In muddy conditions an army Universal Carrier is used to tow a trolley-load of 250-lb bombs to a Vickers Wellington at RAF Luqa.
Soldiers organised in a fatigue party wait to board a merchant ship to unload supplies at one of Valletta's docks.
Bomb damage to 32 Company RASC's motor transport depot in Floriana, 20 March 1942.
A 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun position overlooking Grand Harbour, located at Upper Barrakka Gardens looking across the harbour to Fort St Michael.

Malta Command was an independent command of the British Army. It commanded all army units involved in the defence of Malta. Once mobilised the Command deployed its headquarters to underground hardened shelters[1] and its combat units were deployed to fixed points in the Maltese countryside, from where they operated. This mobilised, but largely static, army garrison would be tested by aerial bombardment and naval blockade during the Second World War.[2] Whilst Malta Command was already a functioning command structure before 1939 (it had existed in the Great War and was specifically mentioned in a House of Commons debate of 12 February 1917), the Second World War would see the Command operate as a genuine war-fighting headquarters,[3] albeit in a static defensive role.

On 15 April 1942 the Island of Malta was awarded the George Cross by King George VI in recognition of the stalwart defence and fortitude of service personnel and civilians against a much more powerful Axis foe. Malta, an island of only 117 square miles, had been more heavily bombed than London had been during their blitz.[4]

  1. ^ Weldon, H E C. (2016). Drama In Malta. Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN 9781786258496. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  2. ^ "British Military History - Malta 1930 - 1945". www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Votes of Credit Debate. , Section 360". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 12 February 1917. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  4. ^ "BBC - WW2 People's War - Battle For Malta (A Soldier's Story)". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 17 July 2017.