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| The Siege of Malta - 1941- 1943; 242 AMES Dingli |
| Contributed by Jack Halstead, Sgt, Royal Air Force VR
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I trained as aWireless Mechanic and after twelve months service in the UK I was drafted to Malta in September 1941. After spending three months at Kalafrana I was posted to 242 AMES radar station. This was situated on one of the highest points in Malta on Dingli Cliffs at 817
feet. At this time radar was extremely secret and was always referred to
as radio-direction finding (RDF). Indeed, a few weeks passed before I
learned the real purpose of 242 AMES!
In his recollections Les Wood tells how the information from Dingli
was sent via a telephone landline to the ops room and displayed on the plotting table. Should that line be destroyed by bombing the ops room
would be totally cut off from all information about incoming enemy aircraft. Therefore it was decided to establish an additional means of communication by R.T. The setting up and maintenance of this equipment was to be my responsibility. (At that time I was a mere
LAC.)
The RDF (radar) equipment consisted of a Metropolitan-Vickers
transmitter and a Cossor receiver, together with a diesel generator
to power the units. Originally these were mounted on separate
Leyland prime-movers for use as mobile stations in France, but at
Dingli they were installed as permanent units surrounded by thick
stone anti-blast walls.
The station C.O. was Flt. Lt. C.S. Jones. He was very technically minded and constantly worked to improve the efficiency of the
range, bearing and height finding information sent to the Filter Room.
Because of our position on these high cliffs on the south coast of the island we were able to see all the daylight bombing raids and the fighter
battles taking place over Malta. Surprisingly the station was never attacked by aircraft. On 25 March 1942 I watched one of the biggest
air battles ever seen over Malta. A group of Spitfires and Hurricanes swooped on a formation of Ju88s that were about to attack a disabled
ship lying off the coast and shot them out of the sky. But this was only one of many other battles now that the Spitfires had arrived. On the
"Glorious Tenth of May" they destroyed sixty-three enemy aircraft.
In spite of our immunity from attack so far, when the raids increased
it was decided to put the radar sets underground. Some small caves
which had been used for storage of vital spare parts were enlarged and
with tremendous effort on the part of all off-duty personnel the heavy
and bulky equipment was slowly and very carefully man-handled into
its new position. The diesel generator was also taken underground and
shafts were driven out to the cliff face to provide ventilation and to
disperse the heat given out by the sets.
Although the arrival of more Spitfires had halted the daily non-stop bombing, the threat of starvation loomed even closer. Our food situation was desperate, and only the arrival of six (out of 14) ships
on 14 August - the famous "Pedestal" convoy - saved Malta from
having to surrender.
It was only after the victories in North Africa during October and November that the food and supply situation really improved and we
looked forward to an end to the daily meal of bully-beef and ship's
biscuits.
In 1943 Flt.Lt Jones (who had been in Malta since 1940)was posted
away and Flt. Lt. Money, a veteran of the African campaign, took over.
Other "bods" who had also been there for three years returned to the UK, and new ones came in from the Middle East.
Malta now started preparing for the invasion of Sicily, new radar stations were being built and by July the island was a huge base
packed with men and materials on every possible bit of land.
Finally, on 13 September I watched forty vessels of the Italian fleet arrive off the coast to surrender to Admiral Cunningham; what a wonderful sight! These are but a few memories of my time on the
George Cross Island of Malta.
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