´óÏó´«Ã½

Charles Maw — my World War 2 story

Early 1941

We left Cherry Tree camp in Colchester and were bound for India. To our amazement the draft destination was changed to Malta. We left Colchester by road on the way to London. I am unsure but it may have been Euston.

We had to hang around in London for a long time. There were six privates and one RAOC sergeant in our party. I suggested to him that three privates could go to my house in Tooting as I am sure that my mum would feed us all. Another private also wanted to come with us but the sergeant would not allow him.

We left our personal gear in a pile and another private and me went off to the pub for a drink and played darts. When we returned there was an air raid in progress but our gear was not where we had left it. The sergeant returned and took us to another platform to wait for troop train to Scotland.

We travelled by train overnight stopping to pick up other soldiers and sailors bound for Glasgow. We arrived on the dock area of Glasgow at about 6am. We were given porridge for breakfast but it had been made with salt and I did not like the taste. I left it and took up the offer of toast instead.

Later that day we went aboard the MV Clan McDonald a small merchant ship of around 10000 tons. Welders and joiners were still working on board the ship as we sailed down the Clyde. We made friends with some stevedores who were on the boat and they gave us some whisky which we all enjoyed even though it was stolen. We threw the bottles overboard the next day before we headed out to sea.

All of the workmen were taken off the ship before we left the Clyde and headed out to the open sea. Once out into the open sea we joined up with other ships and also battleships and we became part of a convoy. It was a large convoy but I cannot remember other merchant vessels. A troopship that was part of the convoy was left to make its own way to Canada after being left by the convoy off the Greenland coastline. We then made our way towards the Bay of Biscay. It was very rough in the Mediterranean so they rigged up nets on the side of the ship to prevent us falling off the ship. As we neared our destination it felt like we were on a cruise. We were now dressed in our KD shorts and shirts taking in the sunshine until we got to Pantilara. As we neared it the Italian fleet left port and attacked the convoy. Several ships were sunk and the convoy had to split up and reform later. I was one of six armourers on the ship and I was given a good job as I was the only one of the six and a sergeant who knew anything about the Hoskiss gun. There were about 8 of then in gun nests around the ship. They had originally been used during the 1st world war. I had been fitting them into ships when I was based in Tilbury docks. My job was to check them from dawn to dusk on the ship. Our sergeant didn’t seem to like me much as this gave me an advantage over him, particularly as he was an 18yr old boy soldier.

We arrived in the Grand Harbour after two weeks of sailing. There were dozens of people on the dock when we arrived but out of the original 8 merchants ships that had started with the convoy only 2 arrived in the harbour. They had contained foodstuffs etc and this was now lying at the bottom of the Mediterranean.

I had managed not to be seasick all the way there but once on land I became very sick.

No one seemed to know anything about us so we were able to spend up to three days roaming about. They finally caught up with us and put us to work in a workshop in Ospio near to Floriana. At night time we used to hit the bars drinking Ambeet the local wine. As we weren’t used to it we got drunk a lot.

At this time there were not too many air raids as this seemed to be great as the Italians used high level bombing and most of their bombs fell into the sea. We felt fairly safe. We could get food in the main town, pork chop and chips, it was great. They bred pigs, goats and rabbits that they bred on the island. Unfortunately the German Luftwaffe took over the bombing raids form the Italians. We then knew what bombing was all about. We got bombed day and night, sometimes as many as 7 days on the trot. We had good air raid shelters under the rocks and the bombs couldn’t penetrate into them.

We started to feel the pinch as the bombing was starving the island of food supplies that had to come in by sea. Only one ship the SS Brackenshire that had run the gauntlet on its own from Alexandria managed to get through. It brought ammunition, dried biscuits and hard tack rations etc.

We had 3 bi planes on the island, Faith, Hope and Charity plus a squadron of Hurricanes. We had placed dummy gun sites with wooden guns and dummy men made from sandbags. We also had dummy tanks, crashed aeroplanes raised on rocks and kerosene cans. They must have looked real to the Germans as they continuously bombed them.

´óÏó´«Ã½shop at St Andrews was kept very busy. I was transferred to St Andrews to take over a bicycle workshop. There were up to 20000 bicycles on charge to units as we were short of petrol that was need for vehicles. All of the buses were taken of the road as the wheels were used for horse carts for transport. I used to visit units such as 2nd RW Kents, 2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers, 4th Buffs and several other units to carry out arms inspections.

The Germans had by now got us pinned down and we were now on siege rations. We used to lay on our beds and talk about food and women but that didn’t fill our bellies. We lived on 4oz of bread a day. The bread was made from potato flour that was often sour from being kept. We had no freshwater to we resorted to boiling sea water during the day on wood fires.

The Royal Engineers were building underground workshops that were bombproof unless the bomb hit the entrance. We took cover where we could.

In Valetta people slept in the old underground railway tunnels which were safe except for the entrances. Lots of civilians were killed by blasts and we were called out to bury them when they were found under the rubble. It was very eerie.

One night we were called to Mosta as the dome of the church had received a direct hit. There were up to 300 people in the church but the bomb didn’t explode and no one was hurt. That was for sure an Act of God. By this stage the siege was really taking effect and the people of Malta and the troops were on very tight starvation rations. The Germans must have felt that we would all surrender. They bombed hospitals, the 39th and the 45th. The 39th hospital was razed to the ground and a lot of people were killed. The 45th was able to carry on. It had several cases of polio and we volunteered to work on the iron lungs to give the nurses a well earned break.

One day we heard on the grapevine that a squadron of spitfires were on their way to the island from an aircraft carrier in the Med. When the eventually arrived all of the people came out of their houses and cheered. We went mad and so did the Maltese people on the island. However, it didn’t last for long as the spitfires had no guns as they had travelled light off the carrier and they were to be fitted up when they landed. The Germans had followed them and destroyed the entire squadron. All of our hopes were dashed and ready to surrender as the bombing and the starvation was getting to us and we had nowhere o run to.

Our barrack block at St Andrews took a direct hit so we began to sleep outside for safety. ´óÏó´«Ã½shop was also hit but we carried on despite lots of soldiers and civilians being killed.

One day a lot of planes flew over the island dropping what we thought were bombs so we ran for cover but the planes turned out to be spitfires from Gibraltar. What we had thought were bombs were really extra fuel tanks. As they had guns fitted and extra ammo they went into battle against the Germans immediately. They shot down several German aircraft. When they landed we refuelled and rearmed them and up they went again. Soon we had more spitfires and bombers and were able to fight back at last. Convoys were beginning to get through to the island and we began to get food. Both soldiers and civilians were getting fed now. At last it seemed as though we were beginning to win.

More troops began to arrive at the island ready for the invasion across the Mediterranean islands. This was to coincide with a big advance from England. We even got a big American contingent. We had our work cut out for us now waterproofing vehicles ready for the invasion from Malta now that the siege was over. It was now our turn to hammer the Germans, especially now that the Italians had given up the fight as they had been captured.

The American soldiers caused us some bother as they had far too much money to spend in the bars. We had our necks put out of joint with the bar girls as the Yanks were so silly with their money. We used to knock them over when the bar girls got them drunk. They were easy pickings.

When the invasion took place the Americans all went with it and we were left behind to carry on with our jobs. The invasion force was a wonderful sight to see. The sea was black with ships and landing craft of al types ready for attack. All of the civilians were jumping for joy in the streets. The Germans were off our backs at last. A big colourful fiesta was held and we were treated like heroes. You had to see it to believe it. It was simply grand.

By this time I think it was 1944. I was flown off the island and finished up in the desert with sand and more sand. I spent about 18 months there with the American 5th Army and the 2nd Battalion the Black Watch as an armourer. I came home after the war was well over as I did approximately 6 and a half years service.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.