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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: catylou on Friday 19 September 08 23:00 BST (UK)
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Hi all,
I know my grandad Geoffrey Walker Godfrey served in WW2 and was stationed on Malta for some time - he was definitely there in late 1941 and summer 1942. He was there during a siege, where I'm told they ate cats and dogs as there was no food (no idea how true that is?).
I don't know what force/regiment he was with, how would I go about finding out? Can't ask family. Also, my grandma told me that he refused promotion to the first rank of officer a few times because he said he wanted to survive the war, and officers got put on the front line more often - would I be able to find out if that's true? Finally, he was apparently the only survivor of an attack on his room on Malta where the 5 other people he shared with were all killed. Again, is there any way of narrowing this down and discovering the truth?
Also, I have pictures that he took while on Malta that were well labelled, including of things like the bombing of the Invincible, the Opera House on Malta before the blitz, plus a fair few others - I've hopefully attached a couple if I've managed to do it right! Are these of any particular interest? I really don't yet know anything about what my grandad did.
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give!
Cate.
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Interesting photos, Cate.
The first one is in fact the Norwegian cargo ship TALABOT built in 1936 and was part of convoy MW 10 from Alexandria to Malta. The photo shows her under fierce air attack which resulted in her being bombed and set on fire in the harbour at Valletta, Malta on 26th March 1942. She was scuttled to prevent her ammunition cargo exploding. In 1949 she was raised, towed to sea and scuttled.
I am sorry I cant help with your inquiry about your grandfather. It will be difficult unless you have some more details about which unit or service he was in.
Regards
Hugh
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Hi Cate, In answer to your questions, as I live in Malta, a few more details about your grandfather would be of help and the dates of 1941 throughout to summer 1942 was the height of the siege of Malta The photograph is indeed the Talabot and what a well captured photograph taken by a staff photographer from the Times of Malta. I worked as a diver on part of the hull as a diver in the mid eighties and ammunition was recovered even then. The photograph of the wrecked aircraft was also taken by the Times of Malta and is in fact a German Junkers 88, no doubt you can see the dead pilot. Feelings were running high at the time and no attempt at rescue was made on the unfortunate pilot. Regarding HMS Invincible, I'm afraid it would not be her, but is in fact HMS Illustrious which having run a Convoy to Malta, made it to Grand Harbour. She came under heavy Ariel attack in what became known as the Illustrious Blitz, which saw the town of Senglea suffering the worse of the attack. Having suffered minor damage Illustrious was patched up and sent to Alexandria, Egypt for further repairs. If interested in Malta's role, may I recommend the Malta at War web site, an excellent site for those interested in what was to become one of the greatest sieges in history. You must be proud of your grandfathers role. If I can be of help in future please fire away. Cheers, Stephen Evans :)
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Thanks for the information, it's really interesting! I've got a fair few other pictures, and the captions I've given them are what is written on the back of them by my grandad, so I'll annotate them with the corrections.
Interesting that they're from the Times of Malta though - my grandad was a keen photographer and I assumed (wrongly it seems) that he'd taken them himself!
I've now managed to scan a pic of my grandad in uniform on Malta, hopefully that will help identify the service etc? I've attached it again below.
Thanks again, am off to check out that Malta at War site now too.
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Hi Cate, Owning a camera here in Malta during the war years was very rare unless you were connected with the Military and even these were heavily censored at the time. The Imperial War Museum has a huge and fascinating collection, although you would need the best part of a day to view them. As to your Grandfather's uniform I can't help thinking he may have been RAF and possibly Ground Crew. You would not by any chance know the names of his colleagues who were tragically killed. If he was RAF, then this could help. Cheers again, Stephen :)
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Hi Cate, Sorry for the last posting,but probably Army, taken during the winter, certainly not the long hot summer months! Cheers, Stephen :-[
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Well I just spoke to my mum, who said she didn't know anything about what her dad did in the war, and when I suggested RAF ground crew, said "Oh no, he was an infantryman in the Army, I think one of the Staffordshire regiments" - which is a far cry from "dunno" ;D She was adamant that he took the photos himself though - will have to double check that one I think.
Re him being the sole survivor of his roommates, I don't know their names, my Grandma told me a while back that she had 5 kids "one for each of the men that died". So again, it could be apocryphal!
So is there a way of tracking down whether any Staffs regiments were stationed in Malta? I tried Googling it and just got lots of confusing sites which didn't seem to answer the question.
TIA,
Cate.
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As your mother seems to be next of kin you could try the web site Veterans UK, and see how you go from there. Good luck, Stephen :D
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Afraid I can't help you with the ground units as my interest is in the air war over Malta but I thought you might be interested in this. It is an excellent site:
http://www.killifish.f9.co.uk/Malta%20WWII/Index.htm
K
EDIT: ooops, sorry, I see that the site has already been mentioned. Apologies for the duplication
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If you happen to find some of the names of the men who were killed Cate ... you may find them in the cemeteries here !
http://website.lineone.net/~stephaniebidmead/second.htm
Annie
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my grandfather was on Malta during the siege and received the Maltese cross int he late eighties from the Maltese people. he was in REME.i seem to remember the were quite a few from reme stationed there due to its crucial role . my aunt has all the photos of him in service as they were left to her son other wise I'd look and see if i could compare the uniform . unfortunately there is dearth of material about the siege. i i have only come across one book about it and i can't remember the name of it. You have started me thinking i must get the photos scan them. my grandfather refused to talk about the war to us although he did chat to my partner about it but not in detail. I'm know he did have a hat like the one your grandfather has on.
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Thanks for that - I'm hoping to get the bits sorted to apply for his service records from the MOD in the next week or two, and in the meantime I'm trying to read up on what happened in Malta during the time he was there.
I came across a book in Googlebooks the other day, but stupidly didn't bookmark it or take a note of the title, and now obviously I can't find it, but it seemed to have a fair bit of info about the siege - unfortunately only a small part of the text was actually included on the Google books page though.
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Hi All, Once upon a time I had the honour of knowing a certain Ernle Bradford who wrote the first Great Siege of Malta of 1565. He tried again with a follow up book not long before his death on the Second Siege, that of 1940-42, a good effort. But given the scope of Malta's role during the Second World War there is a good choice of books on the role of the island, from all the services that were in Malta. The De fence of the island was crucial in winning the campaign in North Africa through Churchills eyes. After the Pedestal Convoy of August 1942, Britain was on the road to success, culminating in the invasion of Sicily in 1943. One of Churchills famous speeches regarding the island was,"Malta! A tiny Rock of History and Romance." What history for an island of nineteen by nine. And to cap that most of the second siege is in a life time.! Cheers Stephen Evans ;) :)
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Hi Again, The Illustrious Blitz on French Creek in Grand Harbour was on the 16th January 1941 and is well remembered by the people of Senglea. A day that should go down in Naval history as a truly heroic defence. :)
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You may have seen these:
http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1424
http://www.maltavista.net/en/library/art/164.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/siege_malta_01.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Malta_(1940)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fortress-Malta-1940-1943-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304366544
http://www.vrmalta.com/malta-tour/source/malta-grand-harbour-r.html
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Just been looking up the Malta Command Orders of Battle and the following made up the garrison (excluding RE, RA, REME etc}:
Sept 1941
1 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
3 The King's Own Malta Regiment
1 The Dorsetshire Regiment
1 The Hampshire Regiment
2 The Devonshire Regiment
8 The King's Own Royal Regiment
2 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
1 The King's Own Malta Regiment
2 The King's Own Malta Regiment
2 The Royal Irish Fusiliers
4 The Buffs
8 The Manchester Regiment
3 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
1 The Cheshire Regiment
2 The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment
11 The Lancashire Fusiliers
Sept 1942 (units the same but brigades reorganised):
1 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
3 The King's Own Malta Regiment
1 The Dorsetshire Regiment
1 The Hampshire Regiment
2 The Devonshire Regiment
2 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
1 The King's Own Malta Regiment
2 The King's Own Malta Regiment
2 The Royal Irish Fusiliers
8 The Manchester Regiment
3 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
1 The Cheshire Regiment
10 The King's Own Malta Regiment
2 The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment
11 The Lancashire Fusiliers
4 (Malta) Infantry Brigade:
1 The Durham Light Infantry
4 The Buffs
8 The King's Own Royal Regiment
So unless he was RE, RA, etc he is likely to be one of the above units
K
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Hi Cate, For a fairly recent publication I would recommend is Fortress Malta, James Holland. It is also available as a talking book. :)
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Any luck on your research ???
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Great thread,and some very useful links there.I am also looking for details of serving Army and Navy relatives in Malta,so have been able to use the same info in my research.So a big thanks to all.
Please let us know what you manage to find out about your grandfather :)
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Hi Tabbitha, If I can be of any help from here, then please fire away. :)
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Thanks Stephee.I will start a new thread though,as I dont want to derail catylou's enquiry.
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Hi Stephee,
I've not got any further as yet - I've got the relevent service record forms signed now though, so I'm hoping that at least some additional information will come through when I get those back.
Having talked to mum, she thinks that Lancashire, Notts or Stafford are the likely counties he could have served with, and I see that Lancashire is on the list above, but I'm not counting any chickens just yet!
Cate.
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Merry Christmas All !!Stephen Evans :D