An online evening talk from the Museum of the Order of St John, in partnership with the St John Historical Society.
Accolades such as Fortress Malta or The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier evoke the image of an unassailable bulwark, fully equipped to withstand the exigencies of modern warfare—an impression reinforced by the failure of Axis operations to neutralise the British base during the Second World War.
In truth, however, the wider pressures faced by the British Empire left Malta Command generally underprepared—though categorically committed—when war broke out in the Mediterranean in June 1940. In this context, the island’s Hospitaller-era military architecture offered a convenient, if improvised, solution, reflecting Malta Command’s response to operational needs in an ad hoc manner as the siege wore on.
Documents from both Axis intelligence and British documents reveal a striking paradox: while these historic fortifications stood out sharply from more modern infrastructure when viewed from the air, they nevertheless remained integral to British efforts to keep Malta secure against sustained enemy attack.
Gianluca Giorgio Falzon is Curator at the Malta Maritime Museum and a doctoral researcher at the University of Malta. He is currently reading for his PhD on the operational-level interplay between Axis intelligence, British fortress security, and the Maltese population as the ‘colonised’ between 1935 and 1942. He is currently involved in the redesign phase of the Malta Maritime Museum, working to expand the museum’s narrative in preparation for its reopening in the coming years.
