During World War II, Malta played a key role in the Mediterranean campaign, its submarines, light surface forces, and aircrafts destroying supplies desperately needed by Rommel's forces in North Africa. The price the Maltese paid for this effort was the most sustained and intensive bombing campaign in the war, enduring over 130 tons of bombs per square mile. This, compounded by the Axis blockade that attempted to starve Malta into surrender, set the stage for numerous convoy battles, the most dramatic being Operation Pedestal, remembered on Malta to this day as the Santa Marija Convoy. In this book, Dennis Castillo uses published histories as well as interviews and oral histories to explore the experiences of the Maltese and how their faith sustained them through this dark period of Malta's history.

In 1942 an epic naval operation was mounted so as to relieve Malta from the onslaught of attacks by the forces of the Axis. This operation was codenamed "Pedestal"- or "il-Convoy ta' Santa Marija" as it is better known in Malta and Gozo. The men taking part in Pedestal must have gone through hell. For example, the gallant tanker SS Ohio withstood persistent Stuka dive bomber attacks, had a Ju87 crash on her deck and when a Ju88 was brought down it bounced off the water and crashed into the vessel's side! Yet Ohio, after much effort by the Royal Navy, her captain and crew, and survivors from other ships, still made it to Grand Harbour in Malta! Il-Convoy ta' Santa Marija is undoubtedly an iconic landmark event in the history of our country and it is therefore only fittingthat those who paid the ultimate price in this operation be commemorated in a Roll of Honour which is reproduced in this book. This book is a lasting memory of this extraordinary mission which was a turning point in the defence of Malta and the Mediterranean during World War II and to all those who lost their lives defending the values of freedom and democracy. John A Mizzi has brought together in one publication a number of related anecdotes and background accounts which may not have been widely known until now, thereby making this an important addition to the records of the fascinating history of Malta and Gozo.

This book provides the first wide-ranging account of the Maltese economy in the modern era, from colonialism to European Union membership. It sets arguments about growth and development, and the impact and legacy of colonization, against detailed histories of agriculture, manufacturing and trade, and different economic policy regimes. It is based on volumes of newly collected archival evidence and the latest thinking in economic history. By extending coverage up to the present, the book explains how one of the world's smallest nation-states achieved lasting economic development, quintupling its per capita income level since 1970, when many other postcolonial and advanced economies stagnated.

In both World Wars there arose a pressing need for merchant tonnage both to supplement existing ships but, more importantly, to replace ships that had been sunk by enemy action, and the key to the Allied strategy in both wars was a massive programme of merchant shipbuilding. This need gave rise to a series of standard designs with increasing emphasis on prefabrication and a progression towards welded hulls.This new book tells the remarkable story of the design and construction of the many types that not only contributed to their countrys war efforts, but were also responsible for a cultural change in world shipbuilding that would lay the foundations for the post-war industry. The story begins in the First World War with the National type cargo ships which were the first examples of prefabricated construction. The best known of all types of wartime standard ships, of course, were the Liberty ships and their successor, the better equipped Victory ships, both built in the United States. Some 2,700 Liberty ships were built and this incredible achievement undoubtedly saved the Allies from losing the War. In Canada, the Ocean and Park ships made a further major contribution. Germany and Japan also introduced standard merchant shipbuilding programmes during the Second World War and these are covered in detail. The many different types and designs are all reviewed and their roles explained, while the design criteria, innovative building techniques and the human element of their successful operation is covered.Some of the story has been told piecemeal in a range of diverse books and articles, a few with extensive fleet lists. However, the complete history of the twentieth century wartime-built standard merchant ship has not previously been written, so this new volume recording that history within its appropriate technical, political and military background will be hugely welcomed.

During the Second World War the British Merchant Navy's main task was to bring food, fuel and materials to Britain and it's allies, and to ferry troops wherever they were needed. The ship's crews came from all parts of the then Empire and beyond. One in six of them lost their lives. They did much more, taking part in the evacuations and landings throughout the war. They played a key role in several of these operations, particularly the little known evacuations from France after Dunkirk and the evacuation of Singapore. They manned almost a thousand ships for the D-Day Landings, including more than half of the infantry Landing ships and all of the Hospital Carriers that ferried the wounded back to Britain.

Malta: Island Under Siege not only relates the decisive military action from World War II but also details the religious, historical and political events that led to the Axis forces' attempts to conquer and occupy Malta, putting the reader in the meeting rooms of the military leaders and politicians, on board the convoys, in the cockpits of the bombers and with the civilian population sheltering beneath Malta's fortresses while trying to live as normal a life as possible.Wartime locations on the island, many often ignored by the guidebooks and tourist maps, are explored and their relevance to Malta's resistance examined alongside the people, on both sides of the conflict, who helped shape the Mediterranean island's destiny before, during and after the Second World War. Malta is now a holiday destination to many, but it's easy to forget how much the people of the island, its British garrison and the sailors of the Merchant Navy and Royal Navy had to endure to ensure the Allies kept a toe-hold in North Africa and southern Europe at a time when Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy were threatening to sweep all before them.

Author of Lincoln and His Admirals (winner of the Lincoln Prize), The Battle of Midway (Best Book of the Year, Military History Quarterly), and Operation Neptune, (winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature), Craig L. Symonds has established himself as one of the finest naval historians at work today. World War II at Sea represents his crowning achievement: a complete narrative of the naval war and all of its belligerents, on all of the world's oceans and seas, between 1939 and 1945. Opening with the 1930 London Conference, Symonds shows how any limitations on naval warfare would become irrelevant before the decade was up, as Europe erupted into conflict once more and its navies were brought to bear against each other. World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina-at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world-and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; the struggles of the Russian Navy and the scuttling of the French Fleet in Toulon in 1942; the landings in North Africa and then Normandy. Here as well are the notable naval leaders-FDR and Churchill, both self-proclaimed "Navy men," Karl Dönitz, François Darlan, Ernest King, Isoroku Yamamoto, Erich Raeder, Inigo Campioni, Louis Mountbatten, William Halsey, as well as the hundreds of thousands of seamen and officers of all nationalities whose live were imperiled and lost during the greatest naval conflicts in history, from small-scale assaults and amphibious operations to the largest armadas ever assembled. Many have argued that World War II was dominated by naval operations; few have shown and how and why this was the case. Symonds combines precision with story-telling verve, expertly illuminating not only the mechanics of large-scale warfare on (and below) the sea but offering wisdom into the nature of the war itself.