Malta's Preparations for Wwii

Basing your arguments not on reading about the Second World War but on the extant remains, discuss to what extent do you believe that Malta was prepared to face the Italians and the Germans

Malta had already a lot of fortifications built or upgraded by the British up to the 1st World War. Most of which are situated near the Grand Harbour like: St. Clements’ Entrenchment, Fort Verdala, Lascaris Battery and the Corradino Lines. These were to protect the grand harbour but not too good against air attacks but mainly for sea battle. Some forts that were already built by the Order were upgraded as they were not good for battle at that time like Fort Tigne, Fort Ricasoli, Fort Manuel and the St. Lucian Tower. But most of these buildings were built to fight against wooden ships and now ships were being built with iron so this directly ked to changes taking place in the field of coast artillery so casemated batteries and R.B.L guns were introduced, so now at least they can fight of iron ships. Malta also has the Victoria lines so that in case of an invasion Malta would be protected by this line of defence and stops the enemies from entering the main cities and get stuck in the northern part of Malta. As a defence system Malta also had two 100-ton guns in the Cambridge and Rinella batteries.

All these buildings weren’t going to enough for the 2nd World War so more defences had to be built. One of the defences built which was a great advantage for the Maltese was the “Widna” (ear). This was a pre-radar aircraft, early warning system. It was built in the form of a curved wall measuring some 9m in height and 60m in length. The “Widna” worked in the way: sound waves were reflected and concentrated onto microphones on the yard in front of the wall. This was then connected to a control room behind the centre of the mirror. This allowed the aircraft to be identified from the engine noise at a much greater distance than the human ear - to the maximum distance of 26 km. The last...