‘Malta’s finest hour’ a Dominican priest recalls Operation Pedestal
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“It was Malta’s best hour,” said the Dominican priest Marius Zerafa Newsbook.com.mt as Operation Pedestal vividly remembered.
As the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary’s Ascension, Malta also remembers Operation Pedestal – a British operation that carried supplies to the islands in August 1942. At that time, Malta it was used as a base from which ships, submarines and British. planes attacked Axis convoys to Libya, during the North African campaign.
Despite many losses, enough supplies were delivered to Malta for the island to continue to resist. The supplies included fuel which was carried by SS Ohio. The convoy had set sail on 3 August 1942 and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar towards the Mediterranean on the night of 9/10 August.
The Axis attempt to prevent the fifty convoy ships from reaching Malta, using bombers, German E-boats, Italian MAS and MS boats, minefields and underwater ambushes, it was the last major success of the Axis in the Mediterranean. More than 500 Merchant and Royal Navy sailors and airmen were killed and only five of the 14 merchant ships arrived in the Great Port.
At dawn on August 15 – a national holiday, the feast of St. Mary – the Ohio was only a mile outside Valletta. Many gathered on the piers and watched the release in silence.
Don Marius, who is now 93 years old, lived through the Second World War, and recalled how he had walked from Žebbuġ to Valletta that day. The people gathered at the ramparts waiting for the ships to enter from the Great Port.
“People looked at them, as one of the ships was towed into the port, then suddenly everyone burst into applause,” said Fr Marius, emphasizing that the event still has sentimental value to this very day. .
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he added.
While he observed that when he was a child he did not suffer much, others did, and people were starving.
“It was a difficult period. I remember the nights we had to take shelter, at first they were crowded before the government started digging tunnels. I remember the smell of humidity and the smell, the kitchens of victory where we got food from,” he said, pointing out that despite the suffering brought about by the war, it was Malta’s best hour .
“There was a beautiful spirit, and a lot of optimism,” said Don Marius, repeating that it was Malta’s finest hour.