Anniversary feature: A shaky start for a fighter pilot s Malta stint timesofmalta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofmalta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Charles Debono looks back at the crash of Pilot Officer Walter ‘Pips’ Cripps on April 26, 1942.
On April 26, 1942, Air Officer Commanding Malta, Air Vice Marshal Hugh Lloyd was advised that an intercept of Luftwaffe Enigma traffic indicated that some units of Fliegerkorps II were preparing to leave Sicily.
Meanwhile, an air raid warning was sounded at about 2.28pm, where a total of 55 Junkers Ju88s and 15 Junkers Ju87 Stukas appeared over Malta and attacked Ta’ Qali, Luqa, the Grand Harbour area and Kalafrana. Bombs also dropped on Marsa, Qormi, St Paul’s Bay, Buffs Camp at Attard, Delimara, Salina, Fleur-de-Lys, Sliema, Msida, Lintorn Barracks, anti-aircraft gun positions at Spinola and searchlight emplacements at Salina and Tigné, St Paul’s Bay and Attard.
On the evening of April 29, 1941, a formation of nine Ju 88s bombers of III/ (Kampf)/Lehrgeschwader 1 took off from Sicily. Their orders were to attack cruisers and destroyers spotted in Malta’s Grand Harbour by reconnaissance aircraft previously that day.
German intelligence was spot on. The previous evening, the Fifth Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of six destroyers, had entered the Grand Harbour to join the light cruiser Gloucester in port. The bombers were escorted by BF 109s Messerschmitt fighters of 7./JG26 led by the famous German ace Joachim Müncheberg.
Part of the report compiled by Lt J. Harrow while interrogating the prisoners of war. Photo: Anthony Rogers