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Valletta, Malta
The War Museum and Lascaris War Rooms
February/March 2004
During World War II (referred to locally as 'The Second Siege of Malta')
Malta was strategic to the control of the Mediterranean Sea and was subjected to some of the
heaviest bombing of anyplace in Europe. As the central Allied command point of the three
ports, Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria, its defense was critical to the conduct of the war
in North Africa. Two museums in Valletta commemorate and recreate those terrible times: the
War Museum at Fort St. Elmo and the Lascaris War Rooms, near the City Gate.
Click on thumbnails to view full size
In the War Museum at Fort St. Elmo,
a Bofors AA gun:
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"Faith", a Gloucester Gladiator, which together with "Hope"
and "Charity" provided the only air defense of Malta in the early weeks of
WW II:
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The original George Cross awarded the Maltese people
by Great Britain, and the original, handwritten letter from King George:
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| The Lascaris War Rooms are deep within the limestone
walls of the city of Valletta and were used as headquarters and operations planning rooms for
the Mediterranean theater by the Allies in World War II. In 1942 Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, USA, Supreme
Commander of Allied Mediterranean Forces and Adm. Sir Andrew Cunningham, RN, C-in-C of Allied Naval
Forces in the Mediterranean, used these rooms to conduct the war in the Mediterranean.
The entrance to this complex is through this tunnel. The plaque below commemorates the restoration
of the War Rooms in 1986.
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