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The From the home of the co-breakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

This is M.C. Fontaine, welcoming you to another Bletchley Park podcast Extra.

This week we have the first of a two-part talk given by Bob Horner.

It's called Malta, George Cross, 1940 to 1942.

The Battle for Survival.

Welcome to Bletchley Park and the first of our winter lecture series.

I'm Bob Horner. I'm a volunteer guide at Bletchley Park. I have a background which was, I work for a bank, but I did also 30 years in the Royal Naval Reserve,

where I specialised in command and control procedures for submarines.

And in addition to doing a little bit of local lecturing, I also lecture on cruise ships.

This evening I'm going to look at the island of Malta, the story of how it survived repeated attacks and blockade by the Axis

forces. And this talk is going to cover the period from June 1940 until the end of 1942.

Now, when the war started in 1939, Malta was, of course, a British colony. The governor and

commander-in-chief was General Sir Charles Bonham Carter, who had been appointed in 1936.

The actress Helena Bonham Carter is his great-niece.

Relations between Malta and Italy deteriorated as a result of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1936.

Mussolini's axis with Germany, the 1936 Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, was reinforced in Berlin

on the 22nd of May 1939 by Ribbentrop and Chiano. And the new treaty quickly renamed the Pact

of Steel by Mussolini was for 10 years and committed Germany and Italy to each other in the event of war.

However, Italy would need three years to rearm fully.

And on the advice of Chiano, Mussolini wrote to Hitler, who ignored the appeal and didn't reply.

Of course, this wasn't known outside the Axis, and the pact made the people of Malta feel

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