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Almost immediately large formations of aircraft were sighted to the northward, and were very soon overhead.

They were recognised as German, three squadrons of Stukas.

The illustrious flew off more fighters, but neither they nor the patrol already in the air could gain sufficient height to do anything.

We opened up with every AA gun we had, as one by one the Stukas peeled off into their dives,

concentrating almost the whole venom of

their attack upon the illustrious. At times, she became almost completely hidden in a forest of

great bomb splashes. One was too interested in this new form of dive bombing attack really to be

frightened, and there was no doubt we were watching complete experts. Roughly formed, in a large

circle over the fleet, they peeled off one by one when reaching the attacking position.

We could not but admire the skill and precision of it all.

The attacks were pressed home to point-blank range, and as they pulled out of their dive,

some of them were seen to fly along the flight deck of the illustrious, below the level of the funnel.

I saw her hit early on just before the bridge, and in all, in something like 10 minutes,

she was hit by six £1,000 bombs to leave the line badly on fire.

Her steering gear crepled, her lifts out of action, and with heavy casualties.

That was, of course, Admiral Sir Andrew Brown Cunningham, ABC,

commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean fleet, aboard HMS Warspite of Malta on the 10th of January, 1941. Welcome to We Have Ways of Make You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland, your World War II podcast for all your World War II podcast needs. And this is our first episode of Fortress Malta. Jim, here we are. This is where you came in, isn't it?

It is where I came in. It's my origin story for Second World War. And I've got to say,

what a joy it's been to revisit a sailor's odyssey by Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Cunningham,

of Heinhope. Very much cut from the Nelsonian cloth, an aggressive sea dog. He's a wonderful fellow. He pictures of him.

You can see that he's, he's got a twinkle in his eye, there's crow's feet extending from the side of

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