Hell Island

Cameron Pulsifer is a historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

The story of the defence of Malta is one of the most inspiring to come
out of World War II. Repeatedly, day after day, a small band of British
Commonwealth airmen, underfed and racked with illness, took to the skies
to beat back incessant attacks by much larger German and Italian air
fleets. Located just 90 kilometres south of Sicily, Malta was critical
to British success in the Mediterranean theatre; from it aerial and
submarine attacks could be launched against Axis ships carrying
essential supplies to their armies fighting in North Africa. Axis air
attacks began in 1940 and reached their peak during the first nine
months of 1942. Malta then became, McCaffery writes, “the most bombed
place on earth.” During March and April alone, twice the number of
bombs fell on Malta than fell on London during the entire blitz. Convoys
could not get through, antiaircraft gunners rationed their fire, and the
population came close to starvation.

McCaffery sets out to tell the story of Canadians involved in the 1942
siege. Primarily a story of aerial combat, it is related in true
“Knights of the Air” fashion, replete with such descriptions as
“the Hurricane’s 1000-horsepower Rolls-Royce Merlin engine roared
into life” and the “glowing red tracers streaked into the canopy of
the nearest German fighter.”

Though five of the 17 aces with nine or more victories were Canadian,
McCaffery goes beyond the Canadian involvement to provide a general
account of the siege. Unfortunately, his account of the siege is
essentially a regurgitation of a familiar story that has been better
told elsewhere. Hell Island is recommended for budding enthusiasts of
aerial combat literature; the more experienced will find nothing new
here.