Made for the home market during WWII, this silent German newsreel shows an air raid on Malta by the Luftwaffe and the El Alamein front of the Afrika Korps. At :39, Generalfieldmarshall Albert Kesselring is shown reviewing pilots and crews. At :50 bombs are prepared for the attack and then loaded on Dornier Do-17 bombers. At 1:49 the aircraft fly in formation over the Mediterranean and reach Malta at 2:00. Bombs drop at 2:19. At 4:10 the film shifts to North Africa and the El Alamein front, where German forces are pushing forwards towards Suez. At 4:40 German armor and trucks rumble on roads with signs in English, while sapper clear land minds at 4:55. The mines are stacked by the roadside. At 5:14 artillery fires against British positions. At 6:17 a British soldier surrenders while nearby Royal Army tanks burn. Large groups of prisoners are seen at 6:40.
The Siege of Malta was a military campaign in the Mediterranean Theatre of the Second World War. From 1940-1942, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of Malta pitted the air forces and navies of Italy and Germany against the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.
The Axis resolved to bomb or starve Malta into submission, by attacking its ports, towns, cities, and Allied shipping supplying the island. Malta was one of the most intensively bombed areas during the war. The Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids over a period of two years in an effort to destroy RAF defences and the ports. Success would have made possible a combined German—Italian amphibious landing supported by German airborne forces. It was never carried out. In the event, Allied convoys were able to supply and reinforce Malta, while the RAF defended its airspace, though at great cost in material and lives.
Albert Kesselring (30 November 1885 – 16 July 1960) was a German Generalfeldmarschall of the Luftwaffe during World War II. In a military career that spanned both World Wars, Kesselring became one of Nazi Germany’s most skilful commanders, and one of the most highly decorated, being one of 27 soldiers awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Nicknamed “Smiling Albert” by the Allies and “Uncle Albert” by his troops, he was one of the most popular generals of World War II with the rank and file.
The First Battle of El Alamein (1–27 July 1942) was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought in Egypt between Axis forces (Germany and Italy) of the Panzer Army Africa (Panzerarmee Afrika, which included the Afrika Korps under Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) Erwin Rommel) and Allied (British Imperial and Commonwealth) forces (Britain, British India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) of the Eighth Army (General Claude Auchinleck).
The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Egypt. Axis positions near El Alamein, only 66 mi (106 km) from Alexandria, were dangerously close to the ports and cities of Egypt, the base facilities of the Commonwealth forces and the Suez Canal. However, the Axis forces were too far from their base at Tripoli in Libya to remain at El Alamein indefinitely, which led both sides to accumulate supplies for more offensives, against the constraints of time and distance.
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