This 1943 Allied propaganda film from the United States Office of War Information (OWI) and the War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry (WACMPI) documents the plight of the people of Malta during World War II (TRT: 10:55).
Opening titles: “The United States Government Presents, Message From Malta, Edited by Office of War Information Film Unit” (0:08). Pan over a smoke filled sky. Smouldering buildings in a deserted landscape. Narration: “This is a picture of the people of Malta under fire” (0:22). Ruins of a bombed brick building in an urban area. Fire trucks loaded with men in hardhats leave a station. Men shovel through heaps of rubble (0:59). Women and children sit in a pile of ruins as a military officer passes. Inside a decimated opera house. Medieval armor is removed from a destroyed museum gallery (1:37). Hospital beds sit on the edge of a ruined floor. Nurses carry children. A religious service in a heavily damaged church (1:54). An air raid siren in closeup, with the city in the background, showing palm trees and historic architecture. Children play in the streets. Horses and livestock. A carriage with a banner: “Communal Feeding Department.” A meal is distributed (2:24). Children walk through a corridor of rubble to an outdoor school. Children sit and retrieve books from within their desks (3:58). Young men haul a torpedo, fix wings to a biplane (4:38). Men wearing life vests gather, making a plan of attack. A propeller-driven engine whirrs to life. Tractors transport bombs to a British RAF bomber aircraft (5:00). A soldier watches the sky through binoculars in a guard tower, then speaks through a radio microphone. The air raid siren sounds (6:09). Another siren is placed in a public square and cranked. Women and schoolchildren run for cover (6:39). Soldiers ready artillery weapons. Women enter an air raid shelter. Pilots board a plane (7:11). An anti-aircraft gun in the foreground, with a panoramic skyline of Malta in the background. Farmers look and point to the sky. Planes are spotted high above (7:42). A building is bombed (8:12). A plane is shot down. Another plane dives. Explosions fill the sky (8:28). A plane falls to the earth and creates a massive explosion of smoke (9:10). Inside an air raid shelter, women and children sit together, talking. One woman knits. Men stand with their arms crossed (9:20). Explosions continue along the horizon of the Maltese landscape, smoke filling the sky in tall plumes (9:28). Citizens of Malta emerge from their shelters into daylight. A newspaper rolls off a printer: “Malta Awarded George Cross” Newsboys take to the streets (9:52). A struggling business: “Eastern Art Palace.” A florist sets out flowers for sale under a sign: “Operahouse Florist” (10:23). End titles: “The End” (10:40).
The Siege of Malta, a strategically located Allied military and naval fortress, lasted from June of 1940 to November of 1942. By May of 1943, air and sea forces had, in a span of 164 days, sunk 230 Axis ships, the highest rate achieved during WWII.
