ANZAC Experience in Malta
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The ANZAC experience in Malta In 1915 57,950 servicemen from the Gallipoli ex- peditionary force were evacuated to Malta, and during the last three months of the year the sick and wounded continued to arrive from the Dard- anelles at the rate of about 2,000 weekly, and in one week in December 6,341 were landed in Malta. Archives New Zealand/www.warart.archives.govt.nz/node/1085 Archives Despite the best efforts of the medical staff, some The landing at Anzac, 25 April, 1915, by Charles Dixon casualties did not recover and were buried in Malta. Among these are 202 members of the Australian At the start of the Gallipoli campaign, in April Imperial Force and 72 service- 1915, the wounded were evacuated to Egypt, but men from the New Zealand it was immediately evident that facilities there Expeditionary Force. could not cope. When war was declared in A week after the landings at ANZAC Cove, at the August 1914 there were just four beginning of May, the first convoy of casualties military hospitals on the islands. Within a year arrived in Malta; by the end of the month more there were 21 plus seven convalescent depots than 4,000 sick and wounded were being treated and homes – earning Malta the soubriquet of on the island. Nurse of the Mediterranean. The ANZAC experience in Malta is a set of four self-guided tours to the principal sites associated with the personnel of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during, mainly, the First World War. These tours will show you where wounded Anzacs where hospitalised, convalesced, were entertained, and the locations where those who lost their personal battles are buried. Tours may be followed in one of two ways: circularly, ending where they begin, or in a linear fashion. The walking man (_) and car (%) pictograms denote travel directions on foot or by car, whilst the reading man (R) indicates information about the locale and provides historical insights. A map is rec- ommended for car tours, otherwise one is not necessary. The tours also highlight points of interest on the islands – places where recovering servicemen and off duty personnel may have visited, and so can you. 1 City Gate 11 Auberge de Bavière 200m 290m 2 Central Bank of Malta 12 Triq l-Arcisqof 220m 280m 3 Upper Barrakka Gardens 13 Triq Santa Lucija 330m 190m 4 Triq ir-Repubblika 14 Fortress Builders 520m 280m Richard Ellis Archive Malta Richard Ellis Archive 5 Triq l-Arcisqof 15 Vincenti Buildings Valletta’s original city gate (left) and the 110m 180m military gymnasium in the background — 6 The Pub 16 St Andrew’s Scots Church now site of the central bank 49m 80m 7 Lower Barrakka Gardens 309m 17 Triq l-Ordinanza 8 Mediterranean Conference Centre 210m Tour 1 - Arrival 120m 18 City Gate 430m Valletta, Floriana and Pieta 19 Independence Arena Military Cemetery 430m 20 Argotti Botanical Gardens Mode: Linear, on foot (ANZAC Memorial) Start: Valletta, city gate 9 Site of the former St Elmo Hospital 550m : 6.5kms 200m 21 Portes des Bombes Distance 10 Military History Museum : approx 4hrs, at a 770m Duration 360m 22 Pieta Military Cemetery leisurely pace Inc map - Apple Background The ANZAC experience in Malta - Arrival • 1 Matthew Mirabelli Valletta’s Grand Harbour from the Upper Barrakka Gardens with: A - Ricasoli Hospital; B - Bighi Naval Hospital; C - Fort St Angelo, known as HMS Egmont in WWI; and, D - Cottonera Hospital The many sick _ Turn right rah Kastilja is the Auberge de steam cranes lower the stretch- and wounded from as you enter Castile, now the prime minis- ers, swinging them gently into Gallipoli required Valletta – the ter’s office. their places. Thus they are entertainment new ‘gate’ was During the First World War it brought ashore.”1 and the military completed at was British military headquar- One hundred and sixty se- gymnasium - built the end of 2014 ters and the building to its left verely wounded were ferried to in 1872 for the – and walk up is the former Garrison Chapel Valletta Military Hospital in am- Valletta and Flori- the stairway, that now houses the stock ex- bulances drawn by six horses; ana garrisons - turn left to- change. The entrance to the gar- the remainder were taken to was turned into a wards Misrah dens is to the left and behind specialised hospitals. soldiers and Kastilja mak- the stock exchange. _ Make your way to Triq ir-Re- sailors institute. ing for the The Upper Barrakka is the pubblika, retracing your steps The Vernon Upper Bar- highest point in Valletta and its past the Auberge de Castile, the United Services rakka Gardens. terrace offers a panoramic view statue of Grand Master de Club, as it became You’ll pass, on of the Grand Harbour. Valette and the renovated known, main- your left, what R It’s Tuesday, Pjazza Teatru Rjal – the original tained its function is known as a On 5 May 394 4 May 1915, opera house was destroyed in as a social club cavalier, a for- wounded arrived nine days after 1942. for the military bidding, win- on the HS Sicilia. the Gallipoli until 1967. dowless A further 641 landings, and The government monolith in- were disembarked the first hospi- took over the tended to be from HT Aragon tal ship — the building in 1968, used as a last on the 6th. By the HT Clan demolished and means of de- end of May more McGillivray — rebuilt the inte- fence in siege than 4,000 sick steams into the rior but retained warfare. On and wounded had harbour. The the external your right is landed in Malta. wounded were walls. It was inau- the Central under the med- gurated as the Bank of Malta. ical care of Captain (later Central Bank of At the out- Major) Vivien Benjafield of the Malta on 13 Feb- break of war Australian Army Medical Corps. ruary 1971. this was the Within minutes the HT Clan military gym- McGillivray docks and the 600 Retro Courtesy Bay nasium, converted into an en- wounded Anzacs on board “feel Australian servicemen in Valletta after an tertainment centre in mid-1915 that they have reached a haven Axis air raid for servicemen recuperating of rest. from Gallipoli wounds. “Quietly big barges come along- The imposing building on Mis- side, and almost tenderly the R The ambulances made their way slowly to Valletta, entering During the Great Siege of 1565 Fort St Elmo guarded the entrance to the Grand the capital through Porta Reale Harbour. The Sciberras Peninsula – modern-day Valletta – was largely uninhab- and proceeded down Strada ited scrub. Reale, now Triq ir-Repubblika. The strategic height of the peninsula was not lost on the Ottoman Turks. As at “Masses of people packed the Gallipoli, Turkish heavy artillery had the advantage of an elevated position Strada Reale…Large crowds over the defending knights of the Order of St John, occupying the lower lined both sides and waited ground, across the harbour in Fort St Angelo. In 1565 what are now the silently…Many had brought Upper Barrakka Gardens were used as a platform for the Ottoman canons. packets of cigarettes while oth- Today it is used as a saluting battery with canons fired daily by re-enactors in ers carried bags of chocolates… Victorian-era military uniforms at noon and at 16:00. Others carried bunches of beau- tiful, sweet scented roses and The ANZAC experience in Malta - Arrival • 2 flowers that bloom in spring”, journey down Triq ir-Repubb- the George Cross to Malta in writes Herbert Ganado in his lika with “the crowds pressing 1942 and honours the more memoirs Rajt Malta Tinbidel2. forward to catch a glimpse of than 7,000 service personnel “Some clapped but were the heroes recumbent on and civilians who died on the is- quickly shushed by the crowd. stretchers or comfortably lands between 1940 and 1943. It was not an occasion for noise seated – according to the nature R Facing the memorial is the and shouting”, Ganado recalls. of their injuries – and as the sit- Mediterranean Conference Cen- “The people, uation developed sympathy and tre, once the principal hospital When the first particularly enthusiasm, the spectators of the Order of St John. In 1915 batch of wounded mothers in the cheered with vigour and hearti- this was the Valletta Military arrived in Malta crowds, be- ness…Those of the wounded Hospital, used mainly for triage. on 4 May, there came very who were strong enough to re- “Low-lying, one might at first were no motorized emotional and ciprocate the compliment, think it unsuitable as a health ambulances on the threw choco- waved hands and smiled upon resort. Yet once inside its thick, islands. lates, packets the sympathisers”3. ancient walls, and you feel as if Six Ford ambu- of cigarettes _ Past the Palace turn right you had passed beyond the lances arrived on and flowers. into Triq l-Arcisqof and head to- reach of the sun. The very solid- 26 May, shipped “Some of the wards Triq il-Merkanti. Just be- ness of the old masonry acts from Britain on wounded fore reaching it you’ll see The like a refrigerator, and within the SS Gibraltar. waved, smiled Pub, a favourite watering hole of there is coolness”, writes the The following and looked the Royal Navy, and the place Rev Albert MacKinnon in Malta month another 24 happy that where actor Oliver Reed died on The Nurse of the Mediter- arrived. they had been 2 May 1999 whilst drinking ranean.