MESSAGE FROM MALTA
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Year Published: 1943
Format: 16mm
Description: 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.
Complete Record:
Transcription
[Music] [Applause] so this is a picture of the people of malta under fire here is an ordinary day in their lives the all clear has sounded [Music] now malta must put out the flames and sweep away the rubble and save what it can of its ruined homes [Music] it's opera house it's museum with a relics of the crusades it's hospital it's church this has been one of some three thousand raids here is a front line manned by civilians men women and children a front line formed when italy entered the war and france fell a front line that didn't waver in three years of fiery siege there was no problem of gas rationing here there just wasn't any gas [Music] food was raised by civilians and soldiers alike [Music] but malta isn't self-sufficient sometimes the convoys bearing malta's meat couldn't battle through the submarine wolf packs and the bombers of sicily malta did without and shared what it had [Music] do [Music] many of malta's children forgot there had ever been a world of peace they tramped through rubble to outdoor [Music] schools [Music] but even in its darkest moments malta fought back from its fields swordfish of the fleet air arm took off to destroy axis warships and freighters [Music] from medieval moats modern tractors trundled bombs and torpedoes or british bombers sweeping a sea that had become virtually an axis lake but malta hung on and lashed at rommel's sea bone supplies and because malta hung on it made easier the victory of libya and the smashing united nations offensive in africa [Music] [Applause] wow [Music] now another lull in the battle has ended enemy raiders are approaching [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] again the all clear has sounded malta moves above ground once more [Music] you
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