Back to June 11th, 1942 or June 22nd, 1942
A lexicon of mythology has built up around the early defence of the island by four Gladiators. This generated much traffic on the mailing list as the Dave Wadman and Mark Horan have 'put me right'. Here's what some real experts have to say:
Dave Wadman,
Regarding the Malta Gladiators.
It might be a good idea to get things into perspective here.
None of the Gladiators on Malta had specific names as such (that is , a
particular name being applied to a particular aircraft). The names of
Faith Hope and Charity were used in general reference to the three
aircraft that were flying at a given time e.g. 'Look, there go Faith, Hope
and Charity again'. The maximum number of Gladiators used was(whenever
possible) three with one held in reserve. (I posted full info on these
back in June sometime during Mike's Italian posts).
The arrester gear, dinghy and sundry items were removed from the
Gladiators to compensate for the extra weight of fitting locally
manufactured armour plate for pilot protection.
It is also known for certain that N5519 flew with a Mercury engine from a
Blenheim.
The sources for my Gladiator information comes from unpublished photos of
some of these aircraft from my personal collection, copies of official and
private documentation from my personal archives and copies of interviews
conducted in the early fifties with persons involved directly with these
aircraft (two Maltese and three British).
Emmanuel Gustin:
"No account of the Gladiator would be complete without mention of
the defence of Malta during the dark days of June 1940. Much has
been written about this, usually in the mistaken belief that three
aircraft named Faith, Hope and Charity were solely responsible. In
fact, no such names were ever used and the fighters in action against
the Italian raiders were seven Sea Gladiators (with arrester gear
removed) taken over by the RAF from Royal Navy stocks at Kalafrana.
Eight more aircraft, in reserve, were drawn upon for spares by the
hard-pressed ground maintenance personnel. Details are appended below.
At least two of the Sea Galdiators were adapted to take a non-standard
Mercury engine removed from a Blenheim, complete with a variable-pitch
propeller and armour plate."
Serials of the aircraft used by the Hal Far Fighter Flight: N5519,
5520, 5523, 5524, 5528, 5529, 5531. Assigned as spares: N5518, 5521,
5522, 5525, 5527, 5528 and 5530.
Emmanuel Gustin
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