Passive Defence
In December of 1934 the first meeting of a local Air Raid Precautions committee was held. This would be the beginning of an ARP organisation in Malta and a local Passive Defence Scheme. Projects for key roads and access points to be modified, constructed, or repaired were approved. The North of Malta was reinforced with requests for more battalions to secure it; the lack of personnel was a recurring issue. Besides the problem of deterring enemy landings, the anxiety of controlling internal panic caused by bombing was also gravely felt: an issue which local sources felt they could not keep up with in the event of an attack.
In 1935 Malta prepared itself for another possible war. The use of chemical weapons in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in Italy directed local Passive Air Defence measures against a deliberate gas attack. Instructed were given out to the population on creating gas-proof rooms. Opinions changed so that by 1938 high explosive bombs were deems an equal threat in any future war.
What follows is a series of articles on Malta’s passive defence schemes and measures as well as the civilian dimension of the war in general. From the police organisation to the construction of rock-cut shelters, this is the story of an island in the middle of the Mediterranean sea surviving one of the toughest sieges know to man.
