By Pierre Kosmidis Photos by Ashley Laus, submitted to www.ww2wrecks.com and used by permission Mr. Ashley Laus, from Malta, has an impressive collection of WW2-related items, making him one of the leading collectors in Europe. Mr. Laus shared with www.ww2wrecks.com detailed photographs of an iconic WW2 weapon, the German MP40 submachine gun.
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos and videos © www.ww2wrecks.com The Malta Aviation Museum’s Hawker Hurricane Mk IIa Z3055 was recovered from the seabed off Wied iz-Zurrieq (Hamrija Bank) during the summer months of 1995. It had been ditched there on the 4th of July 1941, by Sgt/Pilot Thomas Hackston following engine seizure. The wreckage of the submerged aircraft had […]
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos and videos © www.ww2wrecks.com Spitfire Mk.IX, EN199 Mary Rose, on display at the Malta Aviation Museum, was flown in the North Africa by Wing Commander R. Berry and Squadron Leader C. F. Gray, Commanding Officer No.81 Squadron. EN199 took part in the Allied Operation Torch landings and the subsequent Tunisian campaign and fought […]
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos and research: Andreas Galanos Additional reading (click the links below in red): Autumn 1943: Operation “Taifun”, the Battle for Leros, the tragic end of the LRDG and the defeat of the British The Battles for Kos and Leros, 1943 – the new edition of “Churchill’s Folly” Leros Island, 1943: […]
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos and videos © www.ww2wrecks.com On 1st April 1942 between 17:10 & 18:58, Unteroffizier Hans Pilz of 5./JG 3 was shot down by antiaircraft fire in his Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4/Trop ”Black 11” (Wr.Nr. 8668) off Luqa road, environs of Paola in Malta. German records note that Unteroffizier Pilz was last heard from when […]
Text by Marinos Giourgas, submitted to www.ww2wrecks.com and used by permission Photos: www.aegeantec.gr © Marinos Giourgas and Vasilis Spyropoulos, published under license ORP Kujawiak was originally a British Hunt-class Type II destroyer built as HMS Oakley. She had a length of 85m and was weighing more than 1,000 tonnes. She was handed over by the Royal navy to […]
From the presentation of the book by Amm Isp. Capo (c.a.) Vincenzo Martines Vincenzo Giacomo Toccafondi has already explored the world of Italian hospital ships with the recent valuable publication of the “Story of a white ship: Wandilla-Fort St.George- Cesarea- Arno 1912-1942” which ended with the sinking of the latter by of a British torpedo […]
By researcher and author Maurizio Marras Photos submitted to www.ww2wrecks.com by Maurizio Marras and used by permission After the fateful date of the armistice 8 September 1943, the Regia Aeronautica, such until 18 June 1946, did not immediately become “co-belligerent”, a name that moreover never appears in any official document, because of the clauses, of […]
Photos submitted to www.ww2wrecks.com by Professor Timmy Gambin and used by permission An 80-year-old maritime mystery has finally been put to rest with the unveiling of a memorial to a Royal Navy submarine lost off Malta. Serving Submariners from Naval Base Clyde and relatives of the crew of HMS Urge travelled to the Mediterranean island […]
By Vincenzo Giacomo Toccafondi A couple of years ago, knowing my passion for naval history, a dear friend asked me to collect some information related to a small tanker on which his grandfather had sailed in the thirties. I found some information together with a fantastic article by Enrico Cernuschi, an excellent naval history writer, dedicated […]