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Malta was a centre for intelligence gathering
which was sent back to London & ultimately to Bletchley Park for
de-cyphering in some cases. Messages were regularly intercepted from
southern Europe, the Balkans & north Africa. All services had wireless
telegraphy (W/T) or radio telegraphy (R/T) & the island was said
to bristle with radio masts. Malta had one of the largest Special Liason
Units (SLU) in the Mediterranean. This unit was passed all intercepts
& sorted them out to send to London basically. The new RAF Type
X cypher machine was installed on Malta. This was an improvement on
the Enigma machine used by the Germans to code their messages.
Knowledge of our cracking the Enigma codes or the fact that we had 'come
by' a machine itself was the most closely guarded secret of the war.
Operators (mainly women) would spend hours with earphones on intercepting
messages in the most inhospitable conditions in the Lascaris Bastion
deep inside the walls of Valletta. The tunnels of Lascaris & St.Angelo
used were originally excavated to house galley slaves in the days of
the Knights of St.John some 3 centuries earlier. These tunnels were
hot & wet with roof falls at times. Clothes would grow mould within
a few days. In the winter rains sea boots were used. Malta's fresh water
supply was underground & filtered through these limestone rocks.
Chest & Lung ailments were common amoungst the people working in
these tunnels. Also tinnitus (buzzing
in the ears) was common with operators listening through earphones for
long periods.
It was known that Fliegerkorps X was moving from the Norway campaign
to Sicily just before Operation Excess where HMS
Illustrious was badly damaged. A little knowledge was a dangerous
thing & the allies had to be careful not to react to every piece
of de-cyphered traffic or the Germans would have suspected we had cracked
their codes.
Rommell made regular despatches to Berlin from his HQ in north Africa
which were intercepted & de-cyphered.
References:
Ernli Bradford - Siege Malta 1940 - 1943. Penguin Books.
This site shows photos of the restored Lascaris War Rooms.
http://www.searchmalta.com/dir/Reference_And_Information/Photos/more17.shtml
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