The 20mm Excalibur gun from Siġġiewi

In many European countries, the air war has left its mark. Often, memorial stones in sometimes remote places commemorate aircrews. Rarely, however, has such impressive evidence of air combat been preserved as near the village of Siġġiewi in Malta. Thanks to a book purchase, friendly contact was established with a Maltese collector who offered us an exclusive tour of the island.

With a rental scooter we went through the small winding streets in the interior of the island. Already the journey turned out to be adventurous with the driving style of the other road users. Arrived at the destination, a parking bay outside the village, followed a short consultation with the property owner. His consent was needed to enter the field.

A Spitfire had bored into the ground there more than 80 years ago. All the debris lying around on the surface was recovered soon after the crash. What remained were the two 20 mm Hispano machine guns, stuck vertically and immovably in the ground. Once probably a nuisance to farmers, both cannons have since been declared national treasures. A curious testimony of a plane crash and certainly unique in this kind.

The aircraft, which hit the field almost vertically at high speed, must have bored at least 1.5 meters into the rock-hard dry ground according to the barrel length of the two guns. The distance between the two machine guns corresponds exactly to the distance that could be measured on the museum aircraft between the two wings. All salvage attempts by scrap collectors and the military failed in the past, and so the remains have been preserved until today as silent witnesses to the air battles around Malta. A certain parallel to the legend of King Arthur's sword stuck rigidly in the rock naturally suggests itself.

As for the historical background of the Spitfire, it could be determined that it took off on July 3, 1942 with 11 other aircraft of the 126th Squadron to intercept German aircraft on the coast. Two Spitfires were lost that day, one of them flown by American pilot Officer Richard McHan. He managed to get out of the crashing plane and landed with his parachute near the impact site.

Adrian Matthes, Erlangen, März 2020