We do not usually compare Malta with Gaza.

But in 1942 Malta, though awarded the George medal by the King, was almost beaten. Relentless bombing by the Germans had reduced the island to Gaza-level ruins, especially Valletta, the capital.

The British had relocated most of their forces to Alexandria as soon as the war began.

Now, as 1942 reached May the hunger deepened. Rations were reduced again and again and were now clearly insufficient. The island had run out of food.

More importantly, it had run out of fuel. Its planes had to remain silent, when they could have continued to damage the Axis build-up.

Successive convoys were launched especially from Gibraltar but they had all been found out and destroyed.

We now know from none other than the top brass in the British forces that a decision was taken: unless circumstances changed this was it. The island would be surrendered. By September the issue had to be settled.  The very last chance would be a convoy, the like of which the world had never seen, that would be sent.

That was how Operation Pedestal was conceived.

It set off from Gibraltar but you can't hide a fleet so big. And ships in modern warfare are sitting ducks. The nearer they got to Malta the more they were sunk. Malta owes a huge debt to these seamen who went to a watery grave and left their families behind.

The main ship in this convoy was the huge tanker Ohio. We've seen the photos, how it limped into the Grand Harbour yet somehow still afloat. Along comes the realisation that, if Ohio was sunk, Malta would have to surrender. It just did not have sufficient fuel.

Do we ever stop and think what would have happened if Malta surrendered? It would have been taken over by the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis. The Italian Fascists would have found ready ground in the Church and the legal profession and they would have structured the island according to Fascist  principles.

The Nazis were a different breed, but they would have been the victors and impose on all their Teutonic mentality. But would we have got concentration and labour camps? Would we have had a regime of spying, family against family? A reign of terror?

Then the wider picture. Rommel would have won, without Malta to attack his routes. He would then have swept aside Egypt and broken down the lines of communication with Britain's colonies in the East.

World War II was ultimately decided when America entered the fray both in Europe and the Far East. But would the final outcome have changed by Malta's surrender?

We simply do not know - the imponderables of history. What we know is that Malta was saved, not the first time in its history. And again at a huge cost to its allies.

All this has unfortunately been mostly forgotten by many Maltese who prefer to say with Gensna "Mitna ghall-barrani" (we died for the foreigner) and speak of Santa Marija miracle when they do not really mean it.

It was indeed a miracle because it kept us in the West, helped the West emerge triumphant and saved the world. Exactly as had happened in 1565. That seems to be Malta's destiny.

Even today Malta can still teach a people unfortunate just like it in 1942 with its houses reduced to rubble - the people of Gaza facing real starvation. In 1942 the Maltese found salvation through digging rock shelters. But the Maltese dug these shelters for their families and not to manufacture rockets or keep the hostages.

The Germans knew what they were doing - they hit the Mosta Dome only by accident and they refrained from attacking St John's and the Palace. On the other hand they bombed people's houses with gay abandon until they suffered more than a taste of their own medicine in Dresden and so many other places.

It was not Malta's fault that it found itself the most bombed place on Earth (till then). It did nothing to attract this. But then it happened to side with the right side. Hamas-Gaza did not do so. Hence, though unfortunate, it is deepening its death pangs. There can't be any Santa Marija miracle for them unless they change their tactics.

History note: Malta in Phoenician and Roman times

Writing in the Springer Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology David Cardona from Heritage Malta discusses the history of the Maltese islands through successive regimes from the Phoenicians to the Carthaginians and then to the Romans in the Second Punic War followed by the Byzantines and then the Muslims.

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