Robert Frazer

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As a young Royal Marine, Robert Frazer helped save Malta.  The Germans and Italians blockaded and bombed the island to the brink of starvation.  In 1942, the Allies launched Operation Pedestal to deliver food and fuel. Robert returned to Malta 60 years later. ‘I don’t see myself as a hero—all those men who lost their lives were the heroes.  I was glad to get a chance to go back and remember them.  The Maltese people were very kind and it was very moving to visit the museum that was built in honour of those who died.  At one stage I was looking at the photographs and saw one of me.  I couldn’t believe it.  It brought all the memories flooding back.’

This story was generously contributed by the Northern Ireland Museums Council.

Malta: No Time to Lose- Soldier Dockers unloading a Convoy during a Raid
Leslie Cole

Robert remembers guarding the docks during Operation Pedestal.  ‘Looking back I suppose it was hard but we were all young and never thought about it.  There were a lot of men killed and I was very lucky to have survived.  I had one near miss when a bomb landed beside me blowing all the sandbags away.’

Leslie Cole was an official war artist.  After he travelled to Malta in 1943, he painted the liberated Belsen concentration camp and Japanese prisoner of war camps in Singapore.

This American oil tanker had to reach Malta at all costs.  It was torpedoed and bombed. It took 3 destroyers to save the tanker from sinking.  People cheered as the SS Ohio was towed into harbour with its precious cargo.
 
Operation Pedestal involved:

• 14 merchant vessels
• 64 warships
• 3 aircraft carriers with 72 planes

400 people died
13 ships were sunk

St. Lucius Street, Valletta: Moonlight alert, Maltese people running for shelter
Leslie Cole

‘We were definitely in a siege situation—the air raids seemed to never end.  The worst was not having any oil so there was no heat or light.  Before Operation Pedestal we were also running out of food.  It was extremely hard, especially for the Maltese people who were so good to us.’

Churchill inspects damage to dockyard at Valletta, Malta

Robert remembers, ‘The island really took a battering the last time I was there.  I remember there were 120 air raids in one week and the noise of the planes overhead will never leave me.’