Sometimes I'll hit a line in a war book that hits back between the eyes. Or a small paragraph will raise big questions or provide significant answers concerning, for example, certain events and causes, consequences and 'butchers' bills' of WW2. I'll usually wonder where my father was at the time.
[Front cover of SIEGE: MALTA 1940 - 1943]
This series of ten posts will serve as a small collection of some of the most powerful lines or sentences I've encountered so far in my travels.
A Savage Curtain of Metal
This 'entrance', such as it was, to Grand
Harbour was now irretrievably blocked.
Meanwhile, caught in the full glare of
the searchlights, the EMBs* as they raced
towards harbour were blown to pieces.
The Maltese gunners had waited many months
for attack from the sea, and when it came
they let their feelings of frustrated vengeance
come to the boil in the waters outside.
Within two minutes most of the attackers
were dead and every boat was sunk.
All the bravery in the world could not avail
against such a savage curtain of metal.
[Page 95, SIEGE: MALTA 1940 - 1943]
* explosive motor boats of the Italian Decima Flottiglia Mas (The Tenth Light Flotilla), "piloted by one man seated in an ejector seat so that he could blow himself clear before the moment of impact with his target" (pg. 93)
Photos GH
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