From the Author
Short history of Fort St ElmoThis book is a short history of Fort St Elmo which lies on the Valletta peninsula astride the two main harbours, the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett. The present fort was built in 1552 by the Knights of the Order of St John in anticipation of a feared attack by the Turks. It played an important part in the Great Siege of 1565 but was overrun by the Turks after a month-long attack. The Turks withdrew from the Island, defeated, in Septemeber 1565, and the fort was completely rebuilt to a better design in the following year. Fort St Elmo was continuously strengthened by the Knights, but fell to Napoleon's troops, after the surrender of Malta to the French in 1798. After the French withdrawal in 1800, the Maltese asked for the protection of the British, and the Fort became one of the main outpost of the harbour fortifications. In the following years it became the headquarters of the Royal Malta Artillery, and its guns during World War II in July 1941, completely repulsed an attack by Italian E-boats and midget submarines that dried to sink a newly-arrived convoy in harbour. The fort is now, partly, a Police Academy and houses also the Malta War Museum. The book is fully documented from primary sources for the period of the Knights (1530-1798) in the National Library of Malta and from later manuscripts in the Malta National Archives for the British Period (1800-1964.