Faithful Through Hard Times: The Uncensored Story of WW2 Malta
₱1,462.00
Product Description
Four years: 3 million bombs: Zero Hour Food approaching
’The diary was kept secret because it had to be. Taylor knew he would be in trouble if it were found. There is no censor in the diary.’ The Scottish Association for the Teachers of History
‘Based on words and feelings recorded at the time it is probably unique.’ Don Marshall, Military History Enthusiast
The true story of WW2 Malta from an eye-witness account written at the time in a secret diary, a diary too dangerous to show anyone, and too precious to destroy.
Four years, 3 million bombs, one small island out-facing the might of the German and Italian air forces – and one young Scotsman who didn’t want to be there.
Private George Taylor arrived on Malta in 1940 thinking that shiny buttons would earn him fast promotion; he left four years later, a cynical sergeant and a Master Freemason who never said, ‘I was there,’ without a bitter smile.
Despite the times he said, ‘It’s me for the next boat’, despite his fears that Nettie had forgotten him, George kept the motto of the Royal Army Medical Corps ‘In arduis fidelis’, ‘faithful through hard times’ and only told his diary the inside story of four long years.
Now, the truth can be told.
‘This is a moving story played out by every serving soldier when war dislocates families and taxes friendships. The extraordinary stresses battering the relationship between Corporal George Taylor and his fiancée Nettie are played out against the background of the Siege of Malta.’ Colonel Walter Bonnici RAMC (retd)
Review
“This is a moving story played out by every serving soldier when war dislocates families and taxes friendships. The extraordinary stresses battering the relationship between Corporal George Taylor and his fiancée Nettie are played out against the background of the Siege of Malta. Difficult communications allow anxiety, jealousy and suspicion to encroach on the rational, so that living for the moment becomes the norm.
This is the first narrative I have come across from a medic in 30 Company RAMC serving in Malta during the Second World War. Any soldier reading George’s tale, who has ever served in conflict, will have no problems relating his experience to those challenges faced by George and Nettie.”
Colonel (retired)Walter Bonnici, RAMC, creator and administrator of the RAMC Malta website maltaramc.com
“This is a love story. True, the diary kept secretly by George Taylor between 1940 and 1943, when he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the island of Malta, reports on the siege when the island faced daily raids and attacks from Axis forces. But the real theme of the diary is his anxiety for the survival of his relationship with Nettie.
The diary was kept secret because it had to be. Taylor knew he would be in trouble if it were found. There is no censor in the diary.”
Scottish Association of the Teachers of History
“This is a most unusual military history book. There are few military non-combatant accounts of life in the Second World War, fewer still from an Other Rank. Based on words and feelings recorded at the time, it is probably unique.
It is an interesting an informative account of the Siege of Malta, with its devastation of the islanders’ jobs, properties, health and social communities, and of the sacrifices made by sailors and airmen to maintain the island and drive off the aggressors.
Obviously a high-minded young man, his eager adoption of the Masons’ codes and customs is to his credit and must make very interesting reading for those who are of the Brotherhood.”
Don Marshall, Military History Enthusiast