Axis & Allies - damowords

Fortress Malta
Mussolini blames his woes on Malta,
ʺAllow this hornetʹs nest no hour of rest,
An unsinkable aircraft carrier
From now all her activity depressʹd;
She is the knife
Pressʹd on lines of supply,
Her people full of life, then they will have to die.ʺ
The Maltese met Il Duceʹs rage
Determinʹd on liberty,
Prisoners in an island‐cage
They dug themselves to safety,
A second neolithic age
For faithʹs first family
Living life in a limestone catacoomb,
Prayer & candle lighting up the gloom.
Fighting for their little contree
They helpʹd a global cause,
Tween Italy & Tripoli
Attackʹd the Axis stores,
With submarines & wellingtons & all the wrack of wars.
Mediterranean
November
1941
Malta Silenced
Once more Christmas has pass’d without a victor
Now Hitler too has blamed Calypso’s isle
Where from short airstrips served by Valetta
His convoys are attackt mile after mile
Thus Rommel starved
Thus Suez kept open
Thus his vast forces halved twyx Saxon & Russian.
Malta besieged by brutal means
By Mussolini’s navy
As when bloodthirsty Hagarenes
Had throttl’d her from the sea
Old churches blown to smithereens
By Codotteiri
Its airstips by Luftwaffe pulverised
The threat to Hitler’s supplies neutralized!
From the shores of Sicilia
The merchant vessels flow
Topless sailors take siestas
On deck‐tops tranqulo
Ferrying tanks & petrol to fuel Rommel’s coming blow.
4 Jan
1942