Soon after dawn on 11 June 1940, a force of Savoia-Marchetti S79 bombers escorted by Macchi C200 fighters arrived over Malta. It was the first of thousands of air attacks carried out during the next two and a half years by the Italian Regia Aeronautica and, later, units of the German Luftwaffe.
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Malta was littered with aeroplane wreckage – Italian, German, and British. In time, much was gathered as scrap. Resident British forces assisted in the clean-up, removing from airfields unserviceable aircraft.
Whatever was surplus to requirements was dispatched over a steep cliff at H−al Far and into the sea. Much is still there, together with unexploded bombs that had been hurriedly disposed of during the war.
