16 minute read
Victoria Lines - Joseph Galea Debono
from Vigilo 56
by dinlarthelwa
A STRING OF FORTIFICATIONS
Trekking along the Victoria Lines
Advertisement
by Joseph Galea Debono
Some years back, in the company of Professor Anthony Bonanno, I started trekking along various sections of the extensive defence work known as the North West Front, constructed by the British in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Eventually we delivered a series of joint lectures at Din l-Art Ħelwa’s Maurice Caruana Curran Hall, in which we traced the path of the infantry line and the fortifications and other archaeological and historical sites along its entire length. This article captures some of my impressions of these walks.
In the first decades of their presence in Malta, the British were quite satisfied with the fortifications built by the Order of St John around the Grand Harbour. But, as the importance of the naval base grew, particularly after the opening of the Suez Canal, and with the fast pace in the development of artillery, their military engineers felt the need to secure the entire harbour area from landward bombardment and attack by building outlying perimeter fortifications to keep a potential enemy as far away as possible from the concentration of military installations and urban conglomerations around the Grand Harbour.
After years of proposals, counter-proposals, plans and reports, the military experts decided to build a string of fortifications along the Great Fault, a prominent geological feature which bisects the island in half, isolating the central and southern areas from the northwest segment with its numerous bays and inlets, which were very prone to landings by an enemy.
Work on this new line of defence began in earnest in 1874 with the building of three forts in very strategic locations, namely Fort Bingemma at the western extremity, Fort Mosta in the centre and Fort Madliena at the north-eastern edge of the Great Fault. In 1895, work was started on a continuous infantry line linking the three forts, smaller batteries and the Dwejra Lines. As by 1897 – the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee – the works were far advanced, the whole length of the fortifications was named in honour of the Sovereign.
This article is limited to the stretch of the works from Baħar ic-Cagħaq to Targa Gap in the centre of the island.
Infantry wall snaking down and up Wied il-Faħam
Most of the works were either hewn into the living rock; usually the hard upper coralline limestone and built of the same material; cut, shaped and dressed by Maltese manual labour, using muscle power and grit in very exposed and dangerous positions, without the aid of modern tools and machinery. Indeed, although the plans and designs and the survey of the land were done by the Royal Engineers, these works are a monument to Maltese craftsmen and labourers who carried them out, and, if anything, they should be conserved and restored for this reason if not for any other. The project provided employment and sustenance to hundreds of Maltese over a span of a quarter of a century and therefore must have had a positive economic and social impact on Maltese society of that period.
For many years much of the 12-km-long patrol line lay abandoned and ravaged by the forces of nature and vandals. However, in recent years more awareness of the importance of this defence line was created by the publications of Stephen Spiteri and Ray Cachia Zammit. The Friends of the Victoria Lines have a website dedicated to imparting knowledge about them and several local councils and Ambjent Malta have, from time to time, embarked upon restoration and cleaning projects of certain sections of the path.
The Lines
Starting from the north-east coast, above Baħar ic-Cagħaq, the first trace of the infantry wall one comes across is that flanking the road that branches off from the Coast Road up to Madliena Heights, roughly at a point above Madliena Tower which was built by the Order of St John in the seventeenth century. Regrettably this wall has been breached in several places to provide access to a number of villas.
In most places the wall is composed of an outer face and an inner one of ashlar blocks of coralline limestone with rubble infill in between. A coping, sloping outwards tops the width of the wall. On the outer face it is bound together by a sort of mortar composed of a of a mixture of lime and coal dust (xebha) which served to cement the blocks together and eliminated handholds and footholds for scaling by the enemy. In a few stretches it is dry-stone walling, a rubble wall with smooth outer and inner faces. It is normally about 1.5m high to enable soldiers to fire their rifles over it, at the same time exposing themselves as little as possible to enemy fire. In places the wall is topped by a row of loopholes affording yet more cover to the defenders.
On reaching the top of Madliena hill one can either turn left and walk up to the glacis surrounding Fort Madliena, which is now a pleasant pine grove, or else drive up the asphalted road leading to the entrance of the Fort.
Aerial view of Fort Madliena
Fort Madliena
This fort is the only one of the three main forts which is set back from the infantry line by some 200 metres. At a height of some 400 ft (122m) above sea level, it dominates the skyline and the north-eastern shoreline for miles around. Like other fortifications of the period, it has a polygonal trace and was very low lying. It was ready by June 1880. Its entrance was over a Guthrie rolling bridge which spanned the 22ft (6.71m) deep dry ditch and led into an outer
parade ground which was separated from the inner one by a large casemated traverse which was used as stores and casemated barrack blocks. The ditch was defended by five 32-pounder smooth bore breach-loading guns firing through embrasures in four counterscarp galleries.
Originally the fort was to be armed with rifled muzzle loading cannon mounted on hydropneumatics gun mountings. Later, however, 6-inch guns were installed and, when heavier artillery became available, a further extension to the fort was built on the seaward outside and beyond the original ditch and two emplacements for 9.2-inch guns, complete with underground gun crew accommodation and ammunition magazines were built. During the First World War the fort’s main armament consisted of the newly installed 9.2-inch guns and the 6-inch guns, but the latter were discarded during the inter-war period. These guns saw action during the Second World War on a number of occasions when small enemy sea-craft laying minefields or probing the shore defences were sighted or picked up by radar at extreme range, which was some 14 miles (22.5 km) out to sea. They were still in position in the early 1950s and I still have vivid recollections of them menacingly perched on Madliena Heights during our Sunday drives.
When the guns were dismantled in the midfifties, the Royal Air Force took over the fort and installed a radar station with a huge Type 80 scanner mounted just outside the fort. This became a landmark in its own right for many years until shortly before the British withdrawal in 1979. It was at this time that further accretions were made to the fort on the landward side, thereby changing its low-lying profile. Later, the Fort was placed in the care of St John’s Rescue Corps who still use it as their base for training of volunteers and storage of equipment.
San Giovanni quick firing battery
Retracing one’s steps to the crossroads, after skirting a row of recently built villas, one reaches the edge of the cliff and the infantry wall. At this point, perched above Wied ilFaħam, lies the site of San Giovanni Battery which was constructed between 1884 and 1887. Its armament consisted of two 6-pounder quick-firing guns, mounted ‘en barbette’ on concrete gun platforms which are still in situ today. These emplacements had inbuilt box recesses for the storage of ammunition. An underground expense magazine, accessible down a rock-hewn flight of steps, was excavated a few metres away.
Wied il-Faħam
Leaving the battery, if one follows the wall, which although well preserved is hemmed in by the back walls of the villas which have been built far too close to this historical structure, one is nonetheless rewarded by the dramatic view of Wied il-Faħam and the patrol line snaking down to the bottom of the ravine and across a stop wall with loopholes for rifle fire and with two openings underneath for the flow of rain water in the valley below. The wall then winds up to the other side of the ravine passing by the still well-preserved building housing what was the Defence Electric Light engine room or generator. It was intended to supply power to a searchlight emplacement a few metres away which is now in ruins. During the war this area was defended by the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Up to some years ago their Regimental Badge still graced one of the outer walls of the building. Sadly, however it was either destroyed by vandals or appropriated by some hidden hand.
Restored loophole wall at Tarġa Gap
For the faint-hearted who do not want to attempt the steep descent down the valley sides and the equally daunting climb by the infantry wall on the opposite side, one can retrace steps to the asphalted road, crossing the arched masonry bridge which spans Wied id-Dis. But the well-motivated trekker will surely brave the walk by the wall up to the searchlight emplacement on the promontory nowadays popularly referred to as ‘Top-ofthe-World’ and to the people of Gharghur as ‘Ġebel San Pietru’.
Gharghur high angle battery
Before savouring the delights and disappointments of the walk along the now being restored infantry wall at Ġebel San Pietru, one cannot omit referring to the Gharghur high angle battery situated at the top end of Wied id-Dis Valley and reached through an attractive woodland off the arched masonry bridge mentioned above. The complex formed an integral part of the defences of the Victoria Lines, although it is situated about one kilometer behind the infantry line. The battery is bounded by a low perimeter wall abutting on the lane with a guard room at the entrance gate built in the rusticated style typical of British military buildings in Malta. There are barrack rooms, stores and a battery command post built in the same style close to the entrance. The guns were situated at the rear of the complex trained to fire as Howitzers, lobbing shells over the ridge at targets down in the Magħtab and Burmarrad plains below the Lines and the North-East coastline. The trajectory of the shells would be over part of Gharghur village and Ġebel San Pietru heights.
The battery was built in the plan as sketched by Dr Stephen Spiteri, the leading authority on British fortifications in Malta, for his book British Military Architecture in Malta. It consisted of six, 10-inch, rifled muzzle-loading guns deployed in a row flanked by ammunition stores. There were also underground magazines dug into the ridge in front of the guns and gun-crew rest rooms on both sides of the gun line.
Construction of the battery began in 1899 and ended a year later. The guns were in place by 1901. According to Dennis Rollo in The Guns and Gunners of Malta, the battery was kept in service long after the Victoria Lines fell into disuse and it served right through the First World War; its armament being reduced to four guns by then. During the Second World War it served for a time as the operational headquarters of coast artillery or Coast Control. Between the 1970s and 2004 it served as a residence for leprosy patients. The complex now sadly lies abandoned and the entire site is showing signs of neglect.
Ġebel San Pietru
On reaching the searchlight emplacement above Wied il-Faħam, there is a platform intended to take a mobile field gun or Howitzer. From there, a wide path flanks a long stretch of the infantry wall which is broken at another point by a similar gun platform. This walk used to provide magnificent views of the Baħar ic-Cagħaq and Magħtab areas and stretched all the way to Gozo. Unfortunately, this view is now marred by the rubbish mountain at Magħtab and the ever-expanding residential area of Baħar ic-Cagħaq and an industrial estate further to the west, all built on former agricultural land.
Wied Anġlu or Gharghur Ravine
The infantry line then reaches a dramatic and precipitous gorge at Wied Anġlu where it appears that another field gun battery was to be positioned. Here steep rock-hewn steps lead down to the bottom of the valley where the infantry wall has disappeared in some parts, particularly over the stop-wall, rendering the way quite perilous. Steps again climb up the
opposite side and at the top the path creeps along narrow ledges between the precipice and clumps of overgrown vegetation on the inward side. However, those who do not want to face certain risks, can walk along a tarmacked road which skirts the ravine and leads to a point parallel to the continuation of the infantry wall on the far side.
Naxxar Gap
The infantry line extends all the way to San Pawl tat-Tarġa where a number of redoubts built by the Order of St John in the eighteenth century stand on both sides of the road leading down to Burmarrad. At this point the infantry line wall is no longer traceable but a scarped ditch running parallel and below the redoubts is still evident. The British infantry wall then extended to Wied Filep where the entire area including its fortified bridge has been devastated by quarrying all the way down to Wied il-Għasel Valley. Here the stop wall was swept away in a terrible flood occurring in October 1979 and only three archways survive. Rock-hewn steps on the far side again lead up to the plateau dominated by Fort Mosta.
Restored stretch of loopholed wall at Tarġa Gap
Fort Mosta
At a height of some 280 ft (85.4m) above sea level, Fort Mosta was intended to be the linchpin of the entire north-west front. It followed the polygonal low-lying trace with an inner keep surrounded by a ditch protected by counterscarp musketry galleries armed with two 24-pounder smooth bore carronades. The ditch was crossed by a Guthrie rolling bridge leading to the main entrance and a courtyard bordered by casemates, which originally housed 64-pounder muzzle loading guns firing from embrasures. On the roof of the keep there was a gun flatform for a field gun.
At a later stage, two gun emplacements for 6-inch breach-loading guns together with their underground magazines and gun-crew shelters were constructed on the outer perimeter of the fort. However, there is no record of any of the fort’s original or subsequent armament ever been fired in anger. With the abandonment of the Victoria Lines as an inland defensive position during the early years of the twentieth century, Fort Mosta lost most of its military importance unlike the other two main forts on the Victoria Lines, which were kept in use in a coastal defence role. However, during the Second World War a second Gun Control Room
Loopholed wall and steps to opposite side of Wied il-Faħam
The 1997 re-enactment
Sketch plan of Gharghur High Angle Battery - courtesy of Dr Stephen Spiteri in the fort duplicated the main one at Lascaris War Rooms and both were kept in operation to ensure that if one was put out of action, the other would assume control immediately. By the 1940s the fort was used only as a munitions depot; a role it still retains to the present day in the hands of the Armed Forces of Malta.
The Targa Gap segment
After skirting round the fort’s outer perimeter, one comes upon a picturesque and relatively well preserved and restored segment of the infantry line which stretches towards Targa Gap. The patrol path here is flanked by the restored wall on the valley side and by Gnien l-Għarusa tal-Mosta on the other side. Its loopholed parapet has been restored in some places and views of Burmarrad Valley, Wied ta’ Għajn Riħana and Bidnija Heights can be enjoyed from this vantage point. In October 1997, an English re-enactment group in Victorian uniforms participated in events commemorating the first centenary of the Victoria Lines here.
What would be a very interesting feature in this segment is the underground nuclear war Civil Defence Head Quarters which lies under the old Civil Defence building and which is reached from a flight of steps just below the infantry wall. Very regrettably, although the gate at the entrance was forced open, we could never venture into the innards of this nuclear shelter as the front room was always littered with all sorts of unimaginable things! It is indeed a pity that this unique historical underground shelter has been allowed to be vandalised and polluted in this way.
This part of the trek ends at Targa Gap where the Mosta - St. Paul’s Bay road breaches the patrol line and where the plaque commemorating the inauguration of this defence line has pride of place on the outer face of the wall leading to Falka Gap and on to the upper north-west front. n
Sources: R. Cachia Zammit, ‘Malta’s Heritage: The Victoria Lines’; Ibid., ‘The Victoria Lines, Malta’; Ibid., ‘The Victoria Lines: New Edition with a Foldout Map’; J. Mizzi and M.A. Vella, Malta at War, vol. 1 (2001); D. Rollo, The Guns and Gunners of Malta; S. Spiteri, British Military Architecture in Malta; Ibid., The British Fortifications; Ibid., The Fortifications of Malta’; Ibid., The Knights’ Fortifications; The People on Sunday (16 Nov 1997); The Times of Malta (13 Nov 1997).
