The Malta WWII Experience

The Malta WWII Experience A time capsule ... Stories originating from WW2 Malta veterans. For decades the curator received precious artifacts and listened to testimonies.

An immersive experience awaits you where objects come alive as their harrowing, gripping story is revealed. Booking by appointment

ALBERT SPEER1905–1981 | Hitler’s Architect and Minister of ArmamentsAlbert Speer was a German architect who rose to beco...
29/08/2026

ALBERT SPEER
1905–1981 | Hitler’s Architect and Minister of Armaments

Albert Speer was a German architect who rose to become one of Adolf Hitler’s closest associates and a leading figure of the N**i regime. Joining the N**i Party in 1931, he became Hitler’s favoured architect, designing monumental buildings and grandiose plans intended to express the power of the Third Reich.
Following Fritz Todt’s death in 1942, Speer became Minister of Armaments and Munitions and head of Organisation Todt. He reorganised German war production and oversaw an industrial system heavily dependent upon millions of forced and slave labourers.

No personal connection of significance between Speer and Malta has been established. However, the weapons, aircraft and munitions produced under Germany’s wartime armaments system supported Axis operations, including the campaign against Malta.

Captured in 1945, Speer was convicted at Nuremberg of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to twenty years at Spandau Prison.

Released in 1966, he became a successful memoirist. He died in London in 1981.

The Cusens Collection is in possession of Speer's autograph which is now being curated in The Malta WWII Experience

“THE 'BORG PISANI' FASCIST LEGIONA Maltese Name in the Final Days of Fascist Italy:THE “BORG PISANI” LEGION — 4 April 19...
29/08/2026

“THE 'BORG PISANI' FASCIST LEGION

A Maltese Name in the Final Days of Fascist Italy:

THE “BORG PISANI” LEGION — 4 April 1945

This original document showing below, now in the Cusens Collection, was issued by the Guardia N**ionale Repubblicana (GNR), Legione Italiani all’Estero “Borg Pisani”, a military formation of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana).

Dated 4 April 1945, barely three weeks before the collapse of Fascist rule in northern Italy, it is a judicial report concerning the desertion of a young legionary from Nice and the military equipment, weapon and ammunition he took with him.

For Malta, however, the document's greatest significance lies in the name printed prominently at its head: “BORG. PISANI.”

Carmelo Borg Pisani (1915–1942) was a Maltese-born artist and committed Italian irredentist from Senglea who believed that Malta formed part of the Italian cultural and national world. While studying in Italy, he embraced Fascism and, following Italy's entry into the Second World War, volunteered for Italian military service. He subsequently became an officer in the Milizia Artiglieria Marittima.

In 1942, as Axis planners contemplated the invasion of British-held Malta, Borg Pisani volunteered for a clandestine mission to his native island. He landed on Malta's western coast but became stranded beneath the cliffs at Ras id-Dawwara and was eventually rescued and taken into British custody. He was subsequently tried in Malta for offences including espionage and treason and executed by hanging at Corradino Prison on 28 November 1942.

His death acquired radically different meanings on opposite sides of the wartime divide. To the British authorities in Malta, Borg Pisani had betrayed the Crown during wartime. To Fascist Italy, he was transformed into a martyr of Italian irredentism. He was posthumously awarded Italy's Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare, and his story was commemorated through Fascist propaganda.

After Mussolini established the Italian Social Republic in German-occupied northern Italy in 1943, Borg Pisani's name was bestowed upon this GNR formation of “Italiani all'Estero” — Italians from abroad. The symbolism was deliberate: the Maltese volunteer who had died claiming an Italian identity became an emblem for Fascists originating from communities beyond Italy's established frontiers. Official Italian military archives preserve a dedicated file concerning the “Legione italiani all'estero Borg Pisani della Guardia nazionale repubblicana.” Esercito Italiano.

This document therefore represents something considerably larger than the desertion case recorded upon it. Issued on 4 April 1945, with the end of Mussolini's regime only weeks away, it demonstrates how the name of a Maltese man executed in British Malta in 1942 continued to possess symbolic importance within Italian Fascism until its final days.

For Malta, it is a tangible surviving link between the wartime siege of the island and Maltese Italian irredentism.

The document is now on display with artifacts of the Fascist section within The Malta WWII Experience

JOACHIM HELBIGLuftwaffe Bomber Commander - Siege of MaltaJoachim Helbig (1915–1985) was one of the Luftwaffe’s most high...
24/08/2026

JOACHIM HELBIG

Luftwaffe Bomber Commander - Siege of Malta

Joachim Helbig (1915–1985) was one of the Luftwaffe’s most highly decorated bomber commanders. He was a significant participant in the Axis air campaign against Malta.

Arriving in Sicily in January 1941 with Lehrgeschwader 1 (LG 1), Helbig flew Junkers Ju 88 bombers on missions against Malta, Allied shipping and Royal Navy forces in the central Mediterranean.

On 16 January 1941 he participated in the major attack on HMS Illustrious while the damaged aircraft carrier was undergoing emergency repairs in Malta’s Grand Harbour.
Helbig also took part in operations against Allied convoys supplying Malta, contributing to the Axis attempt to isolate the island.

He subsequently commanded I./LG 1 and continued extensive anti-shipping operations throughout the Mediterranean.

Credited with sinking or damaging more than 180,000 tons of Allied shipping, Helbig received the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, one of Germany’s highest military decorations.

After the war, Helbig returned to civilian life and became a brewery director in Berlin. He died in 1985.

Remarkably, one of Helbig’s personal Luftwaffe presentation goblets is today preserved at Malta’s National War Museum, Fort St Elmo.

The Malta WWII Experience has recently acquired a personally-signed autographed photo of Joachim Helbig, authenticated and certified by Todd Mueller Autographs of the USA.

IVO LEONE GANADO(Sottocapomanipolo - Camicie Nere)https://youtu.be/KvQRbkL_GpQ?is=nrIxylaOx9UaBfAyThe Cusens Collection ...
12/08/2026

IVO LEONE GANADO
(Sottocapomanipolo - Camicie Nere)

https://youtu.be/KvQRbkL_GpQ?is=nrIxylaOx9UaBfAy

The Cusens Collection has acquired a set of wartime documents that once belonged to Maltese fascist and Camicie Nere member Carmelo k.a. Ivo Leone Ganado.

Ivo Leone Ganado was one of a small group of Maltese Italian irredentists who actively sided with Fascist Italy during the Second World War. His political outlook developed during the intense inter-war dispute over Malta’s cultural identity, when Italian influence was increasingly challenged by the British colonial administration.

Unlike the much better-known Carmelo Borg Pisani, however, Ganado remains a relatively obscure figure and details of his childhood and family background are poorly documented.

Before the war Ganado moved to Italy for his education. By 1940 he was studying at the University of Padua and was sufficiently identified with the pro-Italian Maltese movement for his name to appear on an Italian Foreign Ministry list of Maltese considered loyal to Italy. He subsequently acquired Italian citizenship.

Following Italy’s entry into the war, Ganado joined other Maltese irredentists—including Carmelo Borg Pisani, Antonio Cortis, Paolo Frendo and Carlo Liberto—in the Fascist Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza N**ionale, popularly known as the Camicie Nere (or Blackshirts.)

He attended the officer-training school of the Milizia Artiglieria Marittima at Messina and attained the junior officer rank of sottocapomanipolo.

After Mussolini's fall and Italy's armistice in September 1943, Ganado remained committed to Fascism and adhered to Mussolini’s German-backed Italian Social Republic (RSI) in Northern Italy. This later became an important element in the case brought against him after the war.

Returning to Malta, Ganado was prosecuted for high treason and related offences. His defence counsel was the distinguished Maltese lawyer Dr Alberto Magri LLD.

Despite the seriousness of the charges, Ganado was ultimately acquitted by the jury, together with several other Maltese accused of wartime collaboration with Italy.

Ganado subsequently returned to Italy. Remarkably, he later entered public life and served as a municipal councillor in Treviso from 1965 to 1970, under his full name Carmelo k.a. Ivo Leone Ganado.

His career therefore represents one of the more extraordinary—and controversial—stories of Maltese involvement with Italian Fascism during the Second World War.

These documents include some of Leone Ganado's personal wartime papers including his original Camicie Nere membership card. The set constitutes an important addition to the Fascist memorabilia section of the Cusens Collection.

The documents are now curated by The Malta WWII Experience

'Giovinezza' anthem:

https://youtu.be/KvQRbkL_GpQ?is=nrIxylaOx9UaBfAy

OBERGEFREITER JOSEF BAUERKG 77LUFTWAFFEKIA over Malta on 19th April 1942Based on the available German casualty records a...
04/08/2026

OBERGEFREITER JOSEF BAUER
KG 77
LUFTWAFFE

KIA over Malta on 19th April 1942

Based on the available German casualty records and Malta war records, very little personal information has survived about Obergefreiter Josef Bauer. However, the following can be stated with reasonable confidence:

Name: Josef Bauer
Rank: Obergefreiter (Senior Airman)
Date of birth: 15 August 1918
Place of birth: Bodenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany
Unit: Kampfgeschwader 77 (KG 77), a Luftwaffe bomber wing
Aircraft: Junkers Ju 88 A-4 bomber
Role: Air gunner (Bordschütze)

Decorations:
Iron Cross 2nd Class
Iron Cross 1st Class
Bomber Operational Clasp in Bronze

Josef Bauer was killed in action on 19 April 1942, during one of the heaviest days of the Luftwaffe's April Blitz against Malta.

German records identify him as an air gunner from KG 77 who died while flying a bombing mission against the island. Unfortunately, surviving records do not identify the pilot or the rest of his crew, nor do they state exactly where the aircraft came down.

The morning raid of 19 April 1942 involved around 60 Ju 88 bombers and 24 Ju 87 Stukas, heavily escorted by fighters. Malta had virtually no fighters available to intercept the attackers, allowing the German formations to bomb Grand Harbour, Luqa, Hal Far and other targets almost unhindered.

That day:

276 Axis bombers in all attacked Malta.
Around 436 tons of bombs were dropped.
71 people were killed on the island.
Fifteen anti-aircraft gun positions were hit.
The destruction included the tragic bombing of St Paul's Home for the Elderly in Ħamrun.

Malta's official wartime diary records simply:

Enemy casualty: Josef Bauer

Post WW2, the interred German military casualties were transferred out of Malta.
Josef Bauer was re-buried in the German Military Cemetery, Cagliari (Sardinia):
Block 1
Grave 166

Why so little is known:

Unlike fighter aces or pilots, bomber air gunners rarely left extensive records unless they received high decorations or survived the war. Many KG 77 operational records for April 1942 are incomplete or were destroyed, making it difficult to reconstruct the crew of Bauer's aircraft.

What probably happened:

On 19 April 1942, KG 77 flew repeated bombing attacks against Malta. Several Ju 88s were hit by intense anti-aircraft fire over and around the Grand Harbour. One recorded Ju 88 (code 3Z+KN) crashed near Valletta after being shot down, with two crew killed and two captured. However, there is currently no evidence that Josef Bauer belonged to that aircraft, so it would be inaccurate to identify him with that crew.

Why he had both Iron Crosses:

Receiving both the EK II and EK I suggests Bauer had already completed a considerable number of operational sorties before April 1942. KG 77 had previously flown intensive campaigns over France (1940), Britain during the Blitz, the Balkans, Crete, North Africa and finally Malta.

Receiving both the EK II and EK I suggests Bauer had already completed a considerable number of operational sorties before April 1942.

Bauer was therefore probably an experienced combat airman by the time he died.

The Cusens Collection has acquired an original Death card for Josef Bauer.

It is now on display within The Malta WWII Experience as testament to the ordeal of the wartime islanders, their succourers and their defenders.

15/07/2026

VINCENZO BORG k.a. 'BRARED'

Vincenzo Borg k.a.'Brared' was in charge of It-Twila Battery. The Battery no longer exists but it used to be the same location in Kappara where "The Malta WWII Experience" is located today.

The same site where in February 1799, the British Standard was hoisted for the first time over Malta; so the French blockaded in Manoel Island below could see it

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