This is a true historical account of war in the air, at sea and on land in the battle for Malta's survival in the Second World War. It was a battle which decided the outcome of the war in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Adrian Warburton, the airman described in the subtitle by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, went missing in 1944 in a single-seat American aircraft. He had flown at least 395 operational missions mostly from Malta. Unusually for a reconnaissance pilot, 'Warby' as he was known was credited with nine aircraft shot down. He lay undiscovered for sixty years. He is the RAF's most highly decorated photo-recce pilot.In Malta, Adrian met Christina, a stranded dancer turned aircraft plotter in the secret world deep beneath Valletta's fortress walls. She too was decorated for heroism. Together, they became part of the island's folklore. How important was Malta and the girl from Cheshire to the man behind the medals? This tale takes the form of a quest opening in a cemetery in Bavaria and closing in another in Malta. In between, the reader is immersed within the tension and drama surrounding Malta's Greater Siege retracing the steps of the main characters over the forever changed face of the island following its heroic victory.

This is a true historical account of war in the air, at sea and on land in the battle for Malta's survival in the Second World War. It was a battle which decided the outcome of the war in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Adrian Warburton, the airman described in the subtitle by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, went missing in 1944 in a single-seat American aircraft. He had flown at least 395 operational missions mostly from Malta. Unusually for a reconnaissance pilot, 'Warby' as he was known was credited with nine aircraft shot down. He lay undiscovered for sixty years. He is the RAF's most highly decorated photo-recce pilot. In Malta, Adrian met Christina, a stranded dancer turned aircraft plotter in the secret world deep beneath Valletta's fortress walls. She too was decorated for heroism. Together, they became part of the island's folklore. How important was Malta and the girl from Cheshire to the man behind the medals? This tale takes the form of a quest opening in a cemetery in Bavaria and closing in another in Malta. In between, the reader is immersed within the tension and drama surrounding Malta's Greater Siege retracing the steps of the main characters over the forever changed face of the island following its heroic victory.

This is a true historical account of war in the air, at sea and on land in the battle for Malta's survival in the Second World War. It was a battle which decided the outcome of the war in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Adrian Warburton went missing in 1944 in a single-seat American aircraft. He had flown at least 395 operational missions mostly from Malta. Unusually for a reconnaissance pilot, Warby as he was known was credited with nine aircraft shot down. He lay undiscovered for sixty years. He is the RAFs most highly decorated photo-recce pilot. In Malta, Adrian met Christina, a stranded dancer turned aircraft plotter in the secret world deep beneath Vallettas fortress walls. She too was decorated for heroism. Together, they became part of the islands folklore. How important was Malta and the girl from Cheshire to the man behind the medals? This tale takes the form of a quest opening in a cemetery in Bavaria and closing in another in Malta. In between, the reader is immersed within the tension and drama surrounding Maltas Greater Siege retracing the steps of the main characters over the forever changed face of the island following its heroic victory.

Adrian Warburton (known to all as Warby) was one of the most highly decorated pilots of the war. Fearless in the air, he won fame in Malta for his invaluable photo reconnaissance work at Taranto, Sicily and North Africa, So invaluable that he was ordered NOT to make detours to shoot down enemy planes, yet he shot down nine A below-average misfit with 22 Squadron of Coastal Command Warby was sent to Malta to avoid trouble in the UK, and guided by an understanding Australian, quickly became famous. Known at first as a loner, he was given his head by AOC Air Vice Marshal Hugh Pughe Lloyd and the spectacular results he achieved enabled his unconventional behaviour to be over-looked. With his glamorous girl-friend Christina, the two became part of Malta's legend, symbols of the island's resistance. Still in Malta, Warby later became CO of first 69 Squadron and then 683 PR Squadron. After contributing greatly to the success of the Sicily landings, for which he was personally thanked by General Alexander, he commanded 336 PR Wing in North Africa. By then he was working closely with the Americans with whom he got on so well, as he did with the Canadians and South Africans. After a serious car accident, which caused him to be grounded, he returned to the UK and, thanks to his friendship with Elliott Roosevelt, the President's son, took up a liason job with the US PR Group at Mount Farm. On April 12, 1944 Warburton departed in an American aircraft on an unusual mission over Europe. Both plane and pilot disappeared without trace, giving rise to a host of rumours that his disappearance was intentional. Only now almost 60 years later, can the mystery be solved with the discovery of both aircraft and human remains near Munich in Germany. Based on interviews with nearly 150 of Warby's colleagues, and fully updated with recently unearthed information, Warburtons War paints a picture of a fascinating man, who over 350 operational missions from Malta alone became a living legend in that much bombed and beleaguered island.

Lee Heide's wartime adventures read like fiction but they are factual, brought to life by skillful characterization and dialogue. Raised in Vancouver, he was trained as a navigator and flew overseas in a Hudson aircraft in June, 1941. In England he joined an RAF crew for training on Beaufort torpedo bombers. Sent to Malta, he survived a year of the blitz on that island, with heavy losses to his squadron. Upon converting to Beaufighters he was twice posted as missing. The first time, he and his pilot were washed ashore, after five days in a dinghy, on enemy-held Elba whence they escaped by boat to Corsica. The second time his aircraft was shot up in the Aegean and forced to land in Turkey where he was interned. A meticulous recorder, Heide's descriptions of places and events in the Middle East are informative and entertaining. The title Whispering Death was the name given by the Germans to the Beaufighter--one of the outstanding attack aircraft of the war. Readers will not lightly put down this autobiography.

The world premiere of the musical stage play Star of Strait Street took place in Valletta on 4 April 2017. It celebrates the life of Christina Ratcliffe, an English singer and dancer who became an aircraft plotter in Malta in the Second World War. She worked in the underground Royal Air Force operational headquarters beneath Lascaris Bastion in Valletta. This is Christina's story and that of other British and Maltese girls employed by the RAF. It is also the story of Philip Glassborow's hit musical Star of Strait Street. In June 1942 fifty-three female civilian plotters worked at Lascaris, some as young as fourteen. Six including Christina were decorated for gallantry. What they did, how they lived and how some of them died is told in part using their own words. Their descriptions of life beneath the most intensive, prolonged bombing the world has ever seen are extraordinary and rare: female perspectives at the heart of military conflict. Described in the Times of Malta in 1942 as 'Christina of George Cross Island', she herself said Malta 'is carved on my heart'. For years after the Second World War in small corner cafés and bars that are such a feature of Malta's towns and villages, people talked about a remarkable RAF photo-recce pilot called Warby and his stunning companion Christina, a true heroine, they said. Yet she died alone and unnoticed and was buried in a shared grave. Now the memory of what she and the LADIES OF LASCARIS achieved has been brought back to life for a well-deserved encore in writing and on the stage.