Malta's Gladiator 'Faith'

Some checks:

27th November 1941 Charles Palliser’s logbook refers to flying ‘Faith’ – no serial No. attached. (Not 42 as I said, but well after June 1940.)

The serial N5520 was ‘found’ on the lower fuselage fairing, aft of the tailwheel…

For me, the last word belongs to George Burgess, one of the pilots:

“Thus it was only during our training period, before the war started for us, and for only about the first week or ten days of the war period that the population ever saw three Gladiators in the air together – from then on was two and sometimes only one. During this period none of us ever heard the aircraft referred to as “Faith, Hope and Charity” and I do not know who first used the description. Neverthless the sentiment was appropriate because the civil population certainly prayed for us and displayed such photographs as they could get hold of. There is no doubt that the Gladiators did not ‘wreak death and distruction’ to many of the enemy, but equally they had a very profound effect on the morale of everybody on the island and most likely stopped the Italians just using the island as a practice bombing range when they felt like it.”

The Gloster Gladiator, Alex Crawford, Mushroom Model Publications, 2002. www.mmpbooks.biz 8391632709.

There is also some great original info in Malta Flypast 1 & 2 (avaliable via: http://www.digigate.net/aviation/) which is the Malta Aviation Museum website.

A great place, highly recommended for a visit!

Cheers

Thanks Flood.

Box Brownie. If you are sitting on an unpublished photo of a Malta Sea Gladiator, you are a very lucky man! The serials are, however well known; the point we were discussing is the lack of the (famous) names. Either way, we’d love to see the pic(s) and hear the stories!

A friend of mine was the electrician on the Gladiatiors and somewhere I have a photograph of him in the cockpit of one of the a/c. The a/c is camouflaged and the serial is quite clear – will try and find it!

Very nearly my point entirely – I might be asking what the idea was, though, in (probably) retrospectively naming N5519 as (maybe) Charity (possibly) a couple of years later when some of the others that did fly were not named at all…
The dates from Air Britains Fleet Air Arm Aircraft 1939-1945 are as given: I looked at them and thought that it looked as though Hope and Charity had been named from the moment that the Hal Far Fighter Flight was instigated whilst Faith wasn’t named for maybe another year; if you look at it that way then it looks very much like a PR (public relations) stunt applied after the event in order to tidy things up loose ends.
Or have I said that already?

Flood

Hi Flood,
Thanks (as ever) for some v. useful input. While I have the highest respect for Air Britain, I have yet to find ANY contemporary link of names to particular serialled aircraft – and I don’t believe there ever was.

A selection of Sea Gladiators and spares were kept flying in the toughest of conditions. A handful of machines might have started off as complete ‘unmixed’ airframes, but on Malta, they quickly would have been inbreeding parts. While a single i.d. would be attached to a flying aircraft, no names were applied to them, and no groundcrew, aircrew or other associated people used the names until well after 1940. An absence of proof isn’t proof in itself, but it is reasonable to conclude that the names just were not part of the military environment then. As for the civilians, that’s a different story; but on a small island under intense pressure…

I’ll find George Burgess’ account which sums it up well.

Cheers

I confirmed with two (admittedly not very recent) sources that the Malta Gladiator was N5519 and just believed it. A little more searching shows that it is now claimed (or assumed) to be N5520…
As to the names – you would have expected that they would all have been named at the same time (given how they run off the tongue!): according to Air Britains Fleet Air Arm Aircraft 1939-1945 Faith was N5520 10/41-1/42, Hope was N5531 19/4/40 when it joined the Hal Far Fighter Flight as was Charity – N5519 – until it was shot own on 29/7/40. This time-spread could be because of wartime record keeping, or it could be because the names were really a retrospective propaganda exercise (as JDK points out it looks like it was at least working by 1942) that has now come to be regarded as fact; after all, there were more than three Gladiators most of the time but it would be so much better for morale if the public were lead to believe that Malta was defended by a relatively minuscule number of named defenders.

Flood

The old myths – the best myths.

It’s a very complicated story.

Alex Crawford explains some of it on his website, and in his book Gloster Gladiator that I edited and, with Alex’s OK, I also added a bit on the Malta Gladiator myths. From memory here’s some of the points.

There were several Gladiators defending Malta – not three, the numbers varied, depending on canibalisation etc.

The first Gladiator ‘kill’ came after the Hurricanes arrived.

the book ‘Faith Hope & Charity’ is a boy’s own adventure story light on facts and history, but is great on the ‘gung ho’. Treat with suspicion, great period piece.

The mainly Catholic people of Malta were probably responsible for the FHC names; but there are no records of the names from the period. Later in the war, a pilot recorded in his logbook (1942?) flying in ‘Faith’. This is the first reference to one of the names by someone involved directly with the a/c.

In my opinion, there is no real link to one aircraft to one name, just a generic connection of Gladiator defenders to the three graces.

When ‘Faith’ (the surviving Maltese Gladiator, serial under dispute) was found it was a mess (the Quarry pic) – and tarted up for the presentation. That involved some quite rough and ready work.

It was then redone in the 1970s. Again, much of the work (the cowling and the rudder) were only vague ‘look alikes’ rather than accurate rebuilds. A perfectly reasonable job in both cases.

At some point in its histoy the serial number was removed from all the places it was recorded. Later, some other ID was found (pencil on fabric IIRC) which was used to give the ID. A long shot, possibly wrong, possibly faked, certaily dubious. Someone took a lot of trouble to ‘de-i.d.’ the a/c. Why? IMHO because it wasn’t ‘what it should be.’

There was some argument about IF the a/c had ever had wings attached or had always been a ‘bitser’ and canibalised. It almost certainly had been complete, almost certainly flew, was a Sea Glad (the hook attachement is visible, and part of the fuse frame – the ‘original’ bit) but may not have been a Malta defender.

What is on display at the moment contains an original fuselage frame and undercarriage – everything else was added to that airframe at a later date. Much of it is not even Glad parts.

The MAM have a set of wings (I’ve seen ’em) which it is proposed to rebuild and attach to a refurbished fuselage. Given the Hurricane job that will be a stunner; and there is nothing to lose by doing so.

The ID of the Gladiator aon Malta is arguable; calling it ‘Faith’ serves the task, but tying down a serial is IMHO not going to be possible; and the real point is for Malta to have a Gladiator on display.

Just because the stories about Robin Hood, King Arthur, Don Giovanni, etc are not true does not stop them being important or iconic. The same applies to the Gladiator ‘Faith’.

Dave, I don’t think you realise how short the Maltese were of everything – the fact that anything survived is amazing; the hardships of the Maltese are incredible.

The intend is that Faith ends up a complete Gladiator at Ta’Quali. Which will be great.

I’ll check my notes and the book later!

Cheers

Thanks for the link Flood, very interesting stuff, wonder what happened to N5520’s Blenheim engine and prop.

Mark- never thought really, suppose it all does look like that! 🙂

I’m guessing the wartime shot in the quarry was before the presentation in Sept 1943?

Quarry?

It all looks like that. 🙂

Mark

I’m guessing the wartime shot in the quarry was before the presentation in Sept 1943?

The booklet dates from 1944, so it cannot be more than a few months after it was presented, most likely quite a bit earlier. Surely such a significant airframe would not have been stripped and abandoned so soon after all the fuss of ‘presenting it to the people of Malta’.

What sort of prop is present in your photograph Dave, 2 or 3 bladed? Wonder if the current prop dates from the original ‘patch up’ in 1943 or from later restoration work, they would all have been metal three bladed units when in service I would have thought?

It has a two-blade prop in the handover photo. Judging from the date of your pamphlet you’re undoubtedly correct.

Here is a site that provides more than enough Malta/Gladiator info – even if it does say that N5519 was shot down in flames into the sea on 31/7/40…
http://www.geocities.com/acrawford0/Malta.html

Flood

After the Battle did an article on her restoration in 1982 I believe.I will look it out and get some answers !

No, When handed over it was much more complete. In the photo it has an engine, propellor, cowl ring and undamaged tail. Looks kike the vandals got to it afterwards then?

I’m guessing the wartime shot in the quarry was before the presentation in Sept 1943?

The booklet dates from 1944, so it cannot be more than a few months after it was presented, most likely quite a bit earlier. Surely such a significant airframe would not have been stripped and abandoned so soon after all the fuss of ‘presenting it to the people of Malta’.

What sort of prop is present in your photograph Dave, 2 or 3 bladed? Wonder if the current prop dates from the original ‘patch up’ in 1943 or from later restoration work, they would all have been metal three bladed units when in service I would have thought?

I think you may well find that the Gladiator makes a move to MAM when the new hangar is established.

Yes Dave, I know, just merely pointing out to those not aware that the two museums aren’t connected.

The location in Valetta would preclude any whole airframes.

The MAM (of which I’m a member) are rapidly expanding & professional in their approach to preservation, and would urge anyone to visit & donate if at all possible.

To see the Hurricane when it came out the water & to see it now… wow ! 🙂

As an aside to this, the four Tornados based on the Falklands were (still are?) called Faith, Hope, Charity and Desperadum(sic) 🙂
mmitch.

Does the aircraft in the presentation photo look something like the second one Dave?

No, When handed over it was much more complete. In the photo it has an engine, propellor, cowl ring and undamaged tail. Looks kike the vandals got to it afterwards then?

Dave T- I think you may well find that the Gladiator makes a move to MAM when the new hangar is established.

Great! I thought that was to be the case, but wasn’t certain. It will be fantastic to have Faith fully restored sitting alongside the Hurricane and spitfire, and certainly much better than her current cramped conditions. Roll on the day! 🙂

Dave T- I think you may well find that the Gladiator makes a move to MAM when the new hangar is established.

I think you will find that a lot of the parts on ‘Faith’ are not actually from her airworthy days . The RAF rebuild used whatever was available to fit the bill.
I don’t see that it detracts from the machine at all as long as the new parts i.e wings and tail feathers are documented as such.

And the wings that will be attached to faith are IIRC original gloster wings. (altough from another gladiator) But they are wartime pieces so I don’t see any problem to use them to ‘rebuild’ faith.

J.V.