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The Graveyards of Gallipoli; A Digger History Associate Site |
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A Tribute to the Men of all the Nations that took part in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 |
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Imtarfa Military Cemetery Malta |
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| Imtarfa Military Cemetery,
Malta.
Grave of 558 Private T.A. Beaudoin, 14th Battalion, AIF, who was killed on 1915-06-04. (Donor President of Malta) |
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| Cemetery: | IMTARFA MILITARY CEMETERY |
| Country: | Malta |
| Visiting Information: | OPENING TIMES: APRIL TO JUNE Mon to Fri: 06.30-17.00 JULY TO SEPTEMBER Mon to Fri: 06.30-13.30 OCTOBER TO MARCH Mon to Fri: 07.00-16.30 Wednesday: 07.00-13.30 NOTE: The earth is shallow on Malta and during both wars, many joint or collective burials were made as graves had to be cut into the underlying rock. During the Second World War, such work was particularly hazardous because of air raids. Most of these graves are marked by recumbent markers on which several inscriptions could be carved, and for the sake of uniformity, the same type of marker was used for single graves. |
| Location Information: | Imtarfa Military Cemetery is about 1 kilometre to the north east of Mdina. It is 3 kilometres from Mosta and 1 kilometre from Rabat. The Cemetery is signposted in its vicinity. |
| Historical Information: | From
the spring of 1915, the hospitals and convalescent depots established on
the islands of Malta and Gozo dealt with over 135,000 sick and wounded,
chiefly from the campaigns in Gallipoli and Salonika, although increased
submarine activity in the Mediterranean meant that fewer hospital ships
were sent to the island from May 1917.
During the Second World War, Malta's position in the Mediterranean was of enormous Allied strategic importance. Heavily fortified, the island was never invaded, but was subjected to continual bombardment and blockade between Italy's entry into the war in June 1940 and the Axis defeat at El Alamein in November 1942. At the height of Axis attempts to break Malta's resistance in April 1942, the island and her people were awarded the George Cross by King George VI. Malta's defence relied upon a combined operation in which the contributions made by the three branches of the armed forces and Merchant Navy were equally crucial. Although heavily pressed in defence, offensive raids launched from the island by air and sea had a crippling effect on the Axis lines of communication with North Africa, and played a vital part in the eventual Allied success there. Imtarfa Military Cemetery contains 15 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 238 from the Second World War. The Commission also cares for 1,203 non war graves within the cemetery, and one Dutch war grave. |
| No. of Identified Casualties: | 1,456 |
