Kids who lived through World War II: ‘We didn’t see danger'

At 92 years of age, Albert Von Brockdorff – “Brockie” to his friends – has an astounding recall.

“When the war started, I was 12 years old and I remember everything in detail. The worst year was 1942, after that everything went back to normal, although we had rationing up to 1945,” he explained.

Now 75 years since VE (Victory in Europe) Day – marked on 25 April – today’s ‘war’ against the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly unlike the sounds and horros of World War II and the way survivors like Von Brockdorff lived through it.

“I used to go to the school in Sliema, five minutes from my home. Attached to the school was a large air-raid shelter. At 12 years old we used to be very excited at an air raid because we would meet the girls in the shelter,” Von Brockdorff recalled with a chuckle.

“Children don’t see danger,” the nonagenarian said, remembering of how he and his friends would collect cartridge cases falling from aircraft dogfighting in the skies overhead during some air-raids.

“You don’t realise the danger when you are young. One time a bomb hit a house outside our shelter. The owner was a stamp collector who had an enormous collection of stamps. The whole street was full of stamps and we just went scrambling to collect them.”

Von Brockdorff recalled the fearlessness – and the monotony – of day-to-day life as a youth during wartime. “We lived near Dingli Circus, and there was the largest air raid shelter in Sliema nearby. We used to move around underground and had many friends, but no sign of fear. Life was quite normal once we had the shelters. We even had our cubicles and used to sleep there.”

Music helped Von Brockdorff and his friends escape from the realities of war. “I remember a Mr Manché, who had an amateur orchestra... they would keep the whole Dingli circus going with their music.”

“On VE Day, everybody went to Valletta. I remember it very, very well. Big cheering and crowds and bands and everything. I have never seen such scenes after that day. It was impressed on my memory all my life. I was 15.”

Von Brockdorff vividly remembers the day the Santa Marija convoy (Operation Pedestal) came in back on 15 August, 1942. “That day we disobeyed our parents and went up to the Barrakka to see the boats coming in. We were forbidden to go there, but we cheered them on anyway. I remember the names of the boats: Glen Campbell, Ohio, Pampas. They came in but they were sunk in the harbour.” Von Brockdorff said.

Von Brockdorff’s friend Lydia Aquilina, also 92, lived in Valletta during the war and her memories of wartime Malta remained unclouded.

“At our young age everything was exciting for us,” she reminisced. “Life for a child was quite normal. We had no worries. All we wanted to do was go to San Anton gardens… We were about five families with 8 maids living in the same house,” she recalled.

There was not enough bread, which was rationed, she explained. “We were always hungry and would eat anything. We read comics, played a lot of cards, hide and seek… but never missed a day of school. The nuns at St Joseph’s had a shelter, but when the raids were getting bad it was closed for some time. The shelter we had at home was much better, hewn into the rock.”

Even she remembers VE day was a big day but says they had nothing to celebrate it with. “We got a small bag of beans, two candles and two extra chocolate bars.”

Once a week her friends would organise “a bit of music in the houses” to dance to. In these private gatherings there would be around ten couples in all. “We never had enough boys so us girls we’d dance between us,” she laughs.

Both 92-year-olds said that victory was worth the sacrifice of living through the war – and sacrifices there were aplenty, especially when it came to food. “There were, of course, the Victory kitchens, where we used to go with coupons and get our share. On one occasion, I had gone to collect the food and whilst coming back I fell over and the food spilled out on to the ground. I picked it all up and everybody ate it – luckily nothing happened to them!” Von Brockdorff says.

“We used to sleep in the shelter. Then if there was a break in the bombing, we would go have a shower and rush back to the shelter,” he recounts. After 1942 things were much easier, but food remained the biggest problem in Malta. “There wasn’t any,” he recalls.