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3/11 Regt. RMA(T)
Sgt. Alfred Aquilina by
Joseph Angileri
12 December 2013
The late Sgt. Alfred Aquilina was my father-in-law; he served in the 3LAA
Regiment during the war in the 1940s. I’m sending you these old war-time
photos which I hope you will find useful for your 3/11 website. I also have
a very interesting notebook written by Sgt. Aquilina in 1940. The notebook
is about 40 pages long and is in his handwriting in pencil. The notebook
contains instructions on the operation of the Bofors guns and the
“Predictor” that was attached to the gun. I’m also sending scans of a few
of the original pages from the notebook; I hope you will find these old
papers interesting.
Sgt. ALFRED AQUILINA: A rare WWII photo uncovered by Joseph
Angilerii, showing the late Sgt. Alfred Aquilia at a Bofors gun
emplacement, somewhere in Malta in 1942. Can anyone identify the
exact location? The background may yield some clues.
Capt. Saviour Portelli, who kindly assisted with the scanning of the
pictures, comments that the photo shows Sgt. Aquilina near the
Bofors in the pit with a steel helmet on the rubble wall. I feel this
gives a very good impression of a typical gun-pit at the time,
surrounded by sand bags. It is quite likely they were out somewhere
'in the country' possibly defending some airfield.
Godwin Hampton comments: The predictor, hidden beneath its
canvas cover, was connected electrically to the gun. Information
about the plane (direction, speed and range) were fed into the
predictor which worked out the position where the shell should be
aimed to meet the plane (the future position). It then sent power to
electric/hydraulic motors which traversed and elevated/depressed the
barrel aligns it with the future position. The loader, alone on the gun,
would fire it.
Godwin Hampton comments: This Bofors L60 is fitted with an early
version of the Stiffkey sight. Very interesting.
Mario Zammit comments: This emplacement must have been close to
one of the airfields: note the rubble filled petrol tins making up the
blast protection walls.
from Sgt. Alfred Aquilina’s wartime notebook
3/11 Regt. RMA(T)
Updated 8 March 2014
3/11 Regiment Royal Malta Artillery (PDF Library).
1. Royal Malta Artillery 1800-1970.pdf
2. The Birth and Demise of a Regiment(1941).pdf
3. Memories of 11th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment(1951).pdf
4. 3/11 Regt. RMA(T) in the Infantry role(1967).pdf
5. Major Victor D'Ugo(1936).pdf
6. Major Louis Radmilli.pdf
7. Last of the Bofors.pdf
8. Sgt Alfred Aquilina(1940).pdf
9. Sgt. Francis Xerri(1940).pdf
10. Ftit Ritratti min Francalanza.pdf
11. Bofors Heritage.pdf
12. 3/11 Regiment at Sports.pdf.
