In March 1940, measures were taken to have the RAF Station Hal Far provided with a Station fighter Flight under the command of Wing Commander G. R. O’Sullivan. Nevertheless, Air Commodore F. H. Maynard, who in January 1940 had been appointed A.O.C.
Malta, eventually was informed by Group Captain N. G. Gardner, Chief Administrative Officer, that apart from a few Swordfish (mostly floatplane version) in use by 3 A.A.C.U. (Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit) for target-towing duties, and a solitary radio-controlled de Havilland Queen Bee, the RAF had no other aircraft on the island! However, after consultation with his staff, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, then Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, gave his permission to the RAF for the loan of six of the in Kalafrana stored Sea Gladiators. Among these were N5521, N5525, N5527, N5530 and N5533, which were taken in hand by flying officer Collins, Officer-in-Charge of the Aircraft Repair Section at Kalafrana. He had the biplanes assembled and delivered to Hal Far by early March. Furthermore Collins, who knew that his services would now be needed at Hal Far, volunteered to man a badly-needed maintenance crew, made up by eager British and Maltese servicemen.
Commodore Maynard knew that no trained fighter pilots were available on the island, but hardly had the word spread when volunteers began to gather. Flight Lieutenant George Burges, who had been Personal Assistant to Maynard was the first to volunteer. From Hal Far’s original staff came Squadron Leader Alan C. ‘Jock’ Martin, who was later picked to command the Flight. Two other members from the Hal Far Station Flight, Flying Officer William J. ‘Timber’ Woods and Flight Lieutenant Peter G. Keeble, enlisted as well. The other three volunteers were Flying Officer John L. Waters from 3 A.A.C.U, Flying Officer Peter W. Hartley also from 3 A.A.C.U and Flying Officer Peter Alexander who had previously been serving with an Experimental Flight, which had been operating the radio-controlled Queen Bee target drones. Sergeant L. F. Ashbury was also attached to the flight for a short time. Among these pilots it was only John Waters who had any previous experience with the Gladiators since he during March had been sent aboard HMS Glorious for one week (!) of fighter training with 802 Squadron.
With the invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, HMS Glorious was recalled to England with great haste. On 11 April 1940 when she left
Malta, she had re-embarked 802 Squadron with 9 Sea Gladiators. Apparently (all of her records were lost when she sank) she embarked the nine indicated above (N5518, N5521, N5525, N5526, N5527, N5530, N5532, N5533 and N5535). She landed three of these just before her final voyage (N5532, N5533 and N5535), all of which were re-assigned to 804 Squadron, FAA. The remaining six (N5518, N5521, N5525, N5526, N5527 and N5530) were apparently the six aboard her when she sank. This means that the six Sea Gladiators (among them N5521, N5525, N5527, N5530 and N5533) “borrowed” to the RAF and the Hal Far Fighter Flight were re-possessed by the FAA, probably because they were already assembled and could be used quickly.
This left 12 Sea Gladiators at
Malta. Of these, RAF “borrowed” four new (N5519 "Charity", N5520 "Faith", N5524, N5531 "Hope") which were assembled and formed into the Hal Far Fighter Unit on 19 April 1940. These were supplemented by two more (N5522, N5529) in May after one of the original four had been damaged when Squadron Leader Martin hit a large wooden packing case on the side when landing at Hal Far, flipping N5524 onto its side; Martin was unhurt. The damaged Gladiator was repaired and had been air tested by 6th June.
The Sea Gladiators on
Malta were standard Fleet Air Arm pattern except that they were assembled without arrester hooks, dinghies, or sea markers. The assembled fighters were subsequently fitted with armour plate behind the pilots’ seats and with variable-pitch three-blade airscrews.
On 23 April R/T and armament training, as well as live bombing, was carried out in co-operation with 3 A.A.C.U. At least N5520 was flown by John Waters during this exercise.
However five days later the news that the Gladiators were to be withdrawn and shipped to the Middle East, shattered the morale of the small RAF unit. To further demoralise the group the fighters were dismantled. Rumours that HMS Eagle was expected to call at Kalafrana to collect the aircraft could not have come at a worse time. In actual fact some of the Sea Gladiators in storage were subsequently shipped to Alexandria (at least N5535 and two others).
On 29 April, the Hal Far Fighter Flight was disbanded. Nevertheless, with the packing procedure barely over, counter orders were received by Flying Officer Collins an on 3 May the unit was reformed to receive the return of the fighters (at least N5519, N5520 and N5531 was flown during May, i.e. both ‘Charity’, ‘Faith’ and ‘Hope’).
It will be seen therefore, that at least six Gladiators, not only the three famous Faith, Hope and Charity, aided in the defence of
Malta.
Group Captain George Burges offers an explanation for the legend of the ‘immortal trio’:
”From time to time people refer to the story of ‘Faith, Hope and Charity’. Reference to Admiralty records proves that there were quite a few other Gladiators on the island when hostilities with Italy started. We were certainly given four aircraft to set up the Hal Far Flight, and there were certainly some others at Kalafrana in crates and from time to time aircraft with other ‘rudder numbers’ appeared to replace casualties. Whether these other aircraft had been completed in their crates I do not know. An enormous amount of improvisation had to go on to keep aircraft operational and a ‘new’ fuselage would have ‘second-hand’ wings or engine. As the ‘rudder number’ was on the fuselage this would seem to be yet another new aircraft.”
“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 it 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. Nevertheless, 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 destruction’ to many of the enemy, but equally they had a very profound effect on the morale of everybody in the island, and most likely stopped the Italians just using the island as a practice bombing range whenever they felt like it.”
All this means that the Fighter Flight not was a last minute panic organisation, but had been in existence and equipped for nearly three months before the outbreak of hostilities.