First edition, first impression. Presentation copy from the author, inscribed on the front fre endpaper: "To Brigadier Edwards hoping that this may recall some memories, with best wishes from Koko Weldon, 24 August 46"; also with a couple of biro corrections to the errata slip (pasted to verso of Author's Note), the Index and correcting the titles of chapters VII and VIII. "I have long felt that there should be wider knowledge of the part played by the Army in Malta and in particular by the Royal Regiment of Artillery and its brother in arms the Royal Malta Artillery. It was by those men, without hope or relief or rest, that the constant strain of three years of bombing, isolation and blockade was borne. The epics of naval heroism that ensured the provisioning of Malta and the doughty deeds of the Royal Air Force in its defence are justly renowned through the press and official publications alike. This pen of mine is a very inadequate instrument with which to describe the contribution of the Army as a whole at its true worth" (Author's Note). Weldon (1910-1985) was educated at Charterhouse and RMA, Woolwich; "commissioned 2nd lieutenant, Royal Artillery 1930, lieutenant 1933, captain 1938. In 1941 he made brigade major on Malta, GSO 1, Malta, 1941-1943. In 1943 he attended Staff College, Camberley, subsequently becoming Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General, later Assistant Quartermaster General, SHAEF, 1944-1945, later Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, HQ 21 Army Group, 1945 and Assistant Quartermaster General, British Army of the Rhine, 1944-1946" (Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives online). Decidedly uncommon, Copac locates only one copy in British and Irish institutional libraries (London Library), OCLC cites just six locations worldwide (plus an additional record of a variant issue published by Gale & Polden in Aldershot in 1946). The printer's code at the foot of p. 133 gives the date of publication as "7-46" and the print run as "500".
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