1959 nuclear attack on Malta would have wiped out 143,000 people

The much-awaited release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer in cinemas has inspired Malta’s National Archives to publish declassified documents from Malta’s Civil Defence, mapping out the blast radius of a 1 megaton nuclear attack on the island’s harbour area.

The document from 1959 estimates that deaths from every locality in the eventuality of a 1 megaton nuclear explosion over Senglea, would have killed over 143,000 and seriously injured 37,000 – well over 62% of Malta’s population.

The immediate inner and outer harbour areas, as well as central and southern towns would have seen the highest number of victims and casualties, effectively wiping out this entire part of Malta.

The document from 1959 estimates that deaths from every locality in the eventuality of a 1 megaton nuclear explosion over Senglea, would have killed over 143,000 and seriously injured 37,000 – well over 62% of Malta’s population

Of a total population of just over 289,000 in 1959, the report estimated that 54,400 would have made use of a sheltered accommodation.

Yet this would not have prevented death or injury: over 8,200 would have died; another 8,600 left seriously injured; 7,200 would be lightly injured and 30,300 either unhurt or having a ‘minor’ injury. Most deaths were localised in the immediate regions affected by the blast.

Of those in ‘house refuge’, the bomb attack would have been cataclysmic: over 114,000 dead, 27,000 seriously injured, another 14,600 lightly injured, leaving 55,000 unhurt.

As for an estimated 23,400 caught in the open at the time of the bomb attack, over 20,4000 would have been killed, another 1,500 seriously injured.

“The map forms part of the records at the National Archives related to the preparations in case Malta is attacked with an atomic bomb in the 1950s,” Leonard Callus, from the National Archives of Malta, told MaltaToday. “The scenario was a 1 megaton bomb over Senglea with a northwesterly wind, the most common in Malta. The map includes information about the population living within the first five miles of ground zero and the stations of the Royal Navy, the Army, the Royal Air Force, and the Civil Defence.”

The detailed estimates were issued to the Passive Defence Sub-Committee, as instructed by the Malta Defence Committee. “The calculated optimum height of burst of the various yields of weapons was based on the premise that the enemy would aim to (a) cause long-term disablement or destruction of ships and harbour facilities; (b) put sufficient of the Headquarters, Communications, Key Installations and war stocks out of action to disrupt the system of command and logistic support.”

The working committee was then composed of Major F.E. Chubb, Lt. Commander D.F. Trench, Squadron Leaders A.E. Richardson and B.H. Howard, and civil defence adjutant E.H.W. Borg.

In 1959, Malta’s self-government had been suspended for over a year after the resignation en bloc of the Mintoff administration in the aftermath of widespread national strikes in protest at the rundown of British services. Malta would achieve independence five years later.

At the time, the Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959 had seen Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev reacting strongly against American nuclear warheads located in West Germany. Seeking to build up the prestige of the Soviet satellite state of East Germany, NATO attempted to mobilise its opposition to the USSR. No military action ever resulted but led to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.