MALTA - H M DOCKYARD - EXPLOSION 5 OCTOBER 1915

In response to a need for grenades on the Gallipoli front, it was decided to produce a number of these weapons at the Naval Ordnance Department in H.M. Dockyard (Malta) as of August 1915. The external cases were manufactured at the Carlo Pace foundry in Hamrun. Each was made from cast iron a quarter inch in thickness and had a diameter of two and three-quarters of an inch. These were then transported to a laboratory set up in tents at the dockyard, where 50 volunteers from the Royal Malta Artillery filled the cases with gun cotton and sealed them with a brass plug which had a hole in the centre for a fuse.

On 5 October 1915, a stack of some 120 grenades exploded - killing 16 of the Maltese volunteers and wounding nearly as many again. The main explosion was followed by another two smaller ones in rapid succession. Assistance was rendered by military and naval personnel in the vicinity. French sailors also participated in the rescue of the wounded, and one of their chaplains administered the last rites to the dead and dying. The wounded men were taken to the Bighi Naval Hospital for treatment. All of the deceased, save two, were buried at the Naval Cemetery in Kalkara where a monument was erected to their memory.