10 Heavy Ack Ack, Zeebug, Malta

Leslie Cole 1910 - 1976

Summary

A scene from World War II depicting an Allied Forces anti aircraft battery or 'ack ack' alongside a road in Malta with the towns of Zeebug (aka Zebbug) in the middle distance and Valetta on the other side of the river in the far distance. The scene shows the battery firing on Axis (German and Italian) aircraft with seven soldiers in the foreground operating a rangefinder (on the left) and other tracking equipment, to direct the fire of the two guns in front of them. Sand bags and camouflage netting surround the battery and the two guns. Smoke rises from the town in the distance which has been bombed. Cole was commissioned to go to Malta by the War Artists Advisory Committee and spent eight months there in 1943 recording the devastation caused by the siege of the island. On his return he worked on paintings of Malta from the studies he had made on the spot.