The Lascaris War Rooms

Welcome to The Lascaris War Rooms, a heritage from the World War II.
As you can tell, these War Rooms consist of an underground complex of tunnels and chambers and used to be the War Headquarters from where the defense of Malta was carried out during the World War II. It was turned into a secret military complex as an old communications tunnel that was running across under the Upper Barrakka Gardens from Battery Street to the Valletta Main Ditch was converted into a Sector Operations Room by the Royal Engineers.
The Royal Air Force and the other fighting services carried out the defense of Malta from the operations rooms, right here in this building! Just imagine that you are now standing on the spot of what was then the centre of control over some of the most important battles of the Mediterranean during World War II. From here the movements of enemy aircraft could be tracked. The movements were then plotted on a large map to facilitate air and ground defense coordination. As the war went on, and got more and more intense, more space was excavated to make more room underground for communications and radar tracking facilities. In the late 1940s, the Royal Navy war room at Fort St. Angelo was moved to this complex along with that of thaw artillery's anti-aircraft defense. Here, in Lascaris War Rooms, the Invasion of Sicily, the so called Operation Husky, was directed by General Eisenhower and his allies in 1943. Another interesting fact is that the Lascaris War Rooms have a twin complex in Middlesex, UK, which was used by Churchill during the World War II.
When the war ended, the Lascaris War Rooms became the Headquarters of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet. In the late 1960s, it was used by NATO as a strategic Communication Centre, and a few years ago it was restored to its former state so that we can all enjoy this wartime secret place today.

Photo Malta - Valletta - St. James Ditch - Lascaris War Rooms 02 ies by Frank Vincentz is licensed under  CC BY-SA 3.0