I can tell a long story about this location. First of all the windmill (called 'raddiena' in Maltese) is located in a very pretty vegetable farm that the Vella family owned for a very long time. I knew the family very well. During the last few months of 1940 while WW2 was on, my parents rented a house next to the Vella farm.
A very shallow creek runs through the farm and the soil is very fertile.
The finished job. A neat looking rubble wall. Most likely many hundred years old.
Another view of the 'raddiena'. Actually this is a wind driven devise drives a pump that pumps up bore water. I would say its been there since the 1920s. Still going strong.
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The " Tank Trap "
I'm sure not many people at Birzebbuga today do remember the "Tank Traps"
When you look at the above picture you notice that at the end of the rubble wall there is a slight curve. As you go past that curve you come in-line with the banana tree where the road is straight. This short section of road goes over a small creek. Going back to 1941 the 2nd year of WW2 in Malta the Island was being threatened by a German Army invasion. The British and the Maltese Armies were making preperations for such an attack. As Birzebbuga was a most likely area where an invasion by sea could take place, the military wanted to cut off all roads leading out of the village. The three main roads were Birzebbuga Road / it-telgha tal - Geru, the road that leads from Kalafrana Road to Hal Far and the road (shown in the picture) that lead out of Birzebbuga to Zurrieq. At each of these three roads the Military selected the narrowest section of the roadway and created/ built 3 Tank Traps.
They dug a large hole in the roadway very deep down in the limestone rock. These holes were about 20ft deep and the full width of the road. The hole was about 30 ft long and these holes were covered by thick wooden planks strong enough to allow heavy truck to drive over them.
The plan was that in the event of an invasion, the thick wooden planks would be removed and if the German tanks tried to drive out of Birzebbuga and towards Hal Far or Bir id - Deheb they would fall down in these traps and making the road unusable.
These "tank traps" were still to be seen after WW2 ended/ Eventually they were all filled up with rubble and the roadway rebuilt to normal.
End of the road for this tank. This is what happens when a tank falls in a tank trap. The ones in Malta were rectangular large holes dug deep in rock.
Workmen on the job of repairing the old rubble wall. In Maltese this type of wall is called 'hajt tas - sejjieh'.
