SERVED WITH ANZACS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25136, 29 January 1943, Page 3

SERVED WITH ANZACS

DEFENDER OF MALTA SYDNEY. Jan. 21. The man mainly responsible for the amazing toll of enemy planes at Malta served alongside the Anzacs in the last war and took part in the Suvla Bay landing. He is Major-general C. E. Beckett, M.C., commander 1 of Malta’s anti-aircraft defences until last month, when he was appointed to an important command in Britain. This is reported by a Sydney Sun correspondent in London. When Beckett went to Malta in 1941 he so effectively reorganised the ground defences that anti-aircraft fire alone destroyed 180 enemy planes in 1942, of which 102 were shot down in April. Major-general Beckett, who is a recognised expert on coastal and antiaircraft defences, including the newest secret devices, joined the Royal Artillery in 1911, four months before his twenty-first birthday. He first saw action at Gallipoli, and after serving in the Middle East, fought in Serbia, Bulgaria, France, and Belgium, where he was wounded. He gained the Military Cross and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. At a time when the R.A.F. was lacing impossible odds at Malta, Beckett’s gunners, in Lord Gort's words, “ alone bore the brunt of the attack,” and succeeded in beating off day and night-long attacks from low-flying aircraft.