Posted in a Facebook post on the 14 April 2023 by Frederick Galea.
During the early morning 8 July 1942, seven Ju88s escorted by Bf109s and twenty-one MC.202s made for Luqa. The formation was intercepted by Spitfires from three squadrons. Flt Lt Lester Sanders led his 603 Squadron to attack the bombers, but they had to penetrate the fighter screen first. He then chased a lone Ju88 over Gozo which he shot at, noting hits on the fuselage but return fire from the gunner hit his windshield, forcing him to break off his engagement. Two Bf109s then chased his Spitfire (BR108) which received a number of strikes; his aircraft being hit in the cooling system. Rather than putting his fighter aircraft down in one of the stonewalled fields and risk serious injury, he chose to ditch in Marsalforn Bay, hitting the water 100 yards offshore. Sanders was able to climb out of the Spitfire before it sank.
Some members of the Debono family were just returning from an early morning fishing trip when they rowed out in their small boat and picked up Sanders only a few minutes after ditching.
In 1973, the sunken wreckage of Spitfire VC BR108 was recovered from the seabed of Marsalforn Bay, Gozo, by members of the RAF sub-aqua scuba diving team. The front fuselage section including the cockpit and Merlin engine were lightly cleaned from barnacles and used as a backdrop to the Battle of Britain ceremony held at RAF Station Luqa, that year. The following year BR108 was taken to the then newly-opened War Relics Exhibition, in Lower Fort St Elmo, Valletta, which in later years became known as the War Museum.
NOTE: Today, in place is Maltese legislation protecting underwater cultural heritage.