2 Faughs embark for Malta.

On 4 January 1938, 21 officers and 466 other ranks of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers embarked at Southampton for the six-day voyage to Malta. On arrival they moved to Imtarfa Barracks and were joined by the families at the end of the month. The proximity of Malta to Sicily and Libya would become much more dangerous when war was declared on 3 September 1939. Following a period of Sitzkrieg, during which the Battalion was employed on constructing island defences, Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and thereafter came the first air attacks which would continue until May 1943.