We have just celebrated another end to a year and welcomed in another one with possibly more parties, lunches, dinners and drink get-togethers ever imagined. (We’re still in a food coma, tbh). But what was celebrating Christmas and the New Year like in wartime Malta?

These vintage photos show a very different time to what we know nowadays on our islands. Britain’s Military History Facebook page shares a photo of quite the sight, precisely on this day in 1942. “A 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun and its crew keep watch as a destroyer enters Grand Harbour, Malta.” Woah… Booming in the new year?

The Facebook page also shares another photo from January that same year, showing troops coming ashore from ships anchored at the Grand Harbour.

These were definitely trying times, but it didn’t stop soldiers and locals alike from celebrating the festive season during either wars. This photo captures wounded soldiers at the Bighi Hospital in Kalkara, who despite being hospitalised, still found some Christmas cheer in the decorations put up in the wards.