Faith (serial number N5520), a Gloster Sea Gladiator Mk I, on the ground at an airfield in Malta, in about September 1940. The aircraft has been refitted with a Bristol Mercury engine and three-bladed Hamilton propeller salvaged from a Bristol Blenheim.
One of the best-known campaigns fought by Gladiators was the siege of Malta in 1940. The fighter force defending Malta was, for a period of ten days, a small force of British-operated Gladiators, the Hal Far Fighter Flight, giving rise to a myth that three aircraft, named Faith, Hope and Charity formed the entire fighter cover of the island. The aircraft names came into being only after the battle was over.[15][16] In fact, more than three aircraft were operational, though not always at the same time; others were used for spare parts.[17]
A stock of 18 Sea Gladiators from 802 Naval Air Squadron had been deposited by HMS Glorious, in early 1940. Three were later shipped out to take part in the Norwegian Campaign, and another three were sent to Egypt. By April, Malta was in need of fighter protection and it was decided to form a flight of Gladiators at RAF Hal Far, to be composed of RAF and FAA personnel. Several Sea Gladiators were assembled and test-flown.[18]
By June, two of the Gladiators had crashed and two more were assembled.[19] Charity was shot down on 29 July 1940 and its pilot, F/O P. W. Hartley, was badly burned. Hope was destroyed in an air-raid on 4 February 1941. The fuselage of the only surviving Gladiator from the Hal Far Fighter Flight, N5520, later called Faith, was presented to the people of Malta in 1943 and now is in a precarious situation and needs urgent restoration. Research on the airframe has indicated that it incorporates parts of at least one other other Gladiator. [20] The fate of at least five more Gladiators that saw action over Malta is not as well documented.