going
Eisenhower who, in his capacity of Allied Commander-in-Chief, arrived on the Rock to take command from the specially built sanctuary of the communications centre during the planning phase of Operation Torch. The operation culminated in the successful Allied thrust across French North Africa and the surrender of Italy in 1943. The rest, as they say, is history. In this day and age of modern warfare and the reduced role of the military in Gibraltar though, it would be fair to assume the facilities have fallen into disrepair, water leaking through will have damaged much of the structure and what was once a bomb-proof (indeed, nuclear proof) all-singing, all-dancing communications and data centre is just another dank, dark hole somewhere below your feet as you walk up past the Rock Hotel. Wrong. We took a stroll, with Charlie Yeo, the Chairman of Vault Technology Services and Alan Dickinson the company’s Director of Operations, from the Dockyard entrance of Admiralty Tunnel to find out what really going on in there. For anyone who has walked tunnels in Gibraltar, Admiralty Tunnel is not much different to the rest, although it is true that as you stand in the sunlight just outside the western entrance you can see the gleam of Mediterranean light which we were assured is around a kilometre away and, although the straight road through seems quite flat, it actually inclines upwards to 19 metres higher where it breaks out behind the Both Worlds apartments at Sandy Bay. A short walk took us past grotty metal doors code-named Delta, Charlie and similar, making you wonder what secrets might once have been housed behind, but it became quite obvious that something was still going on from the sound of generators chugging away somewhere behind the solid walls — oh, and the golf buggy should have been a dead give-away. Alan stopped at one of the heavy metal doors, with its chipped green paint and slowly rusting hinges — a consequence of the constant drips from the limestone walls and ceiling. Through this was another, similar door, but this time equipped with a more sophisticated locking device. Alan touched his finger to a pad, and once the laser had determined it was really him, we entered to be suddenly confronted by one of the biggest contrasts you’ll ever see in the space of taking three steps forwards. Gleaming high security turnstyles which auThe interior of the Rock has been used by humans for around 600 tomatically clock the amount of visitors in and out complete with more biometric access systhousand years, beginning with the Neanderthals whose remains tems — fingerprint recognition to most of us have been discovered at five different sites including Gorham’s and — and at this point we found we’d been tracked the 500 metre length of the tunnel by the inVanguard Caves, through to the mythological tunnel used by the ternal CCTV system. The carpeted floors, dust monkeys to arrive in Gibraltar from Morocco. However, it wasn’t until free environment and a surprisingly clean air (which you can only appreciate after leaving a the 17th century that Sergeant Henry Ince had the brainwave to musty tunnel) were almost a culture shock from blast his way through the limestone to create what is today forms an the prelude to the visit to Vault. Possibly one of the most secure and modern data centres in the incredible array of tunnel systems which have given an interesting world. lease of life to the Gibraltar’s insides. Alan gave us the guided tour and explained how they took over the premises around 18 In Ince’s day all was brute force, but come the From a military strategist’s point of view, the months ago in the summer of 2008. second world war, tunnelling techniques and command centre was one of the safest places on “Most areas were in a very poor state of remilitary whims and requirements became more earth, with state-of-the-art (for the 1940s) fresh pair, and all the rooms and passageways were refined. Admiralty Tunnel, the only tunnel to air systems, generators, lighting and of course extremely damp,” Alan explained. “The only cross the Rock from east to west, was blasted to areas to house the MOD’s top secret and vital part that had really been preserved was the include a high-tech communications and com- communications data and equipment. Eisenhower Room, which was his office durmand centre covering 3,000m2 roughly half way 5th November 1942 marks the day the Ameri- ing the six weeks he was on the Rock. The room along its length, protected by over 400 feet of cans effectively took over the Rock. Not literally, is still preserved exactly as it was then and the solid rock in all directions. of course, but in the form of General Dwight D. only addition we’ve made is in a little electrical
underground
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GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • APRIL 2010