history myself, that the planes were seen with French colours, not German. They sent around 100 planes to attack the Rock, but no bombs landed anywhere of significance because of the configuration of Gibraltar and the trajectory from which they came from Morocco. It was very difficult to hit the Rock coming from that side. Had they come the other way, it is likely that some could have landed on us, but as it turned out, they were unable to achieve anything from this attack.” John described the scene with sirens blaring calling the gunners to their stations and he could hear the sputtering of the aeroplane engines as they approached. The gunners were ready for them and were excellently well drilled in their station, comfortable in the knowledge that there were anti-aircraft guns littered around the Rock supporting them, “We remained very calm as we were expecting a raid and were very well prepared. We had guns on the upper Rock and Napier Princess Anne’s Battery
south-western cliffs of the Rock where the 100-ton gun now lies, “The first thing that I thought when war was declared was how long would it last and how much would it extend around the world. What was the purpose of “We fired the war? Why did Germany constant invade Poland? What was barrages of the point of this?” he said ammunition before wetting his lips with his freshly poured golden to take them brown brandy. “Because I down but was in Gibraltar, it did not they were affect me as much (the Rock saw little action during too high up.” the war, but was not devoid of it), but I thought a lot about those (evacuated Gibraltarians) in London and those who needed to take shelter from the bombs. Luckily, England had a major Air Force that was able to counteract the Germans. It was very unjust of Germany to invade the whole of Europe in order to extend their territory.”
John and his fellow comrades were always fearful of a Nazi attack on the Rock, which never came, but plans were made at the highest level when Hitler personally commissioned ‘Operation Felix’ to overwhelm the defensive fortress. The German war machine suffered severe losses in ‘Operation Barbarosa’ in Russia, which, fortunately for those in Gibraltar, led to the abandonment of the plans. The Vichy French Air Force conducted several raids on the Rock with the first coming as a retaliation to the British fleet bombarding the Algerian port of Mersel-Kebir, sinking one battleship and damaging several others. On July 14th 1940, the French Air Force attempted to bomb the ships in the port but most of them fell short and no damage was recorded, “We saw them coming, but we also had surveillance on the top of the Rock, so they were spotted early. They passed on the word to the anti-aircraft crews, including Nissen hut in World War II tunnels inside the Rock
Battery had four anti-aircraft guns waiting for them. All the guns we had were to attack low flying planes. We fired constant barrages of ammunition to take them down but they were too high up. In order to hit our battery, they would have needed to descend to our range. They decided not to, probably because it was too dangerous for them. We were ready for them.” John described the relationship between Gibraltarians and the British military personnel as one where they ‘had to get along no matter what’. After all, this was for the defence of the Rock, a British colony at the time and an icon of importance. Who knows what kind of psychological effect losing Gibraltar to the Nazis would 36
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2016