The tunnel system known as Lord Airey’s Shelter is still owned by the Ministry of Defence, except the Tracer cave which is under the guardianship of the Gibraltar Museum. Access is tightly controlled and limited to around 20 people per year, with guided tours arranged through the museum for a… Read More »Operation Tracer, Part 2 – Exploring the tunnel
To date the primary role (…) has been against threatened attack from Spain across North Front. Owing to changes in the Situation during the past year, a seaborne attack is now considered possible. The primary role (…) has been changed to an anti-tank and anti-landingcraft one. This extract shows a… Read More »Operation Tracer, Part 1 – Gibraltar’s castle in the sky
Happy New Year! On the face of it, 2023 was an uneventful year, and it seemed to pass in record time. But a review of Flickr and YouTube reminds me just how much I was lucky enough to see. In my unguided, directionless quest to tour relics of Empire and… Read More »2023 Review
Deep in a cavern along the Northern Defences in Gibraltar is an unassuming piece of graffiti. Written in pencil, and dated 1968, a soldier named McCULLOUGH left his name and regiment indelibly on the Gibraltar rock. The regiment was the Royal Ulster Rifles. The date is significant, because not long… Read More »A Ranger’s mark in Gibraltar
As an aspiring historian, perhaps more of an enthusiastic amateur, I appreciate that nothing can beat information from a primary source. The National Archives, at Kew outside London, is the national repository for official documents. The value can’t be understated; war department maps and plans, war diaries from frontline fighting… Read More »A visit to the National Archives