| Alexandra Battery | |
|---|---|
| Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar | |
| South Mole, Gibraltar Harbour in Gibraltar | |
 1876 illustration of the Prince of Wales at Alexandra Battery in Gibraltar | |
  Alexandra Battery Location within Gibraltar | |
| Coordinates | 36°07′30″N5°21′20″W / 36.124948°N 5.355615°W Coordinates: 36°07′30″N5°21′20″W / 36.124948°N 5.355615°W |
| Type | Coastal artillery battery |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Government of Gibraltar |
| Open to the public | No |
| Condition | Good |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1876-78 |
| Built by | UK Ministry of Defence |
Alexandra Battery is a coastal artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. [1] It was constructed at the neck of the South Mole (originally the New Mole) to enfilade the coastal fortifications of Gibraltar. The battery stood on the site of several previous fortifications; it was built over the New Mole Battery, which was itself constructed on the site of an old Spanish fort in front of the Tuerto Tower. [2]
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of artillery, mortars, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface to surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles etc., so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems. The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships.
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are 14 territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories. These territories do not form part of the United Kingdom and, with the exception of Gibraltar, are not part of the European Union. Most of the permanently inhabited territories are internally self-governing, with the UK retaining responsibility for defence and foreign relations. Three are inhabited only by a transitory population of military or scientific personnel. They all share the British monarch as head of state.
The battery owed its construction to the recommendations of an 1868 report by Colonel (later General) William Jervois. He proposed that a new battery should be constructed on the site to house a RML 12.5 inches (320 mm) 38 ton gun – at the time, the heaviest rifled muzzle-loading gun in the British Army's inventory – in a casemate protected by an iron shield. It was named after Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). He laid the foundation stone in 1876 and the battery was finished two years later, but it was already out of date by 1902, and by 1906 it had been converted into accommodation casemates. The slide and the mounting were subsequently scrapped but the 12.5 inch gun was moved to near Engineer Battery and finally relocated to Harding's Battery in 2013. In 1940, a QF 2-pounder Pom-pom gun was installed on the top of the casemates to protect the South Mole and a Bofors 40 mm gun was installed in 1941 to provide anti-aircraft defence. [2] The battery still exists and is reportedly in a relatively good condition. [1]
Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 1858, as a major, he was appointed Secretary of a Royal Commission set up to examine the state and efficiency of British land-based fortifications against naval attack; and this led to further work in Canada and South Australia. From 1875 to 1888 he was, consecutively, Governor of the Straits Settlements, Governor of South Australia and Governor-General of New Zealand.
A muzzle-loading rifle is a muzzle-loaded small arm or artillery piece that has a rifled barrel rather than a smoothbore. The term "rifled muzzle loader" typically is used to describe a type of artillery piece, although it is technically accurate for small arms as well. A shoulder arm is typically just called a "rifle", as almost all small arms were rifled by the time breechloading became prevalent. Muzzle and breechloading artillery served together for several decades, making a clear distinction more important. In the case of artillery, the abbreviation "RML" is often prefixed to the guns designation; a Rifled breech loader would be "RBL", or often just "BL", since smoothbore breechloading artillery is almost nonexistent. A muzzle loading weapon is loaded through the muzzle, or front of the barrel. This is the opposite of a breech-loading weapon or rifled breechloader (RBL), which is loaded from the breech-end of the barrel. The rifling grooves cut on the inside of the barrel cause the projectile to spin rapidly in flight, giving it greater stability and hence range and accuracy than smoothbore guns. Hand held rifles were well-developed by the 1740s. A popularly recognizable form of the "muzzleloader" is the Kentucky Rifle, which was actually developed in Pennsylvania. The American Longrifle evolved from the German "Jäger" rifle.
