Hanover Battery

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Hanover Battery
Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar
Gibraltar
1870s - G. Washington Wilson - Neutral Ground.jpg
Hanover battery by George Washington Wilson
Northern defences jungmap.gif
"The Northern Defences" of Gibraltar including A Castle Communication, B Castle Batteries, C Princes Gallery, D Bombproof Barracks, E Forbes' Battery. Also Hanover Battery, a nearby Magazine, Kings, Princes and Queen's Lines and galleries.
Coordinates 36°08′41″N5°21′01″W / 36.14471°N 5.35037°W / 36.14471; -5.35037 Coordinates: 36°08′41″N5°21′01″W / 36.14471°N 5.35037°W / 36.14471; -5.35037
Type Artillery Battery
Site information
Owner Ministry of Defence
Site history
Battles/wars Great Siege of Gibraltar

Hanover Battery was an artillery battery on the north west part of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The battery is casemated. [1] Beneath the battery was a tunnel known as Hanover Gallery.

Description

The battery was in use in the war with Spain in 1762 when there was two 24 pound guns mounted here. The ability of the battery to give cover to troops making their way to the Kings and Queens Lines was approved by the Chief Engineer William Green in 1770. The battery gives easy access to the Princess Lines and the Princes Lines which are above the Kings And Queens lines respectively. By 1859 the two guns at Hanover Battery were assisted by additional two carronades which were also 24-pounders. [2]

The 19th century photograph is by George Washington Wilson and it shows the battery looking north over the neutral ground that the batteries were built to fire upon (and where Gibraltar Airport will eventually be built). The battery was to the north of Queen Charlotte's Battery and the Moorish Castle.

Hanover Battery had a nearby Magazine Hanover Battery Magazine jung0947.jpg
Hanover Battery had a nearby Magazine

Beneath the battery is Hanover Gallery and this is dated 1789. Both the battery and gallery were named for the Hanoverian regiments who fought as part of the defending forces during the Great Siege of Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783. [2] The battery and gallery are part of the North Front defences of the Rock of Gibraltar together with Forbes' Battery, Couvreport Battery, Bomb Proof Battery and the tunnel system. The northern defences consist of lines or batteries known as the Queen's, King's and Princes Lines. [2] These lines are accessed by underground galleries where soldiers could shelter or travel safely behind enemy fire.

This is a Class A listed building as designated by the Government of Gibraltar's Gibraltar Heritage Trust Act of 1989. [3] The buildings are not open to tourists (in 2013) because of the poor state of the buildings. [2]

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The Gibraltar peninsula, located at the far southern end of Iberia, has great strategic importance as a result of its position by the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. It has repeatedly been contested between European and North African powers and has endured fourteen sieges since it was first settled in the 11th century. The peninsula's occupants – Moors, Spanish, and British – have built successive layers of fortifications and defences including walls, bastions, casemates, gun batteries, magazines, tunnels and galleries. At their peak in 1865, the fortifications housed around 681 guns mounted in 110 batteries and positions, guarding all land and sea approaches to Gibraltar. The fortifications continued to be in military use until as late as the 1970s and by the time tunnelling ceased in the late 1960s, over 34 miles (55 km) of galleries had been dug in an area of only 2.6 square miles (6.7 km2).

Kings Lines

The King's Lines are a walled rock-cut trench on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. Forming part of the Northern Defences of the fortifications of Gibraltar, they were originally created some time during the periods when Gibraltar was under the control of the Moors or Spanish. They are depicted in a 1627 map by Don Luis Bravo de Acuña, which shows their parapet following a tenaille trace. The lines seem to have been altered subsequently, as maps from the start of the 18th century show a more erratic course leading from the Landport, Gibraltar's main land entrance, to the Round Tower, a fortification at their western end. A 1704 map by Johannes Kip calls the Lines the "Communication Line of the Round Tower".

Queens Lines

The Queen's Lines are a set of fortified lines, part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, situated on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. They occupy a natural ledge which overlooks the landward entrance to Gibraltar and were an extension to the north-east of the King's Lines. They run from a natural fault called the Orillon to a cliff above the modern Laguna Estate, which stands on the site of the Inundation, an artificial lake created to obstruct landward access to Gibraltar. The Prince's Lines run immediately behind and above them on a higher ledge. All three of the Lines were constructed to enfilade attackers approaching Gibraltar's Landport Front from the landward direction.

Princes Lines

The Prince's Lines are part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, situated on the lower slopes of the north-west face of the Rock of Gibraltar. They are located at a height of about 70 feet (21 m) on a natural ledge above the Queen's Lines, overlooking the landward entrance to Gibraltar, and run from a natural fault called the Orillon to a cliff at the southern end of the isthmus linking Gibraltar with Spain. The lines face out across the modern Laguna Estate, which stands on the site of the Inundation, an artificial lake created to obstruct landward access to Gibraltar. They were constructed to enfilade attackers approaching Gibraltar's Landport Front from the landward direction.

References

  1. Ehlen, Judy; Harmon, Russell S. (2001). The Environmental Legacy of Military Operations. Geological Society of America. p. 110. ISBN   978-0-8137-4114-7 . Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Crone, Phil. "Choose Town area, Northern defences". DiscoverGibraltar.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  3. "Gibraltar Heritage Trust Act 1989" (PDF). Government of Gibraltar. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2013.