Spur Battery

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Spur Battery
Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar
Upper Rock Nature Reserve, Gibraltar
Spur Battery and Rock of Gibraltar.jpg
Spur Battery in Gibraltar after 1981, tracks for shell trolleys visible
9.2 inch Coastal Defence Gun - geograph.org.uk - 844689.jpg
The 9.2-inch Mark X coastal defence gun at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford after it was transferred from Spur Battery
Gibraltar location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Spur Battery
Coordinates 36°07′22″N5°20′38″W / 36.122713°N 5.343892°W / 36.122713; -5.343892
Type Artillery Battery
Site information
ConditionPoor
Site history
Built1902 (1902)
In use Decommissioned; Gun transferred to Imperial War Museum Duxford in 1981 (1981)

Spur Battery is an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located in the Upper Battery area of the southern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, just southwest of O'Hara's Battery. A 9.2-inch Mark X breech-loading gun was mounted on the emplacement in 1902, with improvements made to the battery after World War I. In 1981 the 9.2-inch gun at Spur Battery was dismantled and transferred to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England, for preservation. The operation was known as Project Vitello.

Contents

Early history

Spur Battery is in Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. [1] [2] The artillery battery is located near the southern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, in the Upper Battery area, which also includes O'Hara's Battery and Lord Airey's Battery. [3] [4] It is positioned at the southern terminus of Spur Battery Road, just southwest of O'Hara's Battery, at an elevation of 1,130 ft above sea level. Its name was based on its location on St. George's Spur. [4] [5]

The mounting of 9.2-inch guns on Gibraltar's artillery batteries began in the 1890s. By 1914, Gibraltar boasted fourteen of those guns on twelve batteries. The 9.2-inch Mark X breech-loading gun at Spur Battery was installed in 1902. [4] [6] It was used in World War I on 31 December 1915, when German submarines were positioned off the coast of Gibraltar. Three rounds were fired from the gun, with another ten rounds fired from other 9.2-inch guns of the South Fire Command. [4] [6] The outcome was recorded in a journal as: "Result of action. One target disappeared, and a large explosion took place at another." [4]

The gun barrel at Spur Battery was upgraded after World War I. In addition, its mount was changed from a Mark V to a Mark VII in 1935. This entailed increasing the armour and modernising the control system, and resulted in improvement of loading, elevation, and traverse. [4] [6] The specifications of the weapon included a combined weight for the gun and its mounting of 204 tons, with the weight of the barrel 28 tons. Each shell weighed 380 lbs; individual charges were 109 lbs. The 9.2-inch gun had a muzzle velocity of 2,700 ft/sec and fired 2–3 rounds/minute. The range of the gun was 29,600 yds. This easily covered both the Strait of Gibraltar and the Bay of Gibraltar, the distances across those bodies of water measuring 25,500 yds and 9,000 yds, respectively. [4]

Recent history

In the 1970s, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment fired the coastal defence gun at Spur Battery for the last time. [4] [7] The 9.2-inch gun fired 29 rounds at a towed target that day, and made its mark several times. [6] The other guns of the Upper Battery area also fired for the last time then. [4]

In 1981, the gun at Spur Battery on the Upper Rock Nature Reserve was dismantled and transported to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, England for preservation. The operation was entitled Project Vitello, [8] [9] and it was undertaken in two phases. The first phase was referred to as Project Vitello 1 and entailed the dismantling of the gun at Spur Battery and its transfer to the Gibraltar dockyard. This was performed in early 1981. The second phase, Project Vitello 2, started in August 1981, when the 9.2-inch gun arrived in Portsmouth. The transfer to Duxford was accomplished in eleven loads. The construction necessary at the museum began in September 1981 and was completed in early 1982. The Royal Engineers were responsible for completing both phases of Project Vitello. [10] The gun was replaced with Exocet guided missile systems. [6] {Dead Link}

Following removal of its 9.2-inch gun, Spur Battery sustained vandalism. The magazine and other chambers of the lower level have been emptied of equipment or sealed off. Not only the gun was removed, but also the gun mount enclosure. Subsequently, the cartridge storage areas are now exposed and have undergone corrosion. [4]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Vitello</span>

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Rock Gun Battery is an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on the North Face of the Rock of Gibraltar at the northern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, above Green's Lodge Battery. The emplacement on Middle Hill is at the northern summit of the Rock. It was constructed during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, due to its advantageous position and the success of the gun at Green's Lodge Battery. It was used effectively during the Great Siege and was rebuilt during the Second World War. During the mid-twentieth century, the Ministry of Defence began to use the site as an aerial farm, which was then refurbished in 1958. The Rock Gun Battery and the Middle Hill Battery were closed to the public for decades. In 2005, the radio farm was closed and the Ministry of Defence withdrew from most of the area, transferring it to the Government of Gibraltar. However, the summit, the site of the Rock Gun Battery, continues to be under MOD authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Hill Battery</span> Artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar

Middle Hill Battery is an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on Middle Hill, at the northeastern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, just south of Green's Lodge Battery and Rock Gun Battery. The emplacement dates to 1727, when a single gun was mounted. By the turn of the twentieth century, six 10-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns were present at Middle Hill Battery. Other buildings documented at that time as part of the battery complex included the Nursery Hut and the Middle Hill Group, the latter a cluster of buildings which perched on the cliff edge. An anti-aircraft Bofors gun had been installed at the battery by the Second World War. After the war, the area transitioned to use as a Ministry of Defence aerial farm. In 2005, the battery and surrounding area were transferred to the Government of Gibraltar. The site is now managed by the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Governor's Lookout Battery</span>

Governor's Lookout Battery is one of the many artillery batteries in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, which served to protect it against its many sieges. It is located off Signal Station Road within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortifications of Gibraltar</span> Defensive military constructions at the Rock of Gibraltar

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).

References

  1. ↑ "List of Crown Dependencies & Overseas Territories". fco.gov.uk. Foreign and Commonwealth Office . Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Roach, John (13 September 2006). "Neandertals' Last Stand Was in Gibraltar, Study Suggests". National Geographic News . National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 14 November 2006. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Criminal Offences - Restricted Areas Notices" (PDF). gibraltarlaws.gov.gi. Government of Gibraltar. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Spur Battery". discovergibraltar.com. DiscoverGibraltar.com (Click Gun Batteries, then Spur Battery). Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  5. ↑ "Map of Spur Battery". maps.google.com. Google Maps. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Philippart, Frank (2009). "WMF News - Edition 3 of 2009" (PDF). users.telenet.be. WMF News, Simon Stevin Centrum. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "Gibraltar Regiment (1958 - 1999)". royalgibraltarregiment.gi. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment . Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  8. ↑ "Project Vitello: Disassembly of the Spur Battery on Gibraltar 1980". iwm.org.uk. Imperial War Museums . Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  9. ↑ "After the Battle Magazine, Issue No. 33". afterthebattle.com. James Teagle & Battle of Britain Intl. Ltd. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  10. ↑ "Spur Battery Project Vitello". discovergibraltar.com. DiscoverGibraltar.com (Click Gun Batteries, Spur Battery, then Project Vitello). Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
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