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The Rock WWII Turned On
At the southern tip of Spain, jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea,
lies Gibraltar, a narrow peninsula measuring only 6.8 square kilometres
or 2.6 square miles in area and dominated by a 426 metre or 1,298 foot
high limestone monolith: the legendary Rock of Gibraltar. A British
overseas territory and naval base since 1713, Gibraltar has long been of
vital strategic importance, controlling the narrow passage between the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. And at no time was this truer than
during the Second World War, when the Axis powers plotted to capture
Gibraltar in a bid to cut Britain off from its overseas Empire and
starve her into submission. And though the heavily-defended enclave
would be a tough nut to crack, the very real threat of invasion led
British military planners to take elaborate precautions should the“Rock”
ever fall. And perhaps the most extreme of these contingencies was an
utterly bonkers plan to seal six men into a secret network of tunnels
and chambers carved into the Rock of Gibraltar. Provided with several
years’ worth of food and water, these volunteers were to spy on the
occupying Axis forces and report their movements back to Britain,
secretly keeping Gibraltar in the fight. This is the bizarre tale of
Operation Tracer.
What is now known as the Rock of Gibraltar was formed during the early
Pliocene Epoch around 5 million years ago, when the collision of the
African and Eurasian tectonic plates lifted up and inverted a large slab
of the Eurasian plate, composed of the 200-million-year-old Catalan Bay
Shale, Gibraltar Limestone, Little Bay Shale, and Dockyard Shale
formations. The ongoing movement of these plates continues to push the
Rock of Gibraltar steadily skyward, with the monolith growing in height
at a rate of around 0.05 millimetres or 0.002 inches per year. The area
has been inhabited for at least 125,000 years, with the bones, tools,
and other remnants of both neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens being
found in numerous caves dotting the peninsula. In antiquity the Rock of
Gibraltar, then known as Mons Calpe, was frequently visited by
Phoenician, Greek, and Roman mariners, with the Greeks recognizing the
mountain as one of the two “Pillars of Heracles.” According to Greek
mythology, while trying to obtain the Cattle of Geryon - the 10th of his
12 Labours - the legendary hero smashed his way through the Atlas
Mountains, forming the Straits of Gibraltar and connecting the Atlantic
Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The identity of the other pillar has been
lost to history and is heavily debated among classicists, though it is
now widely believed to be either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa in
Morocco....
Author: Gilles Messier
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Host: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Cloud10
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13701,370 ratings
At the southern tip of Spain, jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea,
lies Gibraltar, a narrow peninsula measuring only 6.8 square kilometres
or 2.6 square miles in area and dominated by a 426 metre or 1,298 foot
high limestone monolith: the legendary Rock of Gibraltar. A British
overseas territory and naval base since 1713, Gibraltar has long been of
vital strategic importance, controlling the narrow passage between the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. And at no time was this truer than
during the Second World War, when the Axis powers plotted to capture
Gibraltar in a bid to cut Britain off from its overseas Empire and
starve her into submission. And though the heavily-defended enclave
would be a tough nut to crack, the very real threat of invasion led
British military planners to take elaborate precautions should the“Rock”
ever fall. And perhaps the most extreme of these contingencies was an
utterly bonkers plan to seal six men into a secret network of tunnels
and chambers carved into the Rock of Gibraltar. Provided with several
years’ worth of food and water, these volunteers were to spy on the
occupying Axis forces and report their movements back to Britain,
secretly keeping Gibraltar in the fight. This is the bizarre tale of
Operation Tracer.
What is now known as the Rock of Gibraltar was formed during the early
Pliocene Epoch around 5 million years ago, when the collision of the
African and Eurasian tectonic plates lifted up and inverted a large slab
of the Eurasian plate, composed of the 200-million-year-old Catalan Bay
Shale, Gibraltar Limestone, Little Bay Shale, and Dockyard Shale
formations. The ongoing movement of these plates continues to push the
Rock of Gibraltar steadily skyward, with the monolith growing in height
at a rate of around 0.05 millimetres or 0.002 inches per year. The area
has been inhabited for at least 125,000 years, with the bones, tools,
and other remnants of both neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens being
found in numerous caves dotting the peninsula. In antiquity the Rock of
Gibraltar, then known as Mons Calpe, was frequently visited by
Phoenician, Greek, and Roman mariners, with the Greeks recognizing the
mountain as one of the two “Pillars of Heracles.” According to Greek
mythology, while trying to obtain the Cattle of Geryon - the 10th of his
12 Labours - the legendary hero smashed his way through the Atlas
Mountains, forming the Straits of Gibraltar and connecting the Atlantic
Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The identity of the other pillar has been
lost to history and is heavily debated among classicists, though it is
now widely believed to be either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa in
Morocco....
Author: Gilles Messier
Editor: Daven Hiskey
Host: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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