GIBRALTAR’S DEFENCE

Southland Times, Issue 24837, 1 September 1942, Page 5

GIBRALTAR’S DEFENCE

New Ideas Of Warfare (8.0.W.) RUGBY, August 30. “The new Gibraltar has a brain centre hidden from attack and able to control any form of offensive without sending a single man into the open. That is our great secret at the key to the Mediterranean, where men have gone underground with a new idea in warfare. This description was given in a broadcast today by a man who recently visited the Rock. Even if invasion troops swarmed over the Rock, he said, the fortress would still not be taken. Every defender would reach safety while the enemy would be harassed and in constant The commentator described tunnels in the Rock 1000 feet deep, where even the discharge of the giant guns above could not be heard. Along these tunnels there was a gigantic industrial installation where all the activities of a busy city could be carried on, including the running of a railway. The equipment included a power-house, hospital, kitchens with electric ovens, comfortable barracks, repair shops, where practically any gun could be overhauled, bakeries, libraries, cinemas, and huge stores of food and ammunition. “I was not allowed to se'e how the new underground Gibraltar will attack when everyone is driven underground,' the broadcaster said, “but even if every anti-aircraft gun on the Rock was smashed it would stfil be decidedly hazardous for any Axis aircraft to go near Gibraltar.” ACTIVITY AT GIBRALTAR LONDON, August 31. Rome radio says that one transport alone landed 3500 men at Gibraltar and that Royal Air Force planes throughout the day were flying over Gibraltar, where coastal defence exercises are being carried out and large bodies of troops are practising landings. Vichy radio quotes an Algerian report to the effect that several British transports have arrived at Gibraltar and landed 3000 men as garrison reinforcements. The Vichy News Agency states that a British convoy comprising 26 merchantmen has left Gibraltar, sailing in the direction of the Atlantic.