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To the north the Rock's sheerest face rises above a flat sandy neck, where the British troops drill and play rugby in peacetime. This bit of ground is too small for an airfield and is separated by heavy barbed wire and land mines from the border town of La Linea de la Concepcion alive with Spanish artillery, troops and prostitutes. From this quarter even a horde of German shock troops would have difficulty storming the British guns trained from camouflaged, cement-lined galleries that are cut deep enough (by General Sir Edmund Ironside, the Rock's former commandant) to defy overhead bomb attacks.
The Rock bristles with Europe's most concentrated anti-aircraft installation.
On its east, west and south exposures, mortars and rifles up to 16 inches, capable of hurling metal 20 miles, guard the Rock and deny the Strait of Gibraltar to surface ships. The naval base on the west is protected by chain booms and a minefield.
The Royal Navy's job at Gibraltar, besides keeping the soldiery provisioned, munitioned and reinforced with men and new parts for damaged guns, is to prevent Axis submarines from passing through the Strait. This it would do with depth charges from patrol boats and with steel barrage nets.
The bottom of the Strait drops off to 3,000 ft., but Axis submarines cannot stand water pressures below 400 ft. (190 Ib. per sq. in.). The Strait is too wide for a continuous barrage 400 ft. deep, but "sporadic" netting—here tonight, there tomorrow night—might discourage the most daring Italian or German submarine crews.
The Spanish three-mile limit offers wide loopholes unless boldly plugged.
Despite Britain's array of power in the Rock, British Military Expert Captain Liddell Hart believes it untenable as a naval base and the German High Command believes it crackable as a fortress.
Both these beliefs are based on the fact that during the Spanish Civil War, Germany took occasion to install, ostensibly for Dictator Franco, an untold number of huge coastal guns not only at Algeciras and Tarifa on the European side but also at Fort Hacho (Ceuta), Punta Blanca, and other points on the African side.
Gibraltar's security now depends primarily on Spain's friendship, and Spain's occupation of Tangier last fortnight was no friendly omen. The pounding which Franco's guns could give warships inside Gibraltar's moles and booms would certainly be disastrous and perhaps, over a period of weeks, big shells could smash away the Rock's friable limestone—of which every splinter becomes a missile when a shell explodes—to expose the defenders' guns to ultimate destruction. If that should happen, Benito Mussolini would escape his Mediterranean cage.