Lord Airey's Battery is located near the southern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve in Gibraltar. It is named after General Sir Richard Airey who served as Governor of Gibraltar from 1865 to 1870. Construction of the battery started on 25 July 1890 and was finished by 1 March 1891. The battery was initially armed with a 6-inch breech loading gun, but a 9.2-inch Mark X BL gun was later installed in 1900.
In December 1997, the Gibraltar Caving Group discovered a secret complex in close proximity to Lord Airey's Battery. This site was chosen for a covert World War II operation known as Operation Tracer, which involved the construction of a cave complex in the Rock of Gibraltar to serve as an observation post. The secret complex, known as Stay Behind Cave, was designed to seal half a dozen men into the Rock if it was captured by the Germans to observe and report on German forces for about a year.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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