Gibraltar

Gibraltar is at the southern tip of Spain. It belongs to the UK but Spain, with some justification, wants it back. Britain, experienced and pragmatic in these situations says, ‘let the people decide’. The people, rather like their brothers and sisters on the Falkland Islands, prefer the regime they know rather than the uncertainty of a new one. And so it goes on. Pressure mounts, as both Spain and the UK are partners in Europe and the semi-European status of Gibraltar needs to be resolved.

Gibraltar

Few places in the world of such small size – 5.8 square kilometres in area –have been the subject of international controversy for as long as Gibraltar. Centuries of history have turned ‘The Rock’ into a symbol of British naval power and a synonym for security. It would be wrong to gloss over the Rock’s imperial past, for the minute you arrive on the bizarre airstrip between the Rock and Spain you can see its strategic importance. It is a towering, impregnable fortress on one side of a narrow passage that makes the Mediterranean into an inland sea. It also has a huge harbour.

It is no exaggeration to describe Gibraltar as a link between two continents, two civilisations, two religions, two ways of life and two great seas. It is however as a colossus of British naval history that Gibraltar is best known. Nelson sailed from here in 1805. In the 19th century it was the staging point for a far-flung Empire, and it played an important part in both World Wars, especially as an anti-submarine base. In 1942 the existing tunnels were extended to contain generators, a telephone exchange, food stores, a water desalination plant, a bakery and a hospital.

In Perpetuity

The Spanish took possession of Gibraltar following victories over the Moors, and held it until 1704, when it was seized by a joint Anglo-Dutch military force under Admiral Sir George Rooke during the Spanish War of Succession. The peace treaty that settled this war was signed in Utrecht in 1713 and ceded Gibraltar to the United Kingdom ‘in perpetuity’. The territory has remained under British control ever since. 2004 was the 300th anniversary of its seizure and the inability to restore it to Spanish sovereignty has been a bitter pill for Spain to swallow.

Second World War

With the fall of France in June 1940 and the entry of Italy on the side of Nazi Germany, Franco was confronted with a dilemma. It seemed a golden opportunity to recover Gibraltar, but Spain was still exhausted from a long civil war, and suffering from both hunger and poverty on an unprecedented scale. On the one hand Franco’s friends Germany and Italy had helped him during the Civil War, yet on the other he was in no doubt that Britain would apply a massive blockade preventing ships leaving or entering Spanish waters.

Although sorely tempted, Franco refused Hitler”s attempts to force Spain to become an Axis ally but Franco gave permission for a German military team to visit Spain led by Admiral Canaris, and in July 1940 plans were made for a joint German/Spanish assault on Gibraltar. German reconnaissance teams observed Gibraltar’s 1,400-foot-high limestone mountain bristling with gun emplacements, guarded by 12,500 soldiers and laced with intricate supply tunnels. But the operation to conquer Gibraltar never got beyond the planning stage.

Franco continued to play both sides against each other in an attempt to stay neutral, while siding with the Axis powers. He sent letters to London and Washington promising to stay out of the war. He answered Hitler’s plea for entry into the war with a long list of essential goods that Spain lacked. Despite personal visits from both Hitler and Mussolini, Spain remained neutral, soothing the Germans by allowing Spanish volunteers to fight alongside the Germans in Russia.

Franco then met with the American ambassador who assured him Allied landings in North Africa had no intention of intruding upon Spanish territory. He then gave orders not to allow any German troops to move across Spain to reinforce their troops in North Africa. Franco ended his romance with the Axis, and his dreams of recovering Gibraltar for the moment.

Ironically the growth of a Gibraltarian consciousness was first stimulated during the Second World War. The mixed civilian population was forcibly evacuated to Northern Ireland, Madeira, and Jamaica and deeply resented being sent into temporary exile for the duration of the war. This exile made the Gibraltarians miss their homes and made them all the more determined to return to take an active part in governing themselves in the future.