Word: gibraltars
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...fleet of ships reinforced with green timber, cork and rawhide was set afire by red-hot British cannonballs. In that long siege, British General Sir George Elliot lost in action only 333 out of 7,000 men in the face of attackers totaling 40,000. Britain offered to trade Gibraltar for Florida or for Minorca, but the Spanish refused. Spain offered to buy it for $10,000,000 and the British refused. By the 19th Century its value to British naval supremacy was recognized as beyond price and it became a world symbol for permanent security...
Superstition says that so long as the apes survive, the British will retain Gibraltar...
Last week, a few Barbary apes-meat for air bombs-still squeaked and picked their fleas on Gibraltar, but the British garrison under Lieut. General Sir Clive Gerard ("Jock") Liddell, 57, knew that terrible tests lay not far in the future...
...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...
...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...