Word: rocks
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Rock's governor, Lieut. General Sir Clive Gerard ("Jock") Liddell, knew that, as Germany pushed home her attack on Great Britain (see p. 30), Gibraltar was really in for it from the Italians. There was even a report that the Germans were massing troops below Bordeaux for a land assault on the world's greatest fortress. This attack would come across Spain, which was less likely than ever to interfere, in view of Britain's plan announced last week to extend the blockade to all Spanish and Portuguese ports. Sir Clive's gravest concern...
Sweltering hot though it is, with its beetling, sun-scorched Rock radiating heat all day, Gibraltar became hotter still last week. Italian bombers from bases 1,000 miles away repeatedly dropped monster explosions upon it. British warships in the anchorage on the Rock's west side were prime targets, the sea power that keeps Italy corked into the Mediterranean. The Italians claimed they hit and fired some of the ships. Watchers in Algeciras across the bay and in Tangier across the Strait could not tell, but they could see and hear the Rock erupt an inferno of anti-aircraft...
...Gibraltar town. His wife and some 400 others went to Funchal, Madeira. A contingent of 300 were sent across the Strait to Tangier. As ships could be brought for them, others were to go to the Bahamas and Canada. Ships arriving brought supplies and soldier reinforcements that increased the Rock's garrison to above...
...Italy insisted last week that the British battle cruiser Hood and aircraft carrier Ark Royal were tied up in Gibraltar undergoing repairs after Italian bomb-hits last fortnight. Two small groups of big Italian bombers, each carrying two tons of explosive, appeared over the Rock one night after flying all the way from Italy (1,000 miles). A blaze of searchlights and a fierce storm of anti-aircraft fire burst from the Rock but the Italians got away after inflicting what they described as "serious damage" on the dockyard and supply dumps...
...British started digging a 13-foot ditch from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Algeciras through the flat, sandy neck (1,300 yd. wide), joining the Rock and the Spanish mainland. Evidently they had reason to expect an attack on Gibraltar, either by loud-talking Spain or by German "tourists" with whom Spain is now crawling...