Did you know about the soldiers who were going to be entombed alive during World War II?
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Air raid practice at Gibraltar during World War II
(Photo: Imperial War Museums)
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Contrarily to what you might think, the title above does not refer to some horrible war crime, but to Operation Tracer, in which the British were going to wall up six of their own soldiers if the strategically vital Rock of Gibraltar ever fell to German attack. The men were supposed to stay behind undiscovered and continue to report about ship movements by wireless telegraph until Gibraltar was recaptured – or they ran out of food.
Gibraltar, guarding the strait that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, had long been a cornerstone of British strategic planning. As long as it was under British control, Britain could decide who enters or leaves the Mediterranean from or to the west. If it fell to the Axis, however, British supply convoys from Asia could no longer take the short route up the Suez Canal and across the Mediterranean.
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The main room of Operation Tracer
(Photo: HM Government of Gibraltar, Ministry for Heritage)
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In the summer of 1941, a plan was hatched by Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey, director of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, to prepare for a German attack and possible victory. The planning also involved Godfrey’s personal assistant, Ian Fleming, who later created James Bond. The planning also included consultants such as Surgeon Commander George Murray Levick, who survived an Arctic winter in an ice cave, and Baron Thomas Horder, who would go on to be the personal physician of two British kings and one queen during his career.
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John Henry Godfrey, the mastermind behind Operation Tracer
(Photo: Imperial War Museums)
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Six men, an officer, two physicians and three wireless operators, were selected to stay behind in case Gibraltar was lost. They were to be hidden inside a secret complex that would have been completely walled up to prevent discovery. Living in a single room and corridor, they were to observe the port of Gibraltar and the Spanish coast through holes cut into the rock and report ship movements via Morse Code over radio.
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View from the ledge outside the eastern observation slit
(Photo: frontlineulster.co.uk)
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The main room was 45 ft by 16 ft in area with an 8 ft tall ceiling (14 by 4.8 by 2.4 m). The walls and ceiling were plastered, and the floor was covered with cork for sound insulation. A small room held two toilets and a radio set, and a wash pit was supplied with water from a 10,000-gallon water tank located behind the wall. A flight of stairs led up to an east-west corridor located above the room. At the east end of the corridor, an aperture opened onto the Spanish coast to the east, and a small, overgrown natural ledge which the men might have been able to climb out on for fresh air. At the west end, a small slit provided a view of the Gibraltar harbor. It’s speculated that the corridor might have also held an 18 ft (5.5 m) long antenna which the men were supposed to push out through the observation hole for better signal. Electricity for the radio and the lights were provided by batteries and a bicycle generator. The men were to have enough food supplies for one year; this meant that once walled up, they were either rescued by Allied troops recapturing Gibraltar in that timespan, or starved to death. The dead (whether from starvation or disease) were supposed to be embalmed and cemented by the survivors.
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The view of the Gibraltar harbor through the observation slit to the west
(Photo: Moshi Anahori)
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Operation Tracer was never put into action, as Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union has diminished the threat of any more offensives in Western Europe. The hideout was walled up unoccupied, but rumors of a hidden room have been circulating in Gibraltar until 1997, when the Gibraltar Caving Group found the place. One of the hideout’s constructors, who graffitied his name on the wall, confirmed it was built for Operation Tracer the following year, and claimed that there were also two other, smaller Tracer groups on the Rock during the war. If the latter is true, there might be a second hideout still waiting for rediscovery. The last surviving member of the Tracer team, one of the physicians, visited the place about a decade after its discovery and shortly before his death.
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Doctor Cooper, the last surviving member of the Tracer team (now deceased), visiting the hideout in 2006 (Photo: HM Government of Gibraltar, Ministry of Heritage)
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On the occasion of the upcoming 80th anniversary of V-J Day, also known as Victory over Japan Day, we are offering exclusive discounts. We give you 15% off for 2025, 25% off for 2026, and 35% off for 2027, if you pay in full until September 2, 2025. The tour price is refundable up until 90 days before departure. This offer is valid only for new bookings and cannot be combined with other promotions.
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