The Rock of Gibraltar

joannalannister:

• Gibraltar was a very big choke point during WWII, basically whoever owned it would be who got the use of the Mediterranean.
• WWII tunnels: “These tunnels were excavated during 1939-1944 by the Royal Engineers and a contingent of Canadian Engineers, and are an extension to The Great Siege Tunnels excavated during The Great Siege of 1779-83. The Rock is in fact honeycombed with a 32 mile-long network of tunnels.” [x]
• ~1400 feet high
• Under siege conditions, the mixture of tension, boredom, anger and alcohol meant that discipline had to be strict if order was to be preserved. One of the most common forms of punishment was flogging with a nine tailed whip. A drummer in a regiment, which later became the Lancashire Fusiliers, achieved fame as the most flogged man in the British army. In his first 14 years here he received 30,000 lashes, of which 4,000 were administered in a single year.
• The besieged population lacked fresh vegetables and citrus fruits, important sources of vitamin C. A shortage of this causes scurvy, which turns the flesh black, then cripples and finally kills. To combat this deadly condition, which almost forced the city to surrender during The Great Siege, soldiers and civilians were ordered to grow food wherever possible.
• During the siege, many people on a poor diet were closely confined for long periods in unsanitary conditions.It is hardly surprising that smallpox, yellow fever, influenza, dysentery and scurvy thrived.
• The precipitous Northern face of the Rock is known as the Notch
• Various galleries: The Windsor Gallery, King’s Lines, Queen’s Lines, St. George’s Hall, the Cornwallis Chamber (a large banquet was held here in honor of US President Grant)
• Sergeant Major Ince was granted a plot of land on the Upper Rock, still known today as Ince’s Farm. 
• Capacity for 30,000 soldiers during WWII
• during WWII, some soldiers did not see daylight for 3+ months at a time
• Eisenhower: “The eternal darkness of the tunnels was here and there partially pierced by feeble electric bulbs. Damp, cold air in block-long passages was heavy with stagnation and did not noticeably respond to the clattering efforts of electric fans. Through the arched ceilings came a constant drip, drip, drip of surface water that faithfully but drearily ticked off the seconds of the interminable, almost unendurable, wait which always occurs between completion of a military plan and the moment action begins.”