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Operation Tracer was a secret
Second World War military operation in
Gibraltar, a
British colony and military base. The impetus for the plan was the 1940 scheme by
Germany to capture Gibraltar, code-named
Operation Felix. Operation Tracer was the brainchild of Rear Admiral
John Henry Godfrey, the Director of the
Naval Intelligence Division of the
Admiralty.
In 1941, he decided to establish a covert
observation post at Gibraltar, that would remain operational even if Gibraltar fell to the
Axis powers. Movements of enemy vessels would be reported to the
United Kingdom. Godfrey requested the assistance of several distinguished consultants to bring the plan to fruition. The plan was so secret that Godfrey held meetings with his consultants at his private residence rather than at
Whitehall.
The decision was made to construct the post using the tunnel system for
Lord Airey's Shelter, the underground military
headquarters just north of
Lord Airey's Battery. The
artillery battery was located at the upper ridge of the
Rock of Gibraltar, near the southern end of what is now the
Upper Rock Nature Reserve.
Construction began in late 1941 and was complete by the late summer 1942. The chambers served as a dual observation post, with an observation slit overlooking the
Bay of Gibraltar and a larger aperture over the
Mediterranean Sea. Six men were selected for the operation, an executive officer as leader, two physicians and three
wireless operators. The men had volunteered to be sealed inside the cave should Gibraltar fall to the Axis.
The men understood that they would remain sealed in the cave for about a year, although it could be much longer and provisions for a seven-year stay were stored. The plan was aborted and the Director of Naval Intelligence ordered that the provisions in the complex be distributed and the cave sealed. Rumours of a secret complex, eventually dubbed
Stay Behind Cave, circulated for decades in Gibraltar, until discovery of the chambers in 1997 by the
Gibraltar Caving Group. The authenticity of the site was confirmed by one of the builders in 1998 and a decade later by one of the physicians, the last surviving member of the Tracer team, who died in 2010.