Operation Tracer

Common card · No. 496614

Operation Tracer was a secret Second World War Royal Navy military operation in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory and military base. The impetus for the stay-behind 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, Godfrey 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...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Jim Crone, CC BY-SA 3.0