Buffadero Battery was an

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to fa ...

in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on Windmill Hill.

Description

Buffadero was the name of a village where people lived at the south end of Gibraltar before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. According to the Royal Engineers, Buffadero is possibly an anglicized corruption derived from the Spanish "bufido", which means "blowing" or "snorting", or it might be of Genoese origin as many Genoese workmen had been employed in Gibraltar. At the end of the nineteenth century Buffadero Battery had a BL 9.2 inch gun Mk IX–X, which was one of 14 installed in Gibraltar. The guns were intended to counter 8" guns on cruisers. At Gibraltar, these guns could fire across the

Straits of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...

and could hit shipping on the coast of

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

, thus enabling Gibraltar to command the Straits. A well-like cave was in close proximity to the battery. Today, the Buffadero Training Center includes two live firing ranges, an obstacle course, and a mock village. Soldiers use the village to train for urban combat.

References

Batteries in Gibraltar {{Gibraltar-struct-stub