The Europa Batteries are a group of

artillery batteries 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 fac ...

in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. Facing the North African coast, they are the most southerly batteries in Gibraltar and were built to cover ships approaching from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. They run along the fortified clifftops of

Europa Point Europa Point ( Spanish and Llanito: Punta de Europa or Punta Europa) is the southernmost point of Gibraltar. Although not the southernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula, Europa Point defines the boundary between the Straits of Gibraltar in th ...

from Camp Bay on the west side of the

Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq , meaning "Mountain of Tariq ibn Ziyad, Tariq") is a monolithic limestone mountain high dominating the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated near the end of a nar ...

to the Europa Advance Batteries on the east side. The batteries were constructed in the 18th century on top of an old coastal wall built by King Charles V of Spain. There were originally only two batteries at the Point – in 1762 these were the Five Gun Battery, which mounted five 18-pdrs, and Europa Point Battery, which had a single 18-pdr. A third position, Deadman's Hole Battery, was later constructed and by 1859 the three batteries had 25 guns between them. They were subsequently reorganised into a series of seven batteries. 1st Europa Battery was a three-gun battery situated on the coastal defence wall south of Woodford's Battery. 2nd Europa was also referred to as Point or Deadman's Hole Battery and was situated a little way to the east, behind a demi-bastion at the southern end of the wall. 3rd Europa or Lighthouse Battery was situated next to the Europa Point Lighthouse and mounted three guns. The refurbished Harding's Battery was originally built on top of what was the 7th Europa Battery in 1859 and it was positioned between what became the 1st and 2nd Europa Batteries. A Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun was situated at Harding's during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

Artillery battery fortifications in Gibraltar {{Gibraltar-struct-stub