{"id":15115,"date":"2016-05-09T20:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T01:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=15115"},"modified":"2016-05-09T20:00:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T01:00:45","slug":"world-war-two-history-the-nazis-plan-to-grab-gibraltar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/09\/world-war-two-history-the-nazis-plan-to-grab-gibraltar\/","title":{"rendered":"World War Two History: The Nazi&#8217;s Plan To Grab Gibraltar"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align:center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15116\" src=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/05\/gibraltar.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"gibraltar\" width=\"620\" height=\"338\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align:center;\"><em>\u201cEven before France had fallen, Hitler\u2019s generals lobbied the German leader for permission to roll on into Spain and wrest control of Gibraltar from the British.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><strong>SHORTLY AFTER THE<\/strong> defeat of France in 1940, Adolf Hitler directed his generals to begin preparations for Nazi Germany\u2019s next bold plan \u2014 the seizure of Gibraltar.<\/p>\n<p>Few in Berlin doubted the ultimate success of the operation, codenamed <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Operation_Felix\">Felix<\/a>. After nearly a year of uninterrupted military triumphs, it seemed a safe bet that the swastika would soon be flying over Britain\u2019s enclave in southern Spain. Of course, events unfolded very differently.<\/p>\n<h2>Fortress Gibraltar<\/h2>\n<p>Located on the north shore of the eight-mile strait that separates Europe from Africa, the 2.6-square mile Gibraltar peninsula is dominated by a 1,300-foot tall mountain known simply as \u201cthe Rock.\u201d\u00a0Britain has controlled the vital outpost that commands the narrow waterway linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean since the 1701 to 1714 <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession\">War of Spanish Succession<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Home to a Royal Navy fleet as well a sizeable RAF presence, the Gibraltar station represented a key link in a chain of bases that connected the United Kingdom to its vast Empire in the east. When war broke out in 1939, the tiny\u00a0territory became\u00a0a strongpoint from which the Allies could challenge any Nazi moves into the Western Med and even the South Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p>Even before France\u2019s capitulation, Hitler\u2019s generals lobbied the German leader for permission to roll on into Spain and wrest control of Gibraltar from the British. In fact, the Third Reich\u2019s most senior military commander, <i>Reichsmarshal<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hermann_Goring\">Hermann Goering<\/a>, had been pressing the Fuhrer all summer to shelve plans to invade the U.K., known as<i><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Operation_Sealion\">Operation Sea Lion<\/a><\/i>, and grab Gibraltar as a prelude to a thrust into North Africa. With the crucial straits closed to Allied shipping, the <em>Luftwaffe<\/em> chief argued, access to the Suez, the Middle East, and even India would be effectively cut off, driving yet another nail into Britain\u2019s coffin. By summer\u2019s end, the Fuhrer was convinced. And while plans would proceed against the British Isles, Operation Felix would go ahead as well.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\u00a0Read the Remainder at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/militaryhistorynow.com\/2016\/05\/09\/a-rock-and-hard-place-how-the-nazis-planned-grab-gibraltar-and-how-the-british-planned-to-keep-it\/\">Military History Now<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cEven before France had fallen, Hitler\u2019s generals lobbied the German leader for permission to roll on into Spain and wrest control of Gibraltar from the British.\u201d SHORTLY AFTER THE defeat of France in 1940, Adolf Hitler directed his generals to begin preparations for Nazi Germany\u2019s next bold plan \u2014 the seizure of Gibraltar. Few in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5525,475,1286,4418,1899],"tags":[11561,11562,3823],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}