To take Gibraltar

My first proper foray into the what-if forum, do be gentle... shoot my idea down, but gently!

Now it is obvious that losing Gibraltar would give the British one hell of a headache in the Med. The usual counter-argument is that Spain would never allow German units access to the land route to Gibraltar, and quite right too. But there is another way...

Before Taranto, and arguably even before Matapan, the Italian fleet was a powerful threat. Although outnumbered by the total RN presence in the Med, the RN was split half at either end while the Italians were concentrated in the middle - historically this is why Cunningham was so determined to engage and destroy as many Italian warships as possible.

So what is stopping a naval invasion of Gibraltar? The Italian Navy could (should?) overwhelm the Gibraltar half of the RN while escorting enough merchantmen to allow an invasion.

Like Sealion, it is probable that an invasion force could get ashore.
Unlike Sealion the British have no real defence in depth, no immediately available reserves, and the Axis have less need of further waves of troops and supplies (which would also be harder for the British to intercept)

Problems?

Well... firstly those darned British might get to hear about the plan (Intelligence, Reconnaissance, or just luck) in time to foil it

Secondly, with all due respect to the Italian Navy, the Gibraltar half of the RN might prevail

Thirdly, assuming a successful invasion, how long before a counter-invasion?

 

Ricky, it is the same problem as the planned Italian invasion of Malta. In 1940, while the Regia Marina was fairly strong vis a vis the Royal Navy, it was very weak in terms of being able to land and assault force on a contested shore. They had five water tankers that could be adapted to carry roughly a battalion each of infantry (four of them could carry a few light tanks each), and one battalion of infantry trained in amphibious warfare - so the rest would be standard infantry units. But the defenders had four battalions of infantry to defend and considerable coastal artillery. Then there is the problem of where do they land? If they attempt to land in the harbor, they will be butchered. There were six twin-6-pdr positions covering the approach to the harbor, each of which would put 36 to 80 rounds of 6-pdr HE into a target every minute. If they try to land to on the east coast...where?

 

Read more info on “Operation Felix” and the British countermeasure’s (including landing troops in Morroco)

Operation Felix - Wikipedia

 

Sorry for a late response, a busy week.

I had taken a look for details of Gibraltan defence but lacking books on a relatively obscure subject was reduced to Web info. This was partly what encouraged my idea. As far as I can see they were a little bit of a mixture, but basically you have big guns up on the rock to deter ships, limited fortifications on the land border just in case, some defences covering the massive harbour and the bulk of the pillboxes etc on the very hard to assault east coast. Oh, and an ever-increasing number of AA guns and an airfield without fighters.

Now to the slightly more specific invasion plan.

Starting with those big guns. The best solution IMO is precision bombing. Now the guns were typically in casements with open rears so a near miss would definitely suppress and probably incapacitate the crew. Guns mounted within the rock will be immune but hey. German Stukas can comfortably reach Gibraltar from French Morocco, and Vichy would probably be very happy to accommodate them and may even join in - they did bomb Gibraltar a couple of times as revenge for Oran. Those raids incidentally highlighted the relative ineffectiveness of the British AA. For maximum disruption you can add in Italian raids (also historically undertaken). I doubt French & Italian raids will achieve much concrete results, but they will certainly distract and disconcert the defenders, many of whom were BEF veterans so continual air attack will kick off the 'here we are again' feeling. As an amusing aside I briefly wondered about paratroops, but probably only the Soviets would be that uncaring of their troops to drop them on Gibraltan geography!

I'm not an expert in Italian merchant shipping, but I do know they had more than 5 ships in the Med in 1940. Decanting troops directly from merchantmen (via small boats or direct to the quay) is riskier than using purpose built landing craft but was done successfully in both world wars.

Gibraltar has a massive bay/harbour, plenty of space to send a flotilla of destroyers (or even something heavier) to knock out shore defences first.

Yes this operation requires significant cooperation between different services and different nations, making it highly prone to cock-ups (or just not starting)

But to me the biggest problem is when...

It is perfectly possible to do between late August & early November 1940 (Stukas freed from BoB, Oran has happened but Taranto hasn't)... but there is almost no need to do so at that point from an Axis point of view. By the time it becomes more desirable due to the situation in North Africa the Italian Navy is beaten and Gibraltar is relatively stronger.

 

I understand that this is your first foray into a what if and you did ask us to be gentle, but is it too much to ask you to do some real digging prior to scoffing at what I posted?

As of 1 September 1939, Gibraltar's defenses included three infantry battalions, a company-size Local Defence Force, three engineer companies, three coast artillery batteries, and one AA battery. By July 1940, it was reinforced by two other infantry battalions, the LDF was expanded to battalion-size, and a three-battery AA regiment was in place. By that time, the defenses included:

7 9.2" guns
2 9.2" howitzers
8 6" guns
5 4" guns
20 3.7" AA guns
4 3" AA
6 twin 6-pdr guns
10 40mm AA

In addition, as was common in many British beach defenses, a number of obsolescent 6-pdr Hotchkiss QF guns were emplaced to defend the beaches...for example, at least two were mounted in casemates at Parson's Lodge Battery along with six MG positions that covered the beaches of Rosia Bay to the north and Camp Bay to the south. Note that those "beaches" are enclosed by 20 to 50 foot walls and cliffs and were death traps.

When does all this happen? Before or after the Stuka Geschwadern get massacred over England in August 1940?

What makes you think the Gibraltar garrison were "BEF veterans"? 2 King's arrived in 1938. 2 Somerset LI was also there at the outbreak of war. The 1st Welsh Guards arrived in the summer of 1939. The 4th Devonshire went to Gibraltar in May 1940, from England, not France. The 4th Black Watch arrived in July 1940, after having been evacuated from Dunkirk to England, so was the sole battalion that might have had a "here we are again" feeling.

I was not speaking of merchant vessels, but of actual naval vessels capable of amphibious assault.

Okay, so the Italian merchants simply motor up to the quays in the harbor, ignoring the incoming hail of 40mm, 6-pdr, 4", and 6" rounds? Not to mention the MG fire from the numerous positions covering the harbor?

BTW, the abrupt Italian declaration of war meant that about one-quarter of the Italian merchant marine were caught in foreign harbors, crippling it for the rest of the war.

No, Ageciras is a massive bay/harbour, Gibraltar;s harbor is that enclosed by the defended moles. A flotilla of destroyers? Based where? The Italian desyroyers were notoriously short-legged. Franco is no more going to support such an operation than he was going to support FELIX.

Yeah, Spain for one is not going to touch it and Germany is rather busy planning to invade England, which leaves Italy.

The Stuka units "freed" from the BoB were rebuilding for the rest of the year.

 

Unless there was some special operation upcoming, the Gibraltar half of the RN - Force H - generally comprised just Ark Royal, Renown, Sheffield, and a few destroyers, so I expect they would avoid action until reinforcements could arrive (Gibraltar is roughly equidistant from major British and Italian naval bases). Depending how much warning they had, they might launch air attacks on the approaching Italian fleet, likely "mission killing" at least a few ships, then fall out into the Atlantic, perhaps with a quick stop to pick up whatever aerial torpedos are available at Gibraltar, and rendezvous with whatever the British could send down from the Home Fleet.

 

What about the Decima Flottiglia? If the intended attacks of August 1940 had succeeded the the hypothetical invasions of Gibraltar or Malta would have had better chances. As occurred historically, an Italian ship anchored in Algeciras just before the declaration of war could have been the ideal base to attack Force H. A better air cover in Tobruk august 1940 colud had prevented the loss of the "Iride" and the first strike force. Decima Flottiglia MAS - Wikipedia