by Kosmos Zografopoulos
The entrance of Italy into the war in June 1940 greatly increased the importance of Gibraltar, and called attention to the fact that its defences had of late been very largely neglected.
On Oct. 23,1940 the Secretary of State for the Dominion wrote to the Canadian high Commissioner in London asking the participation of No.1 Tunnelling Company RCE (Royal Canadian Engineers), then in England, might be sent to work at Gibraltar.
On Oct. 24,1940 the Cabinet War Committee in Ottawa gave the approval, subject to General McNaughton's concurrence. Accordingly, a special detachment, No. 1 Tunnelling Company, 100-strong and equipped with diamond drills, disembarked at the rock on N ov. 26, 1940 and was soon at work. In Dec. 1940 the War Office asked for more Canadian tunnellers. No. 2 Tunnelling Company was formed, and arrived at Gibraltar on Mar. 10, 1941.
No. 1 Tunnelling company, with the British, worked on the new aerodrome which had been created since 1940 on the site of the garrison racecourse on the north front. Its task was to provide "fill" for extending the runway into the bay of Algeciras. This was done by bringing down the screes on the face of the rock, first by diamond drilling and then blasting by hydraulic methods. No. 1 Tunnelling Company remained at Gibraltar until Jan., 1942.
No. 2 Tunnelling Company excavated in the rock a bombproof hospital (Gort's Hospital) and a through (East - West) tunnel providing direct covered access to the East side of the rock (Charley Street).
During the tunnelling, the Canadians excavated two large new magazines and removed approximately 140,000 tons of solid rock. No. 2 Company returned to England late 1942.
The majority of the tunnellers of the two companies were hard-rock miners from Northern Ontario mining towns (Kirkland Lake, Timmins and Sudbury areas).
Also, in March 1941, when the Greeks were fighting the Italians at the Albania front and the Germans were advancing in South Yugoslavia towards Greece, a company of RCE assembled in Gibraltar by the name "Kent Corps Troops" and disembarked over to Thes saloniki Greece to destroy the oil stocks.
They arrived in Thessaloniki on Apr. 8, 1941 but the Germans advanced that night and the Canadians couldn't fulfil their mission.
Cover 1. (Unfortunately would not reproduce for the Web)
Apr., 1941 from Gibraltar to the family of a tunneller from Garson Mine, 5 km. East of Sudbury. The cover censored by Gibraltar type GIB 100 No. 10. Unfortunately we don't know if it comes from No. 1 or No. 2 company.
Bibliography
©1995, Kosmos Zografopoulos
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