The urbanization sprawls across the seafront and up the sides of a headland south of the city, the scrub land around is a maze of cycle trails and paths, all well sign posted; I quickly noticed one of the signs read "gun batteries"; so my darling with with a saintly smile allowed me to take the family for a nice long walk in the country :-)
The gun battery dates from the SCW, the Republicans had to try and protect the port of Alicante from potential naval attack, they also placed several anti-aircraft guns around the battery to both protect it and act as an AA screen against Nationalist aircraft targeting the City.
The site is only partly cleared, but some restoration work is being done. There are also several notice/information boards (written in Spanish/French/English) which were very informative.
Coastal battery
The two main gun pits are concrete, each housed a Krupp 15cm gun.
They are set in defilade hidden from their potential targets out at sea, the two pits are linked by tunnel to a concrete ammunition bunker to the rear.
Command bunker
Whilst in excellent condition, the bunker has suffered for vandalism and graffiti
Anti aircraft positions
These are dug/cut out of the rocky hillside, these held either a 76.2 mm or 40mm Bofors gun
Barracks
These three buildings are in very poor state of repair
A map from the information board, showing the direction of attacks by Nationalist cruisers and aircraft against Alicante
No comments:
Post a Comment