Breakneck Battery
Breakneck Battery is an artillery battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on Ministry of Defence property at the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, north of Lord Airey's Battery. It is one of a dozen batteries in Gibraltar that had 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) guns installed around the turn of the twentieth century. The emplacement features a 9.2-inch Mark X breech-loading gun on a Mark V mounting. The battery was refurbished by 10 Signal Regiment in 2012 and 2016 whilst being on Ceremonial duties whilst the Gibraltar Regiment where on exercise and is one of three surviving 9.2-inch gun emplacements at the Upper Ridge of the Rock of Gibraltar. By the late twentieth century, the 9.2-inch guns in Gibraltar, Bermuda (also known affectionately as "the Rock", and the former site of a Royal Naval Dockyard, and once considered "the Gibraltar of the West"), Portugal, South Africa, and Australia were the remaining examples of an emplacement that at one point had been mounted at strategic locations across the British Empire.
Breakneck Battery | |
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Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar | |
Upper Rock Nature Reserve, Gibraltar | |
Breakneck Battery's 9.2-inch Mark X coastal gun in 2013 | |
Breakneck Battery, with a 9.2-inch Mark X coastal gun on a Mark V mounting, 4 January 1942 | |
Breakneck Battery | |
Coordinates | 36.128373°N 5.344253°W |
Type | Artillery Battery |
Site information | |
Owner | Ministry of Defence |
Open to the public | no |
Site history | |
Built | Between 1890 and 1914 |