The Siege of Gibraltar, 1779- 1783. The Longest Siege in British History. Key to WWII Centuries Later.

 The last great effort to reclaim Gibraltar ended in defeat, sealing Britain’s hold over the gateway to the Mediterranean. The Rock remained under the Union Jack, and with it, Britain maintained the power to dictate the movement of fleets, the flow of commerce, and the balance of influence in one of the world’s most contested waterways. Every empire that challenged British naval supremacy in the centuries that followed would have to contend with the fact that this fortress, at the crossroads of Europe and Africa, was still in British hands... and with it, command over the sea that shaped the course of history.

Gibraltar. July 11, 1779 - February 2, 1783.
British Forces: 5,380 Soldiers and Five Ships.
Spanish Forces: 21,000 Soldiers and 19 Ships.

Additional Reading and Episode Research:

• McGuffie, T.H. The Siege of Gibraltar, 1779-1783.
• Russel, Jack. Gibraltar Besieged, 1779 - 1783.
• Bradford, Ernle. Gibraltar: The History of a Fortress.

Transcript

    Thanks for tuning in this episode of History's Greatest battles season two where we explore History's Greatest sieges please leave a review and if you know anybody that enjoys this genre of history please share the podcast with them stay tuned afterwards for our descent into the killing field of the comment section by the late 18th century the British Empire was stretched thin War raged across continents and Britain found itself surrounded by enemies its North American colonies were an open Rebellion France eager to see Britain
    
    weakened had entered the war in support of the revolutionaries Spain seeking to reclaim lost territory followed soon after the Netherlands joined the conflict as well turning what had started as an internal Colonial struggle into a global war Britain was fighting on multiple fronts across the Atlantic in the Caribbean in the Mediterranean and Beyond amid the chaos one strategic position became the focus of a brutal Siege it was a stronghold that controlled the Western gateway to the Mediterranean whoever
    
    held it dictated the flow of trade the movement of navies and the balance of power in one of the most contested regions of the world for Spain reclaiming it meant restoring national pride and dominance in the Mediterranean for Britain holding it was non-negotiable the battle that followed was relentless it was not a campaign of Swift victory victories or decisive charges but a slow grinding War of Attrition The Defenders faced starvation ceaseless bombardment and disease the besiegers though overwhelming in numbers
    
    met an enemy that refused to break the siege dragged on for years testing the limits of Endurance on both sides the outcome of this battle shaped the geopolitical landscape for centuries Britain's survival in this fight reinforced its control over the Mediterranean securing its ability to project Naval power far beyond its Shores decades later this dominance allowed Britain to seize Malta control Egypt and secure the Suz Canal solidifying its influence from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean control of
    
    this single stronghold ensured Britain's continued Supremacy at Sea shaping European conflicts Colonial Ambitions and global trade routes well into the modern era the world that emerged from this Siege was one where Britain remained the dominant Maritime power able to dictate the course of wars and commerce across the globe it was a battle fought on the edge of Europe but its consequences reached far beyond let's now experience the siege of Gibralter welcome to History's Greatest battles season 2 episode 32 the siege of
    
    jial alter from the 11th of July 1779 to the 2nd of February 1783 British forces fiving 380 soldiers and five ships Spanish forces roughly 21,000 soldiers and 19 ships the last great effort to reclaim jalter ended in defeat cealing Britain's hold over the gateway to the Mediterranean The Rock remained under the union ja and with it Britain maintained the power to dictate the movement of fleets the flow of Commerce and the balance of influence in one of the world's most contested waterways every Empire that challenged
    
    British Naval Supremacy in the centuries that followed would have to contend with the fact that this Fortress at the crossroads of Europe and Africa was still in British hands and with it command over the sea that shaped the course of history Gibralter its name drawn from Jebel Tariq after the Muslim General who led the charge into Spain has been fought over relentlessly since the day the Moors first fortified Heights at least 14 fullscale sieges have been waged for control of the rock also known as Apes Hill but it was the
    
    British seizure of jalter in 1704 that reshaped the balance of power in the med this was no mere Conquest it was the moment Great Britain stamped its Authority on the region a declaration that would not be ignored for Spain the loss of Gibralter was a wound that refused to heal in just 3 days of Siege during the war of the Spanish succession the British took Gibralter and from that moment on the Rock became their stronghold Spain made its counterattacks first in 1705 then in 1726 each time British guns and grit held the line by
    
    the late 1770s Britain was locked in a brutal fight across the Atlantic struggling to crush the rebellion in its North American colonies then came the disaster at Saratoga in October of 1777 British troops surrendered when the world took notice by February of 1778 France seiz the moment throwing its weight behind the American Rebels Spain joined the war in 1779 Hungary for vengance and by 1780 the Dutch had entered the fry the British Empire now faced a global war on multiple fronts the French and Dutch wanted to weaken
    
    Britain the Spanish wanted something more Gibralter The Rock had been theirs once and they were determined to make it theirs again Madrid saw an opening Britain's war machine was overextended troops in America fleets watching the French and Dutch if ever there was a time to strike at jalter this was it but Britain wasn't letting go The Rock was theirs and the man commanding its defense was exactly who they needed Lieutenant General George Elliott a soldier with 40 years of War behind him took command in
    
    1777 he was as educated as he was Battle hardened he had fought through the war of the Austrian succession and the Seven Years War he had marched with Frederick the Great's prussians and had taken part in the storming of Havana in 1762 Elliot demanded total discipline he lived it he enforced it elas saw what was coming he knew Gibralter was a Target and he made sure London knew it too under his command The Rock would not be taken lightly The Rock was already bristling with over 400 guns cannons
    
    mortars hoers by the time the siege was in full swing that number had climbed to 663 more than the Garrison had men to fire them Elliot didn't just prepare for war he changed military structure itself he pulled jalter's civilian Engineers under his command laying the foundation for what would become the Royal Engineers when The Siege began and jalter's Defenders numbered 5,380 soldiers and 760 Sailors they were outnumbered but they weren't outmatched the peninsula's northern approach narrow marshy and a death trap
    
    for any army foolish enough to attempt a direct assault made a land Invasion a near impossibility and both sides knew it the real battle would be fought at Sea the harbor was jalter's Lifeline the only way to bring in reinforcements and supplies the British positioned their heaviest guns accordingly ready to unleash hell on any ship that dared approach five bastions ran down the spine of the peninsula each one a fortress in its own right the new mole was locked down with a defensive stronghold and another Fort stood guard
    
    at Point Europa jalter's southernmost Edge the Spanish guns covered most of the harbor making it a gauntlet of fire but Rosia Bay just south of the new mole remained out of their room be that sliver of safety would be vital British strong points along the northern bottleneck gave them The High Ground over Spanish positions ensuring that any attempted assault would be suicide the Spanish strategy was simple starve them out keep supplies from reaching jalter while pounding The Defenders with artillery day after day grinding them
    
    down until they broke to make it work they needed total control of the sea Spain put 19 ships of the line on blockade Duty stationed at kadiz more warships gathered at Alis suras just across the bay waiting for any sign of a British Supply run the first challenge to the blockade came in July of 1779 three British ships fast and lucky slip past the Spanish Fleet bringing in desperately needed supplies it was a small victory but a victory nonetheless Elliot knew better than to rely on luck even with the fresh supplies he rationed
    
    food with an iron grip the first to go were the horses if they weren't needed for work they were meat there were small gardens within the Garrison but Citrus was rare and when there's no Citrus they're scurvy the disease Came In Waves swinging away at the men by September the silence broke British Gunners let loose on Spanish troops trying to extend their Siege lines The Defenders had no intention of waiting passively for their fate then came a breakthrough one British Gunner had an idea short fused
    
    shells that exploded in midair Renning death before they even hit the ground and the air burst was born it didn't devastate the Enemy Lines but it did something just as important it rattled them the Spanish had nowhere to hide London wasn't blind to the crisis by December a fleet of 22 ships sail from Plymouth escorting a massive Supply Convoy jalter wasn't the only target but besed British outposts in Minorca and the West Indies needed help too on the way the British struck gold an undefended Spanish Supply Convoy they
    
    took everything swelling their own stores before pressing on Admiral George Rodney wasn't about to let the Spanish interfere off Cape St Vincent on the 16th of January 1780 he tore through an 11 ship Spanish Squadron the larger Franco Spanish Fleet sitting uselessly K did nothing on January the 26th Rodney's Armada appeared on the horizon the Spanish blockade broke their ships scurried behind the safety of a boom in Al jairus's Harbor jalter was saved Rodney's Convoy brought enough supplies to last a year he also delivered fresh
    
    troops the battle hardened 73rd Highlanders while evacuating civilians who had no place in a war zone for 2 months the Garrison ate well then Elliot tightened the belts again no one knew how long the siege would last and he wasn't about to risk running out of food too soon day after day The Siege ground on artillery thundered shells shriek through the air and Men dug in deeper there was no respit only the steady punishing rhythm of War then on the night of June the 6th the Spanish made their move under the
    
    cover of Darkness nine fire ships crept toward the harbor floating HS packed with destruction meant to burn the British Fleet alive but the British were faster Sailors sprang into action Shore batteries roared and as if fate itself had intervened the wind died the fire ships drifted aimlessly useless smoldering out in Failure but the Spanish didn't stop they tightened the blockade squeezed jalter harder and by the end of the year The Garrison was staring starvation in the face scurvy ravaged the men until Fortune smiled a
    
    Spanish Brigantine heavy with oranges was captured midun for a brief moment the disease loosened its grip but the relief was shortlived the Sultan of Morocco sided with Spain closing off 10 years the last safe haven for British blockade Runners jalter again was alone and then came salvation on April the 12th 1781 a British Convoy broke through 100 cargo ships guarded by 29 warships the lifeline held furious at the failure to starve out the Defenders Spain changed their tactics they turned their guns on the
    
    town itself no longer just a military Siege it became a campaign of Terror civilians men women children all became the targets and their bombardment was relentless in April and May alone Spanish artillery fired 11,000 rounds every week walls collapsed buildings burned the air stank of powder in Death At Night Spanish gunboats prowled the waters their cannons Spitting Fire at the harbor hammering the defenses while the Garrison tried to snatch what little rest they could the town was utter Rubble in the wreckage shattered casks
    
    spilled their secrets hidden reserves of liquor and the Garrison erupted into chaos for 2 days discipline collapsed in a drunken Riot Elliot crushed the disorder a few of the worst offenders swung from The Gallows a warning to the rest this was still a war and Order would be maintained another Convoy slipped in during April but by summer the hunger returned the siege just never relented the Spanish Titan the new their forces swelled to 21,000 the bombard M never paused now they sought to finish it Siege lines
    
    crept forward trenches dug inch by inch bringing more and more of the rock into their artillery's reach but Elliot struck first on the night of November 26th 1781 under the cover of Darkness he Unleashed over 2,000 men and a sudden Savage assault the Spanish never saw it coming after months of one-sided Siege Warfare they had ground complacent and their defenses were thin the British tore through the siege lines like a storm dozens of Spanish guns were spiked rendered useless ammunition stores erupted in Fire and thunder the night
    
    sky filled with terrible explosions the Spanish lines broke the Garrison had bought itself time and for now the scen returned to its Grim methodical rhythm of artillery rules the first half of 1782 was war against time against hunger against the grinding monotony of Siege Warfare reinforcements came in May but so did bad news Minorca had fallen that meant more French troops more guns and more pressure on jalter now a new Commander stepped in Lou de bz de beron du Deon he brought 9,000 men and to plan to crush jalter
    
    and a massive assault from Land and Sea he introduced a new weapon floating gun platforms these behemoths reinforced with sand rope and hides were built to withstand British counterfire and bring jalter's Harbor under Relentless attack the floating gun platforms weren't alone 49 ships of the line stood behind them their broadsides ready on land 40,000 troops masked waiting for the order to storm The Rock the Final blow was coming it should have been the end but it wasn't on the morning of September the
    
    13th 1782 the French battery ships opened fire pounding the defenses for 6 hours they stood firm until the British Unleashed their secret weapon heated shot red hot cannonballs turned the wooden warships into floating inferos Flames tore through the fleet some ships sank others were abandoned in chaos the grand assault the moment Spain had waited years for collapsed in Smoke and wreckage with their grand attack in ruins the Spanish and French fell back on the only thing they had left brud Force day after day up to 2,000 shells
    
    rained down on jalter hammering the British Lions then came the final insult on October the 13th another British Convoy smashed through the blockade Admiral Lord Richard how LED 100 50 Merchant ships straight into jalter packed with supplies then without hesitation he turned his Fleet toward kadiz daring the enemy to fight the Franco Spanish Fleet took the challenge and a brief battle flared but the Allies lost their nerve they limped back to port and with that the war for jalter was over Spain had sworn that the war
    
    would not end until jalter was back in its hands but War has a way of breaking promises by late 1781 the war in America was all but over the fighting dragged on but everyone knew the real battle was happening at the negotiating table in Paris when the treaties were finally signed America got its independence Spain reclaimed Monarca and Florida the war was done but jalter it was still British Spain had staked everything on taking the Rock and it had failed 3 years 7 months and 12 days the longest
    
    Siege in British history on February the 2nd 1783 it officially ended but the scars would last a lifetime the cost was steep The Defenders lost 333 men in battle but disease took more than a thousand scurvy had drained them small poox had ravaged the civilians claiming another Thousand Lives yet through it all Britain held the Rock and with it control of the Gateway between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean see jalter was more than just a stronghold it was the foundation of Britain's dominance in the
    
    Mediterranean decades later they took Malta then in the 1870s they secured the sus Canal jalter had been the first piece in a much larger game and so an island nation with no Mediterranean Coastline became its master by World War II jalter had become an unshakable Bastion from its airfields and its Harbors British forces launched operations that crushed axis Ambitions Pride the Mediterranean from melini's grip and cracked open the door for the Allied invasion of Europe jalter was never meant to endure
    
    the Spanish were certain they would reclaim It the French swore to tear it from British hands but War does not respect ambition War crushes the arrogant shatters the hopeful and leaves only the unbreakable standing for 3 years The Defenders of jalter lived in the shadow of death they starved they suffered they buried their dead beneath a sky that never ceased to rain fire the Thunder of cannons became their heartbeat the enemy was relentless pounding their walls cutting off their lifelines clawing for every inch of
    
    stone civilians cowered as their homes crumbled around them children wasted away disease ran rampant turning men into walking corpses before dragging them into shallow Graves and yet they fought through the hunger through the sickness through the endless storms of shot and shell when rations dwindled they tighten their belts when disease struck they endured when the enemy surged forward they met them with fire and steel they did not waver they did not surrender and when the dust settled when the last Cannon fell silent when
    
    the broken armies of Spain and France slunk away in defeat jalter still stood unshaken unyielding and thus the rock never [Music] fell thanks for listening hope you enjoyed that let's now descend into the Killing Fields of the comment section on The Siege of Vicksburg listener Sledge SLE d g wrote the South should have listened to Krell and fought a gorilla War Mr Sledge you know you're on to something gorilla Warfare was one of the confederacy's most effective tactics on a small scale men like Mosby forest and
    
    even Quantrill wreaked havoc Behind Enemy Lines proving that fast moving unconventional tactics could be a nightmare for Union forces if the South had leaned into that earlier who knows how much longer they could have stretched the war but here's where the theory hits a wall gorilla Wars don't just need Fighters they need food supplies and a civilian population willing to endure years of hardship and by 1863 The South was already starving the union blockade had strangled trade Rail lines were collapsing and Southern
    
    civilians were rioting over bread not waving Guerilla banners and let's be honest Davis didn't have a country like France backing him funneling weapons and gold into the fight the British and French stayed out for a reason a full-scale gorilla strategy might have made certain regions of the South ungovernable but it wouldn't have stopped Grant from grinding down Lee or Sherman from torching Georgia so did the South need more Guerilla tactics probably would it have won the war probably not the Confederacy wasn't just
    
    fighting Union armies it was fighting the North's industry its Manpower its Relentless War Machine few thousand men hiding in the Hills couldn't stop the sheer weight of that Reality by 1863 the Confederacy was already bleeding Manpower the draft had been extended to teenage boys and men old men at that supplies were dwindling even if Jefferson Davis had tried to shift the entire strategy to a prolonged Insurgency he still had a problem where was the food coming from where was the ammunition who was supplying these
    
    elusive bands of rebels once the main arm is disbanded the truth is the Confederacy did try elements of Guerilla war and it worked in small doses but it wasn't a war-winning strategy you can't Ambush artillery you can't raid your way back into Vicksburg or Chattanooga and you certainly can't shoot and Fade Into the Woods when Sherman is burning those very Woods to the ground so while it's a fascinating what if the hard reality is that the South was doomed the moment its armies could no longer hold the field
    
    the war wasn't just about fighting it was about industry Logistics and morale and once those things were gone no amount of Hit and Run tactics could turn the tide on that same episode omo Ministries omo Ministries wrote in all caps it was all a lie it was the north that were evil still is well omo Ministries this is the kind of discussion that gets to the heart of historical interpretation I hear you there's a deep rooted perspective in some circles that the north not the South was the aggressor the oppressor
    
    even the villain of the Civil War and if you're coming from a place that seats Federal overreach economic exploitation or the devastation of reconstruction as proof of Northern evil I get why you might feel that way but let's strip away the narratives and look at the cold heart facts the Civil War wasn't just about State versus Federal power it was about the survival of a system that allowed one group of people to own another that's not a moral judgment that's just the reality of what was at stake the South seceded to protect
    
    slavery its own leaders said so repeatedly inofficial documents speeches and letters now does that mean the north was some pure Noble force of righteousness of course not Lincoln didn't go to war to free the slaves he went to war to preserve the union there were plenty of Northerners who were just as racist as their southern counterparts and yes after the war the federal government stumbled badly in handling reconstruction allowing corruption exploitation and chaos to fill the void but if we're talking about who was
    
    fighting to uphold a system built on human bondage and who was fighting to end it then history is Crystal Clear even though that may not be the reason the north entered the war emancipation was a moral strategy weaponized during the Civil War the Confederacy fought to preserve a way of life that depended on keeping millions of people in Chains the union fought at first to hold the country together but by the end to ensure that slavery was dead forever so was the north evil no was it flawed absolutely were there moments of
    
    hypocrisy corruption and moral failing on both sides without question but at the end and at the core of this war was one defining truth one side fought to end slavery and the other fought to keep it history isn't about picking heroes and villains it's about confronting the truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be thanks for listening see you guys tomorrow