These positions were initially known as I, J and K emplacements and each mounted a single gun.
In 1877 a single 9-inch RML was mounted here under what is now South Battery. This 9-inch gun remained in position until about 1888 when a single 6-inch gun was placed in what is now Group B (East) . In 1896 the new South Battery was expanded and mounted four 6-inch Mark II QF guns. The Group B pair of guns were above Beefsteak Cave and faced due South. The Group A pair of guns faced South West. These were called respectively South Battery, West and East. These two pairs of guns were separated by a large earthen traverse. The guns were removed in 1908 but the following year a single 6-inch BL Mark VI on a Mark II central pivot was mounted in the right-hand pit of Group A (West).
During World War 2 the area was used as a 3.7-inch battery and the emplacements for the four Heavy Anti-Aircraft guns can still be seen. A 40-mm Bofors gun was also situated in the locality.
The Battery Book for South Battery, probably dated from about 1940, states that the battery covers the South West to East and has a single Mark VII gun (Reserve Gun). There are four D.R.F. pedestals, each of which can be used by the BC Post. The battery is noted as playing the same role as Genista Battery, “to fire on a swarm of torpedo boats, or Destroyers, or larger vessels, accompany a raid”.
The South West facing battery (Group A) still stands but is in a poor state of repair, while the South Facing Battery (Group B) is relatively intact.
The other 6-inch Batteries in Gibraltar are:
- Devil’s Gap Battery
- Genista Battery
- Lewis Battery
- Signal Hill Battery
- Princess Royal Battery
- Rock Battery
- South Battery
- Tovey Battery
The UK National Archives references
- WO 32/6373
- WO 192/22.
- WO 78/3843