Buffadero Battery was an

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to fac ...

in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. It is located on Windmill Hill.

Description

Buffadero was the name of a village where people lived at the south end of Gibraltar before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. According to the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, Buffadero is possibly an anglicized corruption derived from the Spanish "bufido", which means "blowing" or "snorting", or it might be of Genoese origin as many Genoese workmen had been employed in Gibraltar. At the end of the nineteenth century Buffadero Battery had a

BL 9.2 inch gun Mk IX–X BL (or similar) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * BL Publishing, a division of the wargames manufacturing company, Games Workshop * '' Boston Legal'', a US legal comedy drama * Boys' love, Japanese term for female-oriented fiction featuring ...

, which was one of 14 installed in Gibraltar. The guns were intended to counter 8" guns on cruisers. At Gibraltar, these guns could fire across the

Straits of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medit ...

and could hit shipping on the coast of

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, thus enabling Gibraltar to command the Straits. A well-like cave was in close proximity to the battery. Today, the Buffadero Training Center includes two live firing ranges, an obstacle course, and a mock village. Soldiers use the village to train for urban combat.

References

Batteries in Gibraltar {{Gibraltar-struct-stub