The Coastal Battery of Palamós: an old artillery position of the Spanish Civil War

@ElentirENG ES 7·01·2023 · 23:47 0

During the Spanish Civil War, both sides found it necessary to build or reinforce coastal batteries to protect important sites.

Blockhaus 13: A bunker from the Spanish Civil War in the Community of Madrid
The Jaca Position, a secret bunker from the Spanish Civil War in the city of Madrid

In the case of Palamós, in the province of Genora, the republican side built a coastal battery on a 56-meter-high mountain located near the city, known as the Windmill (Molí de Vent, in Catalan). It was not the most suitable position for a coastal artillery battery, since its distance from the sea limited the range of its artillery pieces, but that place was probably chosen for lack of a better location .

According to the website GRIEGC.com in a comprehensive article (I encourage you to read it, as it tells the story of this battery in great detail), the artillery position was completed in April 1937 and was made up of a fire direction bunker and two artillery positions, initially equipped with four 75 mm Schneider guns at the start of the war, later replaced by 3 90 mm Krupp guns, which in 1938 were replaced by two 90 mm Krupp guns. 150mm. The battery ended the war with two Ordóñez 150 mm guns. In addition, the battery had a shelter and a powder magazine, both underground.

Regarding the problem of the range of the battery, GRIEGC.com cites the case of a naval bombardment made in Palamós by a ship from the national side, an attack that could not be repelled by the battery, since the ship in question was out of their reach, so the soldiers from the battery had to limit themselves to taking refuge in it. Today the battery is preserved quite intact, but without cannons and with obvious signs of vandalism in the form of graffiti. The always excellent YouTube channel Aventuras Entresierras has published a fascinating video today touring the exterior and the galleries of this battery (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see here some screenshots of the video, as a small preview of the many interesting things it contains. We begin with an aerial view of the battery, showing the layout of its firing position and the two locations where the guns were distributed.

This is the fire direction bunker, with a wide loophole, apparently designed to install a rangefinder.

One of the access doors to the underground galleries of the bar.

One of the underground galleries, with a vaulted ceiling. They seem to be in good condition (less vandalized than the outside), and still have graffiti made by soldiers on the Republican side during the Civil War.