Project Vitello

Project Vitello
Location	Gibraltar to Portsmouth to Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England
Objective	Military transfer of gun from Spur Battery in Gibraltar to Imperial War Museum Duxford in England
Date	1981
Executed by	1982

Project Vitello was a military operation that transferred the 9.2-inch Mark X breech-loading gun at Spur Battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England. Project Vitello I, the first phase, entailed the dismantling of the gun by the Royal Engineers at the artillery battery and transporting it to the Gibraltar dockyard in 1981. It was then shipped to Portsmouth on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel. Project Vitello II, the second phase, began with the arrival of the gun in Portsmouth and involved transporting the gun to the Duxford Aerodrome. The Royal Engineers not only reassembled the gun and its mount, but also constructed a base, shell pit, and parapet, with the operation completed in 1982. The Gibraltar Gun was inaugurated that year by Sir John Grandy, Chairman of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum.

The 9.2-inch Mark X breech-loading gun (pictured above) on display at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Aerodrome in England originated at Spur Battery in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. By 1914, more than one hundred of the guns had been installed at emplacements in strategic areas across the British Empire. However, by 1981, Gibraltar's 9.2-inch guns were the only remnants of a weapon that had at one time been mounted on numerous artillery batteries. [Two more 9.2 inch Mk X guns survive at Oliver's Battery, on Rottnest Island, Western Australia. As of 2012, one has been restored, the other is still awaiting restoration.] The Imperial War Museum's decision to preserve one of the weapons was based on its symbolism of Britain's links to Gibraltar since the turn of the eighteenth century, as well as its former status as the United Kingdom's most important gun for coastal defence.

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