Monday evening saw the exceptionally well-attended launch of Gold Productions’ documentary, ‘Operation Tracer’. The film outlines the history of one of Gibraltar’s most well kept secrets, ‘stay behind cave’ and its use during the Second World War. The story follows the theoretical capture and invasion of Gibraltar by the Germans during World War II and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel’s plan to get buried alive inside the cave in order to spy on the Germans and report back to Radio London.

Speaking at the launch, Dr. Cortes, standing in for Culture Minister, Steven Linares, explained that he first heard of the cave from the GONHS cave unit after they discovered the cave on Boxing Day 1996.

The story of the was also recently told through a play entered into the Gibraltar Drama Festival by James Neish. Two relatives of one Naval Volunteer that was going to be buried in the cave also attended the launch. Dr. Cortes welcomed the relatives and insisted that they were very much part of Gibraltar’s heritage. The documentary was written by Alfonso Escuadra and narrated by Peter Canessa.

During his address at the launch, Martin noted that he had produced the film to honour Gibraltar’s history, and not for fame or fortune. The documentary was then shown to the audience, which included well-known local historians Tito Vallejo and Peter Jackson, who feature in the documentary.