Operation Tracer

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Do you know what immurement is? Its a form of execution that has been seen sporadically up to the twentieth century. Succinctly, you seal someone up in a confined space and leave them to die. The stories I’ve read usually involve castles that have a condemned person thrown into a room and then the exits/entrances to the room are walled up. The person is left in the dark to die of thirst and hunger. I believe there are a couple tales in classic literature (Poe?) about someone being ‘walled up’ or ‘walled in’, in a similar manner.

But..those were unwilling participants. Could you imagine a circumstance under which you’d pick a half dozen men to volunteer to willingly be entombed in a concrete bunker…sealed in….with several years worth of supplies and the instructions that they remain sealed in until their jobs were done? Such is…Operation Tracer.

NATO had Gladio, the Nazis had Werewolf, and apparently the Brits has operation Tracer…a plan for some ‘stay behinds’ to, well, stay behind and monitor ship movements from the tactical advantage Gibraltar offered.

Turned out the plan was never activated because the Axis never took over Gibraltar. The secret bunker was sealed up and glossed over and disappeared from history and into legend. Until some spelunkers investigating rumours re-discovered it.

The concept is fascinating, of course. But what I’m more curious about is what you put on the shopping list when you’re pitting six guys into a sealed box for,at least, a year. This exercise is actually not much different than planning for a space mission or a submarine tour, I suppose. But, nonetheless, I find it fascinating and thought I would share.

We joke about bunkers around here, but it’s interesting to note that some people not only planned to make a hidden bunker but actually planned to be entombed within it like some sort of military Houdini-esque escape trick.

11 thoughts on “Operation Tracer”

  1. The initial plan included placing five people inside for a period of one year and providing them with all the necessary food. However, this was then changed to placing six people in the rock and providing them with provisions for a period of seven years.
    Think about that up to seven years with only 1940’s British tinned food with six other guys in a room 45 ft x 16 ft x 8 ft!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tracer

    https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/operation-tracer-british-cavemen.html

    https://www.visit-andalucia.com/one_post.php?id=304&title=operation-tracer-and-the-stay-behind-tunnels

    https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/06/operation-tracer-secret-plan-to-bury.html

  2. the psyche test would have to be key. How do you plan for someone not to go postal on their comrades after that long of a period? In my old age I can’t stand to be around even my own family for longer than a few hours now and I’m sure they feel the same about me. We used to go in together on a San Diego beach house for 5 days and I had to bow out due to the constant bickering that I can’t stand.

    Best line ever. Once in a while I train an apprentice for a few weeks or months at a time before they make journeyman (it’s a four year program). They ride with me while I teach them the ropes in my specialty. One guy was doing pretty well but when he wasn’t keeping up, I would channel my lifer chief master sergeant father, think R. Lee Ermey, and ride his ass pretty good just like I was trained.

    Later on the conversation drifted towards carry guns and I asked why he didn’t bring his gun with him in his bag. This was when it was semi-legal to do so (sort of) before the company banned them on company property or in vehicles.

    He said ‘…if I had a gun with me I would have shot you by now…’

    • I for one would not want to spend any time at all with any one who could/would pass this test.

  3. Poe’s classic is The Cask Of Amontillado.

    I have met a very few people in life to whom I would like to serve such a rare vintage.

  4. The film classic version of the same fate is the backstory intro to The Canterville Ghost, starring Captain Bligh and Marcus Welby. 😉

  6. Interesting.
    There are also rumors of people mostly walled in, with waste disposal and a slot for food
    Not quite the same, but close enough for psychology purposes…

  7. There was a Twilight Zone episode on this with Sid Caesar and Imogene Cocoa. I won’t spoil the ending, but it was classic TZ.

  9. There was a film made with Peter Sellers with a story like that The Blockhouse [1973]
    It claims to be a true story but when you look into it it turns out that one reporter was told by two unknown people that he had just got out of a bunker after years. That is all the details the reporter had, and the men just walked away, in West Berlin, never to be heard from again.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blockhouse
    I watched the DVD, that’s time I will never get back again. They never try to get out, and burn hundreds of candles at ones, as you would, so have to then spend years in the dark.

  10. “Stay-Behind Troops” are only Useful if they can Observe and Report on the Enemy, and/or Sabotage them. A Good, well-supplied Bunker would be a part of that Strategy, but the Idea that the Troops would Hide for more than even a Month after the Enemy had taken over the Area is ridiculous.

    For the best, First-Person account of a Soldier doing this, read “My 30-Year War” by Japanese Army Lt. Hiro Onada. Ordered to “Stay Behind, Observe and Report” as the Army left one of the Philippine Islands. He got so far “Into It” that after the Last of his Men had been Killed, He stuck with his Assignment, in spite of All Evidence that the War had Ended, Years Ago. His Brother had to Find one of the Officers from his Unit, to Give Him Orders to End the Mission.

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