About twenty-three years ago, an unusual chapter in British military history unfolded when a group of heavily armed Royal Marines, while executing a routine training exercise, invaded Spain.
It all started innocently enough. The Marines were tasked with conducting a mock landing exercise near Gibraltar–a key British overseas territory that has long been at the center of a diplomatic tug-of-war between the UK and Spain.
Gibraltar’s location at the entrance of the Mediterranean makes it a highly valued territory for both countries. Spain has claimed sovereignty over it for centuries.
Gibraltar came under British control in 1704 following an Anglo-Dutch invasion. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht later confirmed Gibraltar as a British possession in perpetuity.
Gibraltar was officially declared a British colony in 1830. In the late 1970s, a Spanish attempt to reclaim the territory through siege failed.
In 1967, a referendum was held in which the people of Gibraltar overwhelmingly voted to remain a British dependency. British citizenship was granted to all Gibraltarian citizens in 1981.
In 2002, Spain proposed shared sovereignty over the territory, but the people of Gibraltar decisively rejected this in another referendum.
Just a few months before this political development, an awkward incident brought the issue of Gibraltar back into the spotlight.
On February 17, 2002, a group of 30 British Marines aboard an amphibious landing craft were supposed to storm a beach on the rock of Gibraltar. The operation had been carefully planned and coordinated.
As planned, when the soldiers arrived at their target, they stormed the beach with their landing craft, then jumped out carrying 60mm mortars and SA80 assault rifles and took up defensive positions on the sand.
However, instead of being fired upon with blank rounds by fellow British soldiers acting as the enemy, the marines were met with puzzled stares from local fishermen.
This was because they had landed on the wrong beach, San Felipe Beach, in the Spanish town of La Linea, near the border with Gibraltar.
One of the fishermen reportedly approached the soldiers and said, “I think you’re at the wrong beach.”
Eventually, two officers in blue uniforms from La Linea’s municipal police arrived to inform the troops that their target was just a little further down the coast.
“They were told that they must have made a mistake. This sort of thing does not happen very often here,” a police spokesman in La Linea later revealed.
Following this embarrassment, the Marines quickly retreated and headed to locate the real Gibraltar. Locals pointed out that it was hard to miss, thanks to the impressive 1,398ft rock that jutted out prominently.
The Embarrassment And Aftermath Of The Accidental ‘Invasion’
When the news of the mishap first emerged, a spokesperson from the British Ministry of Defence told Reuters that the landing craft from HMS Ocean had accidentally strayed into Spanish territorial waters due to poor weather conditions.
They clarified that during the exercise, a landing craft intended to land in Gibraltar had veered off course and ended up just a few yards down the beach on the Spanish side.
The spokesperson expressed regret over the incident, stating that it had caused considerable “embarrassment” and that lessons had been learned from the mistake.
They also noted that local police had informed the marines of their error, and the soldiers only spent about five minutes on the beach before retreating.
To dispel any misconceptions, the spokesperson humorously added that the British military had no intention of taking over Spain and that no such plans existed. At the time, both Spain and the UK were members of the European Union (EU).
In 2017, Lord West, who was the First Sea Lord and Commander in Chief at the time of the incident, provided more insight into the blunder. Speaking on the BBC’s Today program, he admitted that it wasn’t one of the more memorable days of his career.
He recounted receiving a phone call from the military commander, who urgently informed him that something “awful” had happened. Upon hearing this, Lord West’s initial concern was heightened, and he inquired what had gone wrong.
To his surprise, the commander reported that the British forces had “invaded” Spain, though they didn’t think the Spanish had noticed.
Naturally, Lord West was skeptical and replied, “People always notice. Tell me exactly what happened.” The commander explained that the Marines had gotten lost while conducting a training exercise and mistakenly landed on the wrong beach.
Instead of reaching their intended spot in Gibraltar, they landed on a beach in Spain. As Royal Marines are highly skilled soldiers, they proceeded with their usual beach assault routine, only to be confronted by a Spanish fisherman who politely pointed out that they were on the wrong beach.
After that, the marines quickly retreated to their landing craft and left the area. Lord West immediately contacted the Foreign Office and the Governor of Gibraltar to inform them of the situation.
Fortunately, the incident was resolved without escalating tensions, though Lord West didn’t escape some good-natured ribbing from his colleagues.
He recalled being “teased mercilessly” after the event, with one particularly cheeky postcard sent by the heads of the Army and Air Force.
The card depicted an image of Gibraltar with two arrows: one labeled “ours,” pointing to the British side, and the other labeled “theirs,” pointing to Spain.
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