3-053-504 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Civil War in Spain: sandbag battery for the defence of Alicante, 1873. Illustration '...from a sketch by Lieutenant G. B. Bromley, of H.M.S. Endymion, which shows the interior of one of the defenders' sandbag batteries. This battery was placed just outside the old Moorish tower, at the entrance to the steps which lead up to the fort on the hill. It was armed with two 24-pounders, one 18-pounder, and a 7-in. mortar, which were all brought down from the fort above. Several shells from the attacking ships burst near the battery, but none struck it; and the men in the battery got shelter easily beneath the archway of the east gate. Whenever they saw the flash of the enemy's guns, they rushed to the archway and lay down there. Their magazine was also placed in safety there, consisting of a small chest upon a truck. The guns were simply placed on stout planks, strengthened with cross-pieces, and were "chocked up" with stones put beneath them. In the view sketched by our correspondent, an hour or two after the bombardment, we see the three Intransigente ships in the distance, going off westward; the French, English, and Prussian squadrons have approached the shore, and are shown lying at anchor'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.