page_title: Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar
section_title: Assault on the east side
hierarchical_section_title: Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar / Siege / Assault on the east side
caption_attribution_description: English: Route taken up the Rock of Gibraltar by 500 soldiers of the besieging Spanish Army led by the goatherd Simón Susarte. Español: Ruta mostrada por el pastor Simón Susarte a las tropas españolas en el primer asedio a Gibraltar (1704)
context_page_description: The Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar was fought between September 1704 and May 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession. It followed the capture in August 1704 of the fortified town of Gibraltar, at the southern tip of Spain, by an Anglo–Dutch naval force led by Sir George Rooke and Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt. The members of the Grand Alliance, Holy Roman Empire, England, the Netherlands, Pro-Habsburg Spain, Portugal and the Savoy, had allied to prevent the unification of the French and Spanish thrones by supporting the claim of the Habsburg pretender Archduke Charles VI of Austria as Charles III of Spain. They were opposed by the rival claimant, the Bourbon Philip, Duke of Anjou, ruling as Philip V of Spain, and his patron and ally, Louis XIV of France. The war began in northern Europe and was largely contained there until 1703, when Portugal joined the confederate powers. From then, English naval attentions were focused on mounting a campaign in the Mediterranean to distract the French navy and disrupt French and Bourbon Spanish shipping or capture a port for use as a naval base. The capture of Gibraltar was the outcome of that initial stage of the Mediterranean campaign.
context_section_description: The Bourbon Spanish, meanwhile, were planning to carry out a surprise attack. Simón Susarte, a Spanish goatherd who had fled Gibraltar after its capture by Rooke a few months earlier, told Villadarias that there was a secret route by which the east side of the Rock of Gibraltar could be scaled. It required a climb of around 400 metres (1,300 ft), of which the upper section was near-vertical, but was passable with the use of rope and ladders via the Great Sand Dune. As the east side was considered virtually impregnable, only the west side was fortified; if the Rock could be climbed from the east, an attacker could evade the fortifications and descend directly into the town. The route was reconnoitred and found to be passable by a lightly armed force.
  Villadarias decided to send a force of 2,000 men – nearly a third of his entire army – divided into two groups: an initial force of 500 to seize the heights at night, followed by a further 1,500 the following daybreak. The first 500 set off at dusk on 11 November, led by a Colonel Figueroa and guided by Simón Susarte. They made it to the top of the Rock, reaching its southernmost peak near where O'Hara's Battery stands today, and descended part-way down the west side where they sheltered overnight in St. Michael's Cave. At daybreak they climbed the Philip II Wall, which extends up the west side of the Rock, and killed the English sentries in the lookout point at Middle Hill. A drummer boy bringing food to the lookout saw the invaders and raised the alarm.
  Hesse had anticipated some kind of attack from the rear and had kept a mobile force in reserve to guard against such an eventuality. It was formed by an English company, and two Spanish companies: a regular company under captain Francisco de Sandoval and a Catalan company of miquelets under Jaume Burguy, numbering 300 men, all of them led by Hesse's brother Heinrich. This reserve immediately responded and engaged the Spanish Bourbons at Middle Hill. Although the Bourbons had the advantage of height, they were effectively trapped against the precipice of the Rock and only had three rounds of ammunition each, as a result of travelling light; they had not come prepared for a pitched battle.
  The Spanish Habsburg force led by Captain Burguy, made up of  miquelets and regulars, marched ahead and dislodged the Spanish Bourbon grenadiers from the top of the hill. At the same time, Sandoval, with his remaining regulars and miquelets, charged upon the bulk of the assaulting force from one flank, while Heinrich von Hesse attacked from the other side. Around a hundred of the Bourbon force, including their colonel, were captured. Hundreds more were killed, either by defending fire or by falling off the Rock while attempting to flee. Only a few, including Simón Susarte, made it back to the Bourbon lines. The English subsequently ensured that there would be no repeat of this episode by blasting away the path used by the Spanish.
  The other 1,500 members of the Spanish force did not even set off to support the attack because, after the first 500 had left, Admiral Leake's squadron was sighted entering the bay with 20 ships. In the subsequent naval engagement, six French frigates were destroyed and a seventh ship was captured intact. Villadarias had apparently intended to carry out a multi-pronged attack but Leake's timely arrival meant that it fell apart. The French naval support for an assault on the moles evaporated, and a frontal assault via the isthmus – reinforced with the 1,500 men originally earmarked for the climb on the eastern side – failed entirely. Hesse's relief at Leake's timely arrival was evident in the letter that he sent the admiral after the battle, thanking him for turning up just as "the enemy were attacking us that very night of your entrance in many places at once with a great number of men."
  Leake had not brought many supplies to Gibraltar but provided what he could, and loaned Hesse the fleet's skilled manpower, of which the confederate garrison was desperately short. A labour force of some 500 men was assembled from 
caption: Route over the Rock of Gibraltar by the unsuccessful Bourbon surprise attack
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