Jersey

Occupation
Trail

CONTENTS
P2 introduction

P3 map - section 1

P4 map - section 2

P5 map - section 3

P6 map - section 4

P7 St helier map

P8 St helier map directions

P9 map directions
Introduction

The Island of Jersey today bears many scars from Germany’s Section 1 (page 3)
five-year military occupation of the Channel Islands during Section 2 (page 4)
World War II. Hitler demanded the Islands be turned into
‘impregnable fortresses’, resulting in the allocation of 20% of
material from the Atlantikwall (Atlantic Wall) project, a line
of massive defence works which stretched from the Baltic
to the Spanish frontier. German forces and slave labourers
constructed an inordinate amount of tunnels, concrete
bunkers and fortifications - out of all proportion to the Islands’
strategic value. Their remains represent a remarkable window
to a period almost unimaginable in the present day.

How to use the Occupation Trail Map

STEP 1 Print pages 3, 4, 5 and 6
STEP 2 Cut out only the edges marked with a dotted line
STEP 3 Puzzle all four pages and stick them together Section 3 (page 5)
STEP 4 Print page 7 and 8 for the St Helier map
Section 4 (page 6)
STEP 5 Print page 9 for directions to all occupation sites

To speak to us, call: +44 (0)1534 448877

or go online: www.jersey.com/walking
Jersey Tourism Visitor Centre, Liberation Place, St Helier, Jersey JE1 1BB
Email: info@jersey.com Fax: +44 (0)1534 448898

P2 INTRODUCTION
 19 MP3 naval artillery direction
and range-finding tower, Rouge Nez
The third of 3 direction and range-finding towers built on the Jersey coast,
out of a planned total of nine. MP3 mounted a huge radar aerial of the Freya
type on its roof. Stand in front of the tower and look over the brink of the
cliff, and at low tide you can spot a jumble of metal – the remnants of the big
guns dumped over the cliff and into the sea after the war. Several were later
retrieved and are now on display – for example, at Moltke Battery (No 18).
16 Anti-tank wall in several sections, St Ouen’s Bay
Coastal Panzermauern or anti-tank walls were installed where defensively weak
points had been identified. In the case of the west coast of Jersey there were some
5 miles of open beach backed by dunes and farmland to defend, and here the forced
and slave workers built five distinct sections of Panzermauern, PzM 1 – PzM 5. These
walls are now over 60 years old, and have been patched and renewed throughout;
but you can spot plenty of original sections with sloping face and outcurving top
whose wartime concrete with its steel core still resists wind and weather.
21 Case mates, Gr
Sheltered between its headland
the most popular north coast b
It was the presence of those he
Germans to fortify the beach a
‘Strongpoint Grève de Lecq’ h
concrete casemate for a 7.5cm
Romany Café, while around the
anti-tank casemate for a 10.5c
18 Moltke Battery, Les Landes gear turns out on close inspec
This German army battery was installed on the Les Landes heath a double duty as a reinforced sh
in the spring of 1941. Its four 15.5cm guns, captured French 20 Reinforced F ield Position and
artillery pieces, commanded the sea approaches to St Ouen’s
Bay. They were all dumped over the cliffs at Rouge Nez after
searchlight shelter, Plémont Bay
the war. The gun that points out to sea from its emplacement The 19th-century guardhouse, built to combat invasion by the
today is one of the originals, raised from the ‘elephant’s French, was adapted into a Reinforced Field Position covering
graveyard’ in the 1990s, along with other salvaged coastal the craggy promontory of La Tête de Plémont and the bays
artillery pieces, also on display nearby. Moltke Battery’s labyrinth on either side. Twin machine guns and mortar emplacement
of underground bunkers have been dug out and restored by were backed by searchlights. An observation post occupied
the Channel Islands Occupation Society. Walking across the the tower at the cliff edge, while down below a Napoleonic
flowering heath with lark song overhead is a strange and barracks was taken over, providing cover with a searchlight.
poignant experience. The shelter tunnel still carries its steel rails. The metal rim
of a 3.7cm tank turret, captured from the French army and
1 7 ‘Strongpoint’ L’ Etacquerel mounted here, stands beyond at the edge of the cliff.
Strongpoint L’Étacquerel was established as part of the series
of works built by the Todt Organisation using slave and forced 20
labour that would have defended St Ouen’s Bay in the event of
an Allied invasion. A massive concrete bunker now in use as a
fish market sits on a promontory of rock overlooking Le Pulec 19
Bay (known locally as ‘Stinky bay’). In the cliff face behind
you’ll find a concrete casemate that held a 10.5cm coastal 18 21
gun. A system of tunnels connected this bunker and others in
the cliffs with a searchlight shelter on the clifftop above.
17
15 10.5 cm coastal gun casemate and Channel
Islands Military Museum, near Lewis’s Tower 15
Like the neighbouring casemate at Kempt Tower and many others round the
coasts of Jersey, Resistance Nest Lewis Tower housed a captured 10.5 cm 16 13
French field gun, which was sited to fire sideways across the beach and provide
flanking fire against Allied troops attacking from landing craft. The bunker now 14
houses the Channel Islands Military Museum, an excellent display of artefacts,
photographs and personal reminiscences, forming a powerful picture of life
under the German Occupation – often staffed by islanders with first-hand 12 11
experience of the Occupation. 10
P3 MAP - section 1

ase mates, Gr vé de Lecq
ed between its headlands, Grève de Lecq is one of
st popular north coast bathing beaches in Jersey.
he presence of those headlands that enabled the
s to fortify the beach against attack by creating
oint Grève de Lecq’ here. A solid reinforced
e casemate for a 7.5cm anti-tank stands near the
Café, while around the bay you can see another
k casemate for a 10.5cm gun. A store for fishing
rns out on close inspection to have performed
e duty as a reinforced shelter for a searchlight.
22 La Cr te fort, Bonne Nuit Bay
Clustered on its promontory between the gorgeous small
bays of Bonne Nuit and Le Havre Giffard, La Crête Fort (the
official summer residence of the Lieutenant-Governor
of Jersey) makes a dramatic and daunting spectacle. It
was built in the 1830s and equipped with 18-pounder
guns as a deterrent to the French, who were expected to
attempt a landing in Jersey. During the Occupation the
Germans refortified it as Resistance Nest Bonne Nuit Fort,
with anti-tank guns and heavy machine guns.
22
23
24
26
13 St Ou en’s Windmill, Gra ntez
The former windmill known as Moulin de la Campagne, the ‘mill in the
country’, looks out over the broad lowlands and sandy littoral of St Ouen’s
Bay. It forms a classic lookout spot – and so thought the Germans when
they established a howitzer battery, Batterie Ludendorff, immediately to
the east. Brought into service as an observation post for the battery,
the granite-built mill was armoured against attack, its upper half
was pierced with rectangular slit windows, and it was fitted with a
tall concrete cap whose slitted gallery gave a 360° field of vision.
1 1 Kernwerk Battle HQ, L’Aleval
All the many threads of defending occupied Jersey against an Allied attack,
from sea, land or sky, were controlled here, in the centre of the Island. It
comprised 6 bunkers, five of them disguised as houses. The bunker, at present
part of the Living Legend complex, was where the Festung Kommandant or
Fortress Commander had his Battle Station. The CO of Infantry Regiment
582’s command post was in the big bunker that stands in a field beside La
Rue du Coin Varin, disguised as a farmhouse complete with mock chimney.
To the east of L’Aleval lies the telecommunications bunker. To the west,
beside Le Mont de St Anastase, stand two more bunkers – one now part
of a house, the other now smothered in ivy and semi-derelict. In a field
to the left and right of the narrow lane connecting Le Grand Aleval with
Gigoulande are concrete mountings for a brace of 3.7cm anti-aircraft guns.
P4 MAP - section 2
10 Jersey War Tu nnels, St Lawrence
Jersey’s chief wartime tourist attraction comprises a really first class museum of the
German Occupation, housed in a complex of tunnels – Höhlgangsanlage 8 – near the centre
of the island.  These purpose-built tunnels, dug by forced and slave labourers from late
1941 onwards, were initially intended to act as a bombproof munitions barracks, but were
converted later in the war into a vast subterranean casualty receiving station in anticipation
of an Allied invasion.  The original operating theatre, store rooms, boiler room and telephone
exchange are on display, but most of the rooms now house exhibitions on successive stages
and themes of the war – the slide to conflict, the arrival of the Germans, life in Jersey
under Occupation, and the liberation of the Channel Islands on 9 May 1945. In among
the privation-generated recipes for home-made toothpaste (crushed cuttlefish and ivy),
coffee (grated and roasted parsnip), tobacco (dock leaves and rose petals) and Occupation
loaf (predominantly grated potato ‘flour’), the museum does not flinch from the seamier
and more questionable facet of Occupation. Jealous or spiteful neighbours denouncing each
other, poison pen notes, local girls ‘fraternising’ with the invaders, and the sad story of island
deportees who were swallowed up in Hitler’s terrible prisons and camps on mainland Europe. 
Personal testimonies, a huge collection of contemporary photos and artefacts all help bring
the extraordinary and lastingly traumatic story to life.
23 Commando memorial, Petit Port
A modest memorial slab on the cliff above Petit Port states:
‘This memorial is dedicated to the British and French commandos who took
part in Operation Hardtack 28 on 25th and 26th December 1943. The
Commanding Officer Captain P.A. Ayton was fatally wounded during the raid.’
There were few Allied commando raids into Jersey during the war. Neighbouring
Guernsey saw several, during which raiders were captured, or gave themselves
up, with little achieved. Evidently such incursions produced an unacceptable risk
for the islanders who had to shelter the raiders, and a collapse of the trust that
had grown up. One clandestine operation that did go ahead in Jersey, Operation
Hardtack 28, was an intelligence-gathering mission. But the commando force
that landed in Petit Port bay on Christmas Day 1943 found those islanders they
encountered suspicious, defensive about their relationship with the Germans, and
unwilling to provide useful information. As they returned empty-handed to their
boats the Commanding Officer of the party, Captain P.A. Ayton, stepped on a
land-mine and was mortally wounded. It was another abortive and unproductive
undercover mission to the Channel Islands, and they were soon discontinued.

14 10.5cm coastal gun casemate, near Kempt Tower
Across the sea wall sits Resistance Nest Kempt Tower, a big solid casemate
which was equipped with a 10.5cm French artillery piece captured in June
1940 as the German Army swept unstoppably though the Low Countries
and northern France. A century before the German Occupation of Jersey,
British military strategists had identified the broad, sandy St Ouen’s Bay with
its low-lying hinterland as the most likely place for the French invasion that
they feared and anticipated – hence their construction in 1834 of Kempt
Tower, the granite-built Martello tower that stands just inland. The Germans
in their turn thought St Ouen’s Bay the Allies’ most probable choice for a
landing, and defended it with two strong points, nine resistance nests and
anti-tank walls along the shore, as well as anti-tank ditches, machine-gun
and mortar bunkers and more anti-tank guns across the hinterland.
9 10.5cm coastal defence gu n case mate,
a nd 4.7cm a nti-ta nk case mate, La Carri re
The two massive bunkers that loom over the anti-tank wall at La Tête du Nièr
Côte on So Ouen’s Bay, together with a heavy machine gun post, a personnel
shelter and a searchlight bunker, comprised Resistance Point La Carrière. If push
had ever come to shove, they would have been an extremely hard nut to crack.
Walking round them on Open Days, you get the impression of impregnability
– deep-sunk control rooms, rubber-sealed anti-gas doors, an MG34 machine
gun covering the entrance from a fortified room, and big artillery pieces that
could throw a 35-lb shell seven miles. It is a matter for thankfulness that no Allied
assault was mounted against the Channel Islands, but the sheer size and solidity
of these defences give off a powerful whiff of Hitler’s paranoia.
5 4 3
9
6
8
7
4 Gunsite Café, Beau mont
The Gunsite Café is a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee, staring through
the wide picture windows at the sea. It was a different story during the
Second World War, when this building was a reinforced field casemate
for a 10.5cm coastal defence gun. It differed from most bunkers of the
same type, in that the guns in their 90° traverse, instead of covering
the beach alongside, were sited so as to fire seaward. A section of anti-
tank wall, similar to that at La Haule just west along the bay (see 5).
8 ‘Strongpoint Corbi re’ fortifications, La Corbi re
Approaching the dip of the road to the La Corbière lighthouse, look to your left
to see MP2, second of Jersey’s three direction and range-finding towers for
artillery (see Nos 7 and 19). Each ‘floor’ of observers had a different fall of shells
to spot. On the right, a little way off the track from the car park towards the
lighthouse causeway, is a 10.5cm casemate bunker containing its original coastal
defence gun – rare nowadays, as most metal items were salvaged during post-
war scrap metal drives. The First World War gun was captured from the French
during the German Army’s Blitzkrieg drive through Europe in 1940. Photographs,
displays and historic war materials form a fascinating exhibition. Nearer the
track on the right lies the camouflaged bulk of the M19 Fortress Mortar
Bunker. It housed a rare type of mortar, an expensive and complicated automatic
model that could fire 120 rounds a minute. Inside their protective casemate of
concrete over 6 feet thick, where crew would have felt all but invulnerable. The
armoured doors alone weighed three-quarters of a ton each. A tunnel through the
hillside led from the Mortar Bunker to the heavy machine gun bunker on the slope
above. Further on down the road from the Mortar Bunker, look ahead to see a 7 Lothringen Battery, Noirmont Point
large, grey bunker – this was a shelter for a searchlight and its crew.
Noirmont Point lies at the tip of the most southerly peninsula on the
south-west coast of Jersey, and commands a field of fire over nearly 360°
1 2 Heavy machine-gun turret bunker, of sea. Remains of Lothringen Battery, installed from March 1941 onward,
lie all over the headland. Three 15cm naval guns were sited here, with a
Val de la Mare, St Ouen forth added later. Restored bunkers and gun positions on the eastern side
A massive steel turret, cupola-shaped and nearly 30 feet tall, still stands in place of Noirmont Point are connected by a ‘fortification trail’. The Lothringen
within this very cleverly-camouflaged machine-gun bunker. Of the original nine Battery Command Post has been developed by the Channel Islands
turrets installed in Jersey, this is one of only two that survived the scrap metal Occupation Society as an excellent small museum. Various guns and a
hunt after the war. The bunker that contains this huge shield holds an MG-34 range-finder have been placed in position across this part of the headland,
type machine gun and several other fittings. As you look out of the loopholes, and below on the cliff edge you will find the tall, brooding shape of MP1,
imagination supplies the picture of what the scene would have been had Allied a direction and range-finding tower whose four slit-eyed platforms face
troops attempted an invasion of the island across the fields inland of St Ouen’s Bay. seaward. An Oerlikon flak gun on the roof gave anti-aircraft protection.
P5 MAP - section 3
 2 5
24 Jersey Turbot bunker’, St Catherine
The east coast stronghold known to the Germans as ‘Resistance
Nest Mole Verclut’ lies against the landward end of the
breakwater at the north end of St Catherine’s Bay – another
potential landing place for an Allied raid on Occupied Jersey.
1 St Helier This casemate was fitted with a captured 10.5cm French
See page 6 field gun, similar to others in Jersey (see 14, 15 and 17), but
adapted to fit against the cliff, with a rock tunnel connecting
the ‘business end’ of the casemate with the interior bunker.
2 Hear local fisherman has established Jersey Turbot, rearing
turbot in tanks inside the bunker tunnel system. Guided tours
of the bunker and tunnels are available to visitors on request.

6 German tunnels, St Aubi 25 Observation towers on Mont Orgu eil Castle,

These days bicycles are for hire in the well-lit depths of Hohlgangsanlage 5, one of
16 storage tunnels planned, half-constructed or actually finished by the Germans
in Jersey. The hard rock and steep slopes of the island made for excellent tunnelling
conditions, and the Occupiers planned to store vast quantities of war materials here,
safe from Allied raids. Ho5 was developed from a 19th-century train tunnel which
had originally brought granite from the quarries at La Corbière to the harbour. The
Germans enlarged it as a store for fuel, but in the event it was ammunition that was
stockpiled here. You can walk a little way down the tunnel, where rusting rails still
line the floor and old wartime doorways stand sunk into the walls.
a nd bu nker house on Gorey Harbour
Climbing up to the summit of Mont Orgueil Castle, you will find as you emerge onto the roof a cluster
of capped towers that are obviously not of medieval origin. These reinforced concrete caps with their
slit apertures were observation posts, established up here by the Germans to utilise the high vantage
point of the castle, in hopes that their presence would be camouflaged by the existing structure of the
medieval stronghold. Down below, towards the seaward end of the multi-coloured run of charming
houses lining Gorey Harbour, sharp eyes will spot the many inset frames of a slit-like window in the
frontage of No. 14 – a clue to its former status as a bunker.

26 Victoria Tower, Anne Port (National Trust for Jersey)

Victoria Tower was built in 1837 to the well-tried pattern of a Martello Tower, in order to safeguard
Ann Port from a possible French landing. The tower was armed with a 32-pounder cannon mounted
on the roof, and crewed by a garrison of five men. When the Germans occupied Jersey they fortified
the existing tower as an observation and command post with machine guns, flame-throwers and a
searchlight, along with shelters for men and ammunition. Three deep bunkers were excavated here
to house the communications equipment and troops of the 2nd Battalion, Artillery Regiment 3. These
are in the care of the National Trust for Jersey, which plans to enlist the help of the Channel Islands
5 Anti-tank wall, Beaumont Occupation Society in opening them to the public.

This is an example of one of the sections of

anti-tank wall built by the slave labourers of
the Todt Organisation at vulnerable points
round the west, south and east coasts of
Jersey. These Panzermauern were built in
various styles, but the overall purpose was
the same – to construct a reinforced concrete
rampart impossible to surmount by tanks
coming ashore from Allied landing craft. The
isolated section of wall at La Haule – part
of Panzermauern 7, the anti-tank wall that
faced the long beach around St Aubin’s Bay
- stands nearly 20 feet high, and is bedded
on foundations that go down 6 feet below
the beach and extend east to link with the
next segment of PzM 7. The seaward face is
concave and bulges even further outwards at
the top, presenting a barrier that wheeled or
tracked vehicles could not pass and attacking
soldiers could not climb.
3 Anti-tank gun casemate
Millbrook, St Lawrence
This bunker, known as ‘Resistance Nest Millbrook’, is typical of
dozens built around Channel Island coasts. When the Channel
Islands Occupation Society gained access in the 1980s, they
found original wiring, winches, coat pegs, ventilation system,
anti-gas air pumps still in situ. The 4.7cm anti-tank gun is
uncommon in the islands - a Czechslovakian Pak K36(t). It was
2 Fortifications at Elizabeth Castle, St Aubin’s Bay
protected from incoming fire by an armoured shield 4 inches The mighty Tudor stronghold of Elizabeth Castle dominates the entrance to St Helier Harbour from its rocky islet in St Aubin’s
thick in the exterior wall of the casemate that could be raised Bay. Added to and re-fortified over the centuries, it has always been a vital key in the defence of the island’s capital, which the
or lowered by winch. The spent shells were ejected down a occupying Germans recognised. At the top of the castle a command post in the form of a squat cylindrical tower overlooks the
tube, and into a chamber situated below the gun room. A heavy Tudor fortifications. In two separate sites at the base of the castle a sunken ‘roadway’ emerges from a thick concrete shelter – this
machine gun backed up the anti-tank weapon, for flanking was the track on which a moveable searchlight could be pulled out on rails to illuminate any attack. Stark, square and massive,
fire over the beach. The stronghold was sited by the German a free-standing bunker survives near the water’s edge – from this post the St Helier Harbour minefield could be electronically
engineers so as to block off the slipway, whose granite paving detonated in the event of an attack. Two metal tank turrets sheltered observers, and you can see the heavily fortified bunkers of
slabs were dug up and used to camouflaged the casemate. Resistance Nest Nord and Sud, sited to defend the adjacent beaches north and south of the castle.
P6 MAP - section 4
ST Helier map

‘When Winston Churchill came to the part:

“Our Dear Channel Islands are to be freed today”
everybody in the road began to cheer like mad.’
Maurice Gautier, Islander and Occupation veteran

‘We remember all our mothers and fathers who

sacrificed so much for us during the Occupation.’
Jean Bonhomme, Islander

1 St Helier
St Helier, capital town of Jersey, was naturally a focus
of activity during the Second World War, with many
Occupation sites and memorials to be discovered.
Here is a selection:

A Victory ‘V’ and SS Vega memorial, Albert Pier

On the retaining wall of Albert Pier, St Helier Harbour
The Albert Pier in St Helier Harbour carries several concrete bunkers,
now either empty or in use for storage. There are plaques in the pier wall
recording the departure of the Royal Militia on 20 June 1940 during the
demilitarisation of the Channel Islands, and the deaths of 8 islanders in
a German air raid.
Half-way along the pier, a big gold-encrusted ‘V for Victory’ is let into the
wall beside a plaque commemorating the arrival here on 30 December
1944 of the Swedish Red Cross ship SS Vega. Six months had passed since
the Islands had been bypassed during the Normandy landings. Supplies
had been completely cut off. Conditions were dreadful, with almost no
food, medicine and other necessities. Negotiations between the British,
German and International Red Cross finally resulted in the Vega being
allowed through. The German garrison, just as hungry as those they were
guarding, had to watch as the ecstatic Islanders carried off the parcels
from the ship – chocolate, tinned milk, raisins, dried egg, sugar.
‘God, we were happy,’ remembers Gerald Le Marrec, 11 years old at the
time. ‘Maple Leaf cheese, Klim milk, cans of salmon, jam, Smiles and
Chuckles chocolate… see, I’ve never forgotten them! Every person had a
parcel. We felt sorry for the German soldiers, though – they had nothing.’

P7 st helier MAP
ST Helier map
B Occupation Tapestry, New North Quay
On display at the Maritime Museum on New North Quay 01534 633372
www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/sites/maritime/maritime.html)
The Occupation Tapestry, a work of art that echoes the Bayeux Tapestry
(Battle of Hastings) and the Overlord Embroidery (D-Day landings), is a
wonderful achievement. Its twelve panels took 4 years of painstaking
crafting, each panel created by volunteer needleworkers from one of
Jersey’s 12 parishes to depict the story of the Occupation. Panel 1 (Trinity
Parish) shows the build-up to the outbreak of war, Panel 2 (Grouville)
German troops marching through St Helier on 1 July 1940, Panel 3
(St Helier) a clandestine session with a crystal set and the BBC, Panel 4
(St Peter) some wartime transport – a gas-powered van, a baker’s
horse and cart. Panel 5 (St Saviour) demonstrates the shifts the
Islanders were put to – queueing, patching clothes, hiding a pig from
the German farm inspector; Panel 6 (St Lawrence) shows Jersey
schoolchildren learning German and riding on a German army lorry,
Panel 7 (St Ouen) Nazi propaganda films at the cinema, and Panel 8
(St Brelade) two sides of the coin – collaborators, and also loyal Islanders
daubing road signs with ‘V for Victory’. Panel 9 (St Mary) depicts
concentration camp prisoners and deportees, Panel 10 (St John) the
Normandy horizon in flames on D-Day, Panel 11 (St Martin) the starving
Germans watching Islanders unloading Red Cross parcels from SS Vega
(see ‘A’, above), and the final panel (St Brelade) shows the liberation
of Jersey on 9 May 1945.
The Occupation Tapestry was unveiled by the Prince of Wales on Liberation
Day, 9 May 1995, the 50th anniversary of the Island’s liberation.
C Monu ment to Freedom, Liberation Square
Known as the Liberation Sculpture, this very fine monument to freedom
caused huge controversy in the island. The original design of the sculptor,
Philip Jackson FRSS – seven islanders waving a UK flag - was altered by the
Occupation and Liberation Committee of the States of Jersey to show a
group of doves being released as a symbol of peace. This drew the cynical
observation that far from releasing the doves, islanders suffering wartime
deprivations would have had them for dinner. When unveiled by the Prince
of Wales on 9 May 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of the
Channel Islands, the sculpture had had its flag reinstated, and one of figures
had become a British soldier. But are the Islanders joyously unfurling the
flag, or clinging onto it, or throwing it away?
‘There was no discussion about whether to help
the escaped labourers or not. They just
couldn’t help themselves.’
Stella Perkins, Islander and Occupation veteran,
recognised by Russia for assisting slave workers
‘I shall never forget the kindness shown
to me and the other slave workers
by the people of Jersey.’
John Dalmau, Spanish forced labourer
‘I thought that if I was going to be
killed, I would rather be killed for
a sheep than a lamb.’
Albert Bedine, Islander, recognised by Israel
as ‘Righteous Among Nations’ for saving the life
of a Jewish woman
D Pomme D’Or Hotel, Liberation Square
0870 486 7462 www.pommedorhotel.com
The Pomme D’Or Hotel stands along the north side of Liberation Square.
One of Jersey’s best-known hotels, when the Germans occupied the island
in July 1940 it was commandeered and used from then on as the German
Naval Headquarters in the Channel Islands. One of the best-known series
of wartime photographs, on display inside the hotel, shows the scenes at
the Pomme D’Or on 9 May 1945. A huge crowd packed the square in front
of the hotel to hear speeches from local dignitaries and British officers
gathered on the balcony, and to see the German swastika flag pulled down
and replaced by a Union Jack.
E Victory ‘V’, Royal Square
Hidden among the paving stones of Royal Square – look carefully!
Penalties for defying the Occupation forces or engaging in acts of
subversion were severe. The Jersey islanders, nevertheless, found many
individual ways of expressing their recalcitrance. A careful inspection
of the paving stones in Royal Square reveals the shape of a large ‘V
for Victory’. It was laid there during the latter stages of the war by
St Helier stonemason Joseph Marie Le Guyader under cover of repair work
he was carrying out to the pavement of the square – a witty, cheeky
raspberry blown at the invaders, right under the heels of their jackboots.
P8 st helier map directions
F Pavement quotations, Charing Cross
Sunk into the pavement at intervals along York Street and Charing
Cross.
Several of the paving stones along the city centre thoroughfares of York
Street and Charing Cross are inscribed with quotes from eyewitnesses to
the German Occupation (reproduced around the rim of this map). They range
from islanders to prisoners-of-war and slave labourers, and together make
a powerful and memorable statement about the resilience and generosity
of the human spirit in times of desperation.
G Freedom Tree, St Helier Waterfront
Behind the SAS Radisson Hotel near the Elizabeth Marina
On 9 May 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Channel
Islands, HRH Queen Elizabeth II unveiled Richard Perry’s striking Freedom
Tree sculpture. The bronze tree stands 20 feet tall and carries 30 oak
leaves and twelve acorns – one for each of the parishes of Jersey. It stands
in a granite-paved public space named La Pièche de L’Av’nîn, the Place of
the Future. This name, and the symbolism of the tree as an emblem of
fresh growth and continuity, point Jersey away from the past while still
acknowledging its power and presence.
‘There was no discussion about whether to help
the escaped labourers or not. They just
couldn’t help themselves.’
Stella Perkins, Islander and Occupation veteran,
recognised by Russia for assisting slave workers
‘I have to do something for
another woman’s son.’
Louisa Gould, Islander, who perished at Ravensbruck having
been denounced for hiding an escaped slave worker
‘All we could think of was that every
day we were alive was a bonus.’
Vincente Gasulla Sole, Spanish forced labourer
MAP DIRECTIONS
2 Fortifications at Eliza beth Castle,
St Au bin’s Bay
Access at low tide on foot along the causeway from West Park
slipway or by ferry 01534 638888
3 Anti-ta nk gu n case mate, Millbrook,
St Lawrence
Off Victoria Avenue, the St Aubin’s Bay coast road, near the east
end of Coronation Park. Opening times: see www.ciosjersey.org.uk
4 Gu nsite Café, Beau mont
Gunsite slipway on St Aubin’s Bay, on La Route de la Haule in
St Lawrence. Café 01534 735806
5 Anti-ta nk wall, Beau mont
Near La Haule slipway on St Aubin’s Bay, halfway between the
Gunsite Café and St Aubin’s Harbour
6 Germa n tu nnels, St Au bin
Behind St Aubin’s Harbour, on Railway Walk - just behind the
NatWest Bank on the corner at the bottom of High Street.
Now the premises of Jersey Cycletours bike hire 01534 482898
7 Lothringen Battery, Noirmont Point
From St Aubin or St Brelade, follow A13, then B57 to Noirmont
Point. Underground Command Bunker Museum: opening times,
see www.ciosjersey.org.uk
8 ‘Strongpoint Corbi re’ fortifications,
La Corbi re
A13, B44 from St Brelade; turn left on B83 (La Route Du Sud)
to La Corbière. Where B83 bends right above the lighthouse, park
in the parking place on the left. MP2 Observation Tower, 10.5cm
casemate bunker and M19 Fortress Mortar Bunker: opening times,
see www.ciosjersey.org.uk You can hire MP2 Tower (known as La
Corbière Radio Tower) as self-catering accommodation.
www.jerseyheritage.com
9 Coastal gu n case mate, a nd a nti-ta nk
case mate, La Carriere
Astride the anti-tank wall to left of B35 ‘Five Mile Road’, 1 mile
north of La Pulente (car park adjacent). Opening times:
see www.ciosjersey.org.uk
10 Jersey War Tu nnels, St Lawrence
At Les Charrières Malorey in St Lawrence parish; follow the signs
from A11 at Tesson Mill in St Peter’s Valley. Opening times and details
01534 860808 www.jerseywartunnels.com
11 K ernwerk Battle HQ, L’Aleval
Around the premises of the Living Legend visitor attraction
at Le Grand Aleval, at junction of C124 and C112 just north
of Le Coin Varin.
12 Heavy machine-gu n turret bu nker,
Val de la Mare, St Ouen
Opposite Sunset Nurseries and Tropical Bird Garden, on La Rue du
Moulin behind St Ouen’s Bay.Opening times: see www.ciosjersey.org.uk
13 St Ouen’s Windmill, Gra ntez
Off Rue du Couvent, a narrow lane connecting C106
(Le Mont Rossignol) and B64 (La Route du Marais)
14 Coastal gu n case mate, near K e mpt Tower
Off B35 La Grande Route des Mielles (‘Five Mile Road’); car park near
foot of C106, Le Chemin de l’Ouziere.
15 Coastal gu n case mate a nd Military
Museu m, near Lewis’s Tower
Off B35 La Grande Route des Mielles (‘Five Mile Road’), opposite
Jersey Pearl at the northern end of St Ouen’s Bay. Channel Islands
Military Museum 01534 723136
16 Anti-ta nk wall in several sections,
St Ouen’s Bay
In the north of St Ouen’s Bay around Lewis and Kempt Towers,
and towards the south around Le Braye and La Carrière
17 ‘Strongpoint’ L’ Etacquerel
Where B35 bends sharp right and climbs from the coast at the
north end of St Ouen’s Bay
18 Moltke Battery, Les La ndes
On B55 St Ouen’s Bay to Plémont Bay road, ‘Battery Moltke’ sign
points to car park for Les Landes and the coast path to Rouge Nez
tower (see No. 19). Coast path also leads to Les Landes and Rouge
Nez from bend in B35 road, marked ‘Cliff path to Grosnez’, just above
L’Étaquerel (No. 17). Opening times: see www.ciosjersey.org.uk
P9 MAP directions
19 MP3 tower, Rouge Nez
Directions: see No. 18
20 Reinforced F ield Position a nd searchlight
shelter, Plémont Bay
Off B55 at Plémont Bay; parking place just beyond the holiday
camp at the end of C105 road
21 Case mates, Gr ve de Lecq
B40 (‘Le Mont de Sainte Marie’) and B65 (‘Le Mont de la Grève
de Lecq’) converge on Grève de Lecq beach
22 La Cr te fort, Bonne Nuit Bay
B63 (off A8/A9) leads to a car park at its junction with Le Rue
des Platons; from here footpaths lead down to the shore and
La Crête Fort. You can hire the fort as a self-catering property
from Jersey Heritage Trust www.jerseyheritagetrust.org
23 Comma ndo me morial, Petit Port
Footpath from Les Camps du Chemin on C97, off A8 a mile north
of Trinity, leads down to Petit Port and the memorial
24 Jersey Turbot bu nker’, St Catherine
On the right of B29 just before it loops back on itself opposite
St Catherine’s Breakwater. Jersey Turbot opening times and tours:
01534 868836; www.genuinejersey.com/member pages/turbot
25 Observation towers on Mont Orgueil Castle,
a nd bu nker house on Gorey Harbour
A3 from St Helier through Grouville to Gorey. Bunker house
is No. 14, one from the seaward end along the pier Mont Orgueil
Castle Opening times, see www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/sites/orgueil
or 01534 633375
26 Victoria Tower, Anne Port
(National Trust for Jersey)
Where B28 and B30 meet just north of Gorey, bear right down
narrow lane past La Haut de la Garenne and Seymour Farm. Less
than half a mile from Gorey Harbour on foot. You can hire Victoria
Tower from the National Trust for barbecues, picnicking or parties
www.nationaltrustjersey.org.je