The island of Guernsey has been fortified for several thousand years, the number of defence locations and complexity of the defence increasing with time, manpower and the improvements in weapons and tactics.
Being in the front line of many wars, invasion was almost always a threat and the best locations for defence were being constantly rebuilt with older constructions being re-used and improved.
1804 Martello Tower re-used within 1943 Stützpunkt Rotenstein, Fort Hommet
Early defences
The first form of defences comprised safe locations for the islanders to flee to in the event of an invasion. The headland at Jerbourg, the Castel fortress, the Chateau des Marais and the Vale Castle were probably the earliest.
Ivy Castle in 1826
The Jerbourg Point defences resembled an Iron Age fort, it comprises a series of ditches and banks across the neck of the headland, providing a short defensive wall behind which the people could retreat in times of danger. Dating from 2,000 B.C. the Jerbourg defence of three ditches was improved, firstly with stone reinforcing[1]:99 and later with wooden platforms, palisades and a tower, however it fell to French invaders in 1338.
Nothing remains of the Castel fortress, apart from the parish name "Castel", or castle. It is suspected to date from Roman or Viking times and is thought to be located under the parish church.
Chateau des Marais, also called locally "Ivy Castle" built in a swamp, a "marais", using the natural wetland, supplemented with banks and ditches for defence built in the 12th century.[1]:144 as a standard Motte and Bailey fort.[2]
The castle of Saint Michael or as it is now called "Vale Castle", dating from the Iron Age, was constructed to protect the population against pirates by providing a safe refuge. It is not possible to identify when the medieval works were started, possibly in the late 10th-century.[3]:130–1
Castle Cornet
Castle Cornet was started in the late 13th Century on an islet accessible at low tide, outside Saint Peter Port.[1]:144–7 It would serve as the main base for the Governor of Guernsey, the commander of the Island's military forces, for many centuries.
The Guernsey militia was formed in 1337 and would continue until disbanded in 1946. It was compulsory for all men to belong to the militia. They trained weekly and for six centuries provided the main defensive force for the island.
A French invasion in 1338 captured the whole island including Castle Cornet, which dates back to at least 1256. Two years later the island was recaptured by English forces after the French navy was crippled at the Battle of Sluys and in August 1345 Castle Cornet was also recaptured. 13 years later the castle was again captured by the French before being evicted the following year.
In 1350 the King Edward ordered walls to be constructed around the town. The order was repeated when the work was not undertaken, but no evidence has been found of their existence. They would have linked the Tour Gand to the north with the Beauregard tower in the south.[4]
In May 1372 Owain Lawgoch a claimant to the Welsh throne, at the head of a free company, on behalf of France, attacked Guernsey, popularly called "La Descente des Aragousais". Owain Lawgoch withdrew after killing 400 of the Island militia,[5] The poem of the same name refers to the Vale Castle as the Château de l'Archange, the location of the last ditch stand against the insurgents.[6]:34
With the advent of cannon and gunpowder, defences, now based mainly around Castle Cornet were remodelled between 1545 and 1548.
During the Third English Civil War, Castle Cornet, the main fortification in the island, supported the King whilst the island supported Parliament, this resulted in a siege of the castle that lasted nine years, ending in 1651. The castle had been improved over the centuries with added walls, gates and batteries.
The King's Survey of the Channel Islands was commissioned by Charles II in 1679. The report produced by Colonel Legge a year later was a comprehensive account of the state of defence, harbours and civil jurisdiction of the Islands. In Guernsey, defences had been poorly maintained, Castle cornet having suffered a major explosion after a lightning strike in 1672.[7]
Main early defences, starting from St Peter Port and moving in a clockwise direction.
Having lived with constant threats during the Seven Years' War (1754–63), threats of an invasion from France during the Anglo-French War (1778–83) resulted in additional artillery being brought to the Island and the construction of several forts, numerous batteries covering possible landing sites and fifteen Guernsey loophole towers built between 1778 and 1779,[12] The threat was real as an invasion of nearby Jersey resulted in the Battle of Jersey in Saint Helier in January 1781. Work started in 1782 on the massive Fort George, on the hill south of Town, it would take over three decades to complete. Guernsey granite was used for the majority of the gun platforms, forts and walls with embrasures often lined with brick.
The French Revolution in 1789 added to the concerns in the Channel Islands and resulted in additional constructions and an increase in manpower.
The island militia of around 3,000 men provided both infantry and coastal artillery units. They were supplemented with regular British infantry battalions who rotated and were increased or reduced depending on the current threat to the island. Before the barracks were built in Fort George, islanders were required to provide accommodation for soldiers that could not be accommodated in Castle Cornet. Each Parish had its quota and if they were quartered in public houses or private dwellings, the parish authorities were liable for the cost.[13]:59 Non British units, which were not allowed on the UK mainland, were sometimes based in Guernsey, including from 1793 to 1796 French Royalists and in 1799, 6,000 Russian troops, who were quartered at Delancey.[14]:12 In 1796 Peter de Havilland, a Jurat was appointed superintendent of thirteen signal masts around the island, installed to give warning of approaching ships.[15]:45
Lieutenant-General John Doyle was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey in 1803. After declaring a "state of emergency" in 1804,[16] he undertook many works to improve the defence of the Island, including the draining of the Braye du Valle, improving some roads to military standard and building forts and batteries around the coast, including completing Fort George. Major-General Sir John Doyle was supported from 1810 by the new Bailiff, Peter de Havilland. The "emergency" lasted until 1815.
Doyle was instrumental in getting three Martello towers built in 1804–1805, as well as the reclaiming of Braye du Valle 1806–1808, the improved military roads with mile markers, for which he argued eloquently, against much opposition,[17]:48–58 and barracks which together gave the militia and regular units improved facilities to repel any invasion.[18]
The Royal Navy provided the first line of defence, Captain Sausmarez, in command of a Guernsey-based squadron consisting of three frigates, HMS Crescent (1784), HMS Druid (1783) and HMS Eurydice (1781), a lugger, and cutter frustrated a planned invasion by 20,000 French soldiers of the Channel Islands scheduled for February 1794, due to his vigilant eye[14]:9 Admiral James Saumarez was again put in charge of a squadron based in Guernsey from 1803 to 1808.
Defences
Land based defences, starting from St Peter Port and moving in a clockwise direction.
Key ‡ Protected Monument [11] £ Accessible with fee ʘ Accessible ¤1850 list and battery number[31]:182
Post Napoleonic
In 1819 a Picquet House was constructed near the Town Church, its purpose being to provide a harbour side military presence and a lockup for unruly persons.[30]:13
Victorian era
In 1850 a letter was presented to Queen Victoria listing the defences on the island.[31] During the Victorian era, defence improvements mainly consisted of replacing the Napoleonic cannon with breach loading heavier artillery in the 1870s and modifying forts to take a smaller number of the larger calibre guns. Many of the older batteries were decommissioned. A number of new military buildings were also built.
The militia received updated breach loading rifles in 1870. Drab khaki service dress was issued in 1902 when the militia size was reduced to 1,000 men during times of peace.[32]
Some defensive positions were improved with a small glacis, whilst making the gun positions less obvious to an attacker.
Building works in the Victorian period starting from St Peter Port and moving in a clockwise direction.
First World War defences saw just one innovation, the establishment of a French seaplane base, on the pier close to Castle Cornet, in St Peter Port. The pilots flew on constant watch for German submarines.[33]
The rules regarding the militia were changed to suspend the force, the volunteering men were partly scattered amongst British units, the main force was converted into the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry. The island's men went off to war, most to fight in France.
War trophies of four German 13.5 cm K 09 artillery guns were displayed next to Victoria Tower until two were scrapped in 1938 and in 1940 the remaining two were buried in case enemy aircraft suspected they were "live". Forgotten about, they were uncovered in 1978 and are again on display.[34]
The island was demilitarised in June 1940 including suspending the militia again. During the German occupation which ran from June 1940 to May 1945 a massive building programme was instigated by Germany which saw the construction of tunnels, anti-tank sea walls, coastal casemates, artillery positions, artillery observation towers, radar units and a mass of trenches, minefields and barbed wire entanglements.
Up to 7,000 Organisation Todt workers in Guernsey built mainly in two years, between 1941 and 1943, the bulk of the fortifications. The German Festung Guernsey book recorded 616,000m³ of concrete used in Guernsey,[35] almost 10% of the concrete used in the Atlantic Wall.
Of the eleven artillery batteries on Guernsey, the largest was located in Batterie Mirus, comprising four 30.5cm guns which had a range of 51 kilometres (32mi).[36]
Camouflage was used in defensive works by German engineers, as were burying or part burying structures to escape aerial observation and attack. Many guns were designed to fire at an angle across a potential danger area rather than facing the sea, where they would be susceptible to direct fire from ships. The thickness of the concrete walls and roofs of the German structures providing adequate protection for weapons developed by 1944.
Many constructions are on private land and not accessible to the public, others may be looked at, clambered over and a few can be entered with care. Those that can be visited include:
Castle Cornet provided an underground control bunker, using the WW2 German concrete construction, which would, in the event of war, control shipping in the western end of the English Channel.[39]
The history of Guernsey stretches back with evidence of Neolithic occupation, followed by Roman occupation. Christianity was brought to Guernsey by St Sampson.
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe from the United Kingdom, during World War II. The manning and operation of the Atlantic Wall was administratively overseen by the German Army, with some support from Luftwaffe ground forces. The Kriegsmarine maintained a separate coastal defence network, organised into a number of sea defence zones.
Fort Grey, colloquially known as the "cup and saucer", is a Martello tower located on a tidal rock in Rocquaine Bay in Saint Peter, Guernsey on the west coast of the island.
Castle Cornet is a large island castle in Guernsey, and former tidal island, also known as Cornet Rock or Castle Rock. Its importance was as a defence not only of the island, but of the roadstead. In 1859 it became part of one of the breakwaters of Guernsey's main harbour, St Peter Port harbour.
Fort George is situated in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, and was built to become the main island military headquarters and to protect barracks to house the island garrison for the British Army, in place of Castle Cornet.
The Fort Hommet 10.5 cm coastal defence gun casemate bunker is a fully restored gun casemate that was part of Fortress Guernsey constructed by the forces of Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1945.
Victoria Tower is a monument in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, erected in honor of a visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to the island in 1846.
Coastal defenceand coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against military attack at or near a coastline, for example, fortifications and coastal artillery. Because an invading enemy normally requires a port or harbour to sustain operations, such defences are usually concentrated around such facilities, or places where such facilities could be constructed. Coastal artillery fortifications generally followed the development of land fortifications, usually incorporating land defences; sometimes separate land defence forts were built to protect coastal forts. Through the middle 19th century, coastal forts could be bastion forts, star forts, polygonal forts, or sea forts, the first three types often with detached gun batteries called "water batteries". Coastal defence weapons throughout history were heavy naval guns or weapons based on them, often supplemented by lighter weapons. In the late 19th century separate batteries of coastal artillery replaced forts in some countries; in some areas these became widely separated geographically through the mid-20th century as weapon ranges increased. The amount of landward defence provided began to vary by country from the late 19th century; by 1900 new US forts almost totally neglected these defences. Booms were also usually part of a protected harbor's defences. In the middle 19th century underwater minefields and later controlled mines were often used, or stored in peacetime to be available in wartime. With the rise of the submarine threat at the beginning of the 20th century, anti-submarine nets were used extensively, usually added to boom defences, with major warships often being equipped with them through early World War I. In World War I railway artillery emerged and soon became part of coastal artillery in some countries; with railway artillery in coast defence some type of revolving mount had to be provided to allow tracking of fast-moving targets.
General Sir John Doyle, 1st Baronet GCB, KCH was a British Army officer, who served with distinction in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
Jerbourg Point or the Jerbourg Peninsula is the southeastern point of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, lying within St Martin Parish. It marks the end of the east coast cliffs and beginning of the south coast cliffs. It provides scenic views of the Little Russel and the various islands.
The Bréhon Tower is accessible only by boat and sits on Bréhon Rock, an island in the Little Russell channel about 1.5 km northeast of St Peter Port, Guernsey, between the port and the islands of Herm and Jethou. Thomas Charles de Putron (1806–1869) built the oval tower of granite from Herm, completing the work in 1857.
Fort Saumarez is a Martello tower in Saint Peter, Guernsey, on a headland that forms the northern tip of L'Erée and extends to the Lihou causeway.
Fort Hommet is a fortification on Vazon Bay headland in Castel, Guernsey. It is built on the site of fortifications that date back to 1680 and consists of a Martello tower from 1804, later additions during the Victorian Era, and bunkers and casemates that the Germans constructed during World War II.
The British built 15 Guernsey loophole towers at various points along the coast of Guernsey between August 1778 and March 1779 to deter possible French attacks after France had declared itself an ally of the Americans in the American Revolutionary War. Towards the start of the Napoleonic Wars several towers received additional reinforcement in the form of batteries at their bases. Today, 12 towers still survive, three having been destroyed at different times. Two of the survivors, Petit Bôt and Rousse, contain interpretive exhibits that the public may examine.
The Royal Guernsey Militia has a history dating back 800 years. Always loyal to the British Crown, the men were unpaid volunteers whose wish was to defend the Island of Guernsey from foreign invaders.
After the Wehrmacht occupied the Channel Islands on 30June 1940, they assessed the existing defences to determine if they would be of use. The Germans found the Islands' fortifications antiquated and woefully inadequate for modern warfare.
Apart from a Roman Fort, there were very few fortifications in Alderney until the mid 19th century. These were then modified and updated in the mid 20th Century by Germans during the occupation period. Alderney at 8 km2 is now one of the most fortified places in the world.
Archaeology is promoted in Jersey by the Société Jersiaise and by Jersey Heritage. Promotion in the Bailiwick of Guernsey being undertaken by La Société Guernesiaise, Guernsey Museums, the Alderney Society with World War II work also undertaken by Festung Guernsey.
Vale Castle, is a protected building located in the Vale, Guernsey. The original name was "Le Château St Michel", later it became "Château de Val" or "Château de Valle" and is over 1,000 years old. It defends both St. Sampson's harbour at the eastern end of the Braye du Valle, Guernsey, and Bordeaux Harbour.
The Batterie Mirus is located in Saint Peter and Saint Saviour, Guernsey. Originally called Batterie Nina, it comprised four 30.5 cm guns. The battery was constructed from November 1941 and through the first half of 1942, and was the largest battery in the Channel Islands, the guns having a maximum range of 51 km. Although the guns were removed in the early 1950s, the reinforced concrete structures and associated positions remain intact.
References
1 2 3 4 Sebire, Heather. The Archaeology and Early history of the Channel Islands. NPI Media Group. ISBN978-0752434490.
1 2 Girard, Peter (1990). More of Peter Girard's Guernsey: A Second Miscellany of Guernsey's History and Its People. Guernsey Press. ISBN978-0902550421.
↑ Ogier, Darryl. The Government and Law of Guernsey. States of Guernsey. p.212. ISBN978-0-9549775-1-1.
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