St Ouen’s Bay being the longest shallow sandy bay in Jersey, was always going to be considered as the most likely Allied landing beach to re-take the Island. Around the Corbière headland at the southern end of the bay, the Germans constructed a number of coastal defence bunkers creating a “strongpoint” which would be a pivotal element of St Ouen’s Bay defences and to prevent the formation of a beachhead in the event of a landing.
At Corbiere, a number of these bunkers have not only survived, but are preserved in the care of the Channel Islands Occupation Society. At the Strongpoint which would have been surrounded by minefields and defence positions with flame-throwers and machine guns, an automatic fortress mortar was housed in one of the bunkers and captured 1918 vintage French 10.5cm guns were mounted in two of the others, supported by a searchlight, also protected when not in use by its own bunker. The naval artillery observation tower MP2 overlooks the Strongpoint as well as Corbiere lighthouse , which has the distinction of being the first and oldest concrete lighthouse built in the British Isles.