Occupied and ready for D Day - the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands

This is a tour for the military history enthusiasts and everyone with an interest in the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands and why we have so many Nazi bunkers!! During the Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands in World War 2, Hitler ordered that the Islands should become impregnable fortresses to be held by the Third Reich forever. On our tour, we start our story with the lead up to the Nazi Occupation in May and June 1940, the arrival of Nazi troops and the impact on the Island as it became clear that their stay was not a temporary one. We will visit examples of the bunkers and fortifications around the Island which made the Channel Islands one of the most heavily fortified and defended places in Nazi occupied Europe!

This tour is available as a half or full day tour. As with all of my tours, this is private for you, and you are not joining a larger group.

As a consequence of Hitler’s order, bunkers of one design or another was constructed at each strategic position across the Channel Islands. Each of the bunkers had specific and varied purposes. Some were built as gun emplacements or to house other weapons. There are also troop shelters, ammunition and other stores, command bunkers as well as tunnel complexes, and all the infrastructure which went with them and which was included in the master plan. The Channel Islands were part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall which stretched from Norway to northern Spain, and the fortifications here consumed somewhere in the order of a twelfth of all the costs / concrete and steel of the whole Wall. As a consequence, many parts of the Atlantic Wall on the continental mainland were unfinished or lacking in armament in comparison to that in the Islands.

The master plans as they evolved in the Channel Islands envisaged 8 years of construction, but in the end, only about 2 years worth of it was actually completed. Despite the grand plans, many  bunkers and fortifications planned were half-finished or not even started by the time that the Nazi labour force was withdrawn from the Islands, at the same time as supplies of cement and steel had also dried up to all but a trickle.

In addition to limited numbers of well paid and willing volunteers, both local and from across Europe, thousands of “forced labourers” from Nazi occupied territories had been brought to the Channel Islands, together with “slave” labourers, consisting mainly of Russian POWs and civilians, against their will. Whilst all forced labour were here against their will, the “slave” labourers were generally brutally treated, starved and beaten by their overseers in Organisation Todt, and many attempted to escape with varying degrees of success. But by late 1943 and 1944, the vast labour force had been withdrawn to work on other projects around Europe and to repair the growing destruction caused by Allied bombing across Germany, and the building work effectively ceased in the Channel Islands.

Whilst the treatment of some of those who built the bunkers and fortifications was brutal and inhuman, and it remains shocking to this day, the survival of the bunkers is remarkable. It is a stark reminder how Europe might have ended up had the outcome to the Second World War been different. Their design and construction, together with the weapons used to arm the fortifications and bunkers, is impressive, and it is a marvel that many are in excellent condition notwithstanding their eighty plus years of age.

However, Hitler’s plan was not only madness but also fatally flawed. Hitler got it wrong and wouldn’t listen to his most senior generals who realised that when D Day came, the efforts in the Channel Islands was a complete wasted effort. But that isn’t half the story because you have to ask why the Channel Islands were so fortified when the generals were against it. To answer that, you have to understand the Nazi regime and how the Germans were taken in by Hitler and the Nazi propaganda, as well as fearing the consequences of not conforming.

Come on the tour to really understand why Hitler was obsessed with a bunker mentality madness!

Highlights include

  1. Batterie Moltke and MP3, Les Landes, Saint Ouen
  2. The Channel Islands Military Museum
  3. Sechsschartentürme, Resistance Nest La Mare Mill, Saint Ouen
  4. Strongpoint Corbiere, La Corbière Point, St. Brelade
  5. Batterie Lothringen, Noirmont Point, Saint Brelade
  6. 4.7cm Anti-Tank Gun Casemate,  Millbrook, Saint Lawrence

Depending on the time available, we may be able to visit the Channel Islands Military Museum and the interior of some bunkers. Admission charges will be paid or collected on the day of the tour.

Please see the separate Places section below to see the locations which are included in this tour.

You can also Click the Map icon (below main image in grey bar to the right) to view locations and see further information

History Alive’s and Jersey Military Tours are devised in a way to give our guests an overall and enjoyable experience which means that we won’t always follow the same route or stop for the same time at each stop. This also gives us the ability to make changes either to take advantage of, or to mitigate against, factors such as weather or other delays which might affect timing. On full day tours, we stop at lunch times where refreshments/food can be purchased, and on all tours, we will stop as necessary for refreshments and comfort breaks.

Our Tours are a combination of a coach tour and exploring the sites on foot, so please refer to the Level of Fitness required to enjoy these Tours. For that, and for what’s included in these Tours and Prices, as well as Pick-Up points for the Tours, please see Information below

Please note that we offer other tours about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands a more general interest Nazi Occupation 1940 to Liberation 1945 Tour, as well as Life under Occupation Tour – Resistance or Collaboration?

All of the “Occupation” Tour themes available:

Nazi Occupation 1940 to Liberation 1945 Tour – a general tour of the Occupation and Liberation

Occupied and ready for DDay – the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands – a bit more of military history and the Nazi fortifications

Life under Occupation Tour – Resistance or collaboration? – a bit more about the impact of occupation on the local population

Places in Occupied and ready for D Day – the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands

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Conflict Archaeology of the German Occupation

Conflict archaeology of the German Occupation is everywhere you look around the Channel Islands. Some of us have it in our homes and gardens! I live right next to the coast on the south of the Island. All around the coast there are examples of conflict archaeology and reminders of both English/British military fortifications (from the period from the early …

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