WWII History
As I said, I went to the Island of Jersey for a week to explore the island, but also to see the wwii history. The one place in Britain that had German occupation.
On the first day we went to the War Tunnels, built by slave labour. It was used mostly for storage, and for a hospital. Ironically for me it was important that I saw that. The father of the doctor who delivered me had actually been a doctor on Jersey during the war, and had worked in the tunnels in the operating theatre. Mum had problems when I was born, and apparantly it took the doctor over an hour to stitch her up. They chatted, and Jersey came up as it was where Mum & Dad had their honeymoon.
It now has various displays, to do with it's use.
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
Our group getting ready to go in -
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
The hospital -
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
Some of the many unfinished tunnels -
Sadly, a typical residents menu -
Due to the situation, many things were non-existant ... things like bicycle tyres were made with hose pipes
After the Normandy landings in france, Jersey (and the rest of the islands) were cut off. Churchill aimed to starve the Germans out ... but sadly that meant that everyone was starved. In the end they did have a couple of Red Cross liberty ships in to help.
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
After going to the tunnels, we went to St Brelaide for lunch, and then a walk round the village to see soem more history -
The hotel where we had lunch ... and during the war was used by the Germans for weekend breaks. There were 2 on the island, and the other was the hotel we were staying at. So 1940 - 1945 it was called - Soldatenheim 2
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
One other place we saw was this 13th century Chapel -
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
It must have looked stunning when you realise how much remains 700 years later -
Some of the Atlantic Wall - built during the occupation to protect the island from invasion
And, a general view of the beach -
.JPG?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
On the first day we went to the War Tunnels, built by slave labour. It was used mostly for storage, and for a hospital. Ironically for me it was important that I saw that. The father of the doctor who delivered me had actually been a doctor on Jersey during the war, and had worked in the tunnels in the operating theatre. Mum had problems when I was born, and apparantly it took the doctor over an hour to stitch her up. They chatted, and Jersey came up as it was where Mum & Dad had their honeymoon.
It now has various displays, to do with it's use.
Our group getting ready to go in -
The hospital -
Some of the many unfinished tunnels -
Sadly, a typical residents menu -
Due to the situation, many things were non-existant ... things like bicycle tyres were made with hose pipes
After the Normandy landings in france, Jersey (and the rest of the islands) were cut off. Churchill aimed to starve the Germans out ... but sadly that meant that everyone was starved. In the end they did have a couple of Red Cross liberty ships in to help.
After going to the tunnels, we went to St Brelaide for lunch, and then a walk round the village to see soem more history -
The hotel where we had lunch ... and during the war was used by the Germans for weekend breaks. There were 2 on the island, and the other was the hotel we were staying at. So 1940 - 1945 it was called - Soldatenheim 2
One other place we saw was this 13th century Chapel -
It must have looked stunning when you realise how much remains 700 years later -
Some of the Atlantic Wall - built during the occupation to protect the island from invasion
And, a general view of the beach -