Our plan was to take a #22 bus to the northwest corner of the island and walk back along the shore. The road parallel to the shore has open spaces, a golf course, as well as small group of houses strung along a 5 mile line, but further inland is still rural with mostly planted fields.
After our drop off at the end of the bus line, we followed a narrow road that climbed towards the top of the cliff. Then a rocky footpath zigzagged up the last, steeper sections. The numerous broken rocks required careful navigation. The area at the top was lined with Nazi bunkers and gun emplacements, these were never really used since the allies went into France on 'D-day' with a massive force, leaving the Channel Island occupation force and islands isolated for the last year of the war.
We looked around the big guns, and bunkers, then headed down the hill towards the beach. The weather was sunny but also windy and cool; which we enjoyed. We stopped at more bunkers and gun mounts along the shore, and looked through a war museum about Jersey's occupation experience, mostly from the point of view of the Nazi soldiers.
She Said:
Sun, some wind.
Our sightseeing objectives today were:
Battery Molke
Channel Islands Military Museum
Wetlands Nature Preserve
Took the bus to the nearest stop to Battery Molke and walked around this WWII German fortification/installation. Finally felt like a real walk. Not many people (saw 3 or 4), unbelievable long views up and down the coast, good paths and very interesting history.
Battery Molke sits on the highest, cliffy-est, windiest edge of the west coast of Jersey. Good place for a Channel lookout. Even though there are German installations all around the coast of Jersey, this seems to be the largest - a couple hundred acres.
Giant German guns - Moser 18, 21 cm.
Also a large French gun that the Germans confiscated when they invaded France (just across the Channel).
Underground bunkers and tunnels throughout, though none open to the public. I climbed partway down a bent and twisted metal ladder and shined my flashlight around - tunnels in both directions. Rock rubble strewn around. Dark, creepy and definitely not safe, so we opted to not explore that tunnel further.
As usual in the U.K., I am always amazed that these countryside places of great historic and/or archeological import are basically wide open for everyone to walk and crawl all over. It is so different from other countries (USA included) that fence off everything.
We checked out small cement spiral building, about the size of an outhouse. R thinks it was a baffle to protect the unfortunate soldier who fired those giant guns from the ear-damaging sound waves of the explosion needed to project that shell. Yikes.
We wandered around and mused about how absolutely crazy the whole concept of life, in any capacity, must have been during WWII. Or, any war, for that matter. Innocent civilians must have been terrified. And, soldiers must have wondered what the hell they were doing.
War.
What is it good for.
Absolutely nothin’.
Once we left Battery Molke, we started a walk down the coast along a designated bike path through the countryside. Lucky for us, as walking paths are not very well-marked on Jersey.
A constant sound in the fields of the countryside is the squawk of the male pheasant. A very majestic and beautiful bird. And, they are quite large here.
We ate our picnic lunch in the shade of an old, giant, spreading cedar tree. Perfect.
Next up, the Channel Islands Military Museum. This is a relatively small museum a few miles down the coast from Battery Molke, chock full of German military relics/memorabilia that the Nazi troops left behind once the war ended and they became prisoners of war rather than occupiers and local reminisces.
It’s located in a German bunker, which seems amazing on its own.
You enter the bunker through a gas lock, a small room that originally had rubber seals around the door to seal and ward against gas attacks. Loads of minutia of German life underground, from all their necessary military supplies - binocs, signal devices, maps, flags, navigation tools, canteens, helmets, an Enigma machine, etc.. And, of course, guns, guns, guns and knives and ammo.
But also... China tableware and good, sturdy eating utensils (all with the Nazi cross on them), field surgical instruments, and medical supplies for any eventuality.
German preparedness and precision.
There is a “spent case room” with a metal tube to above ground where spent shells could be dropped down and sealed off.
There is a room lined with field radios - big, bulky, heavy metal things. There is also a “back pad” that soldiers used when they were carrying those things around.
War seems so unnatural and brutal in all aspects.
There is a tablecloth displayed that islanders embroidered to pass the time. Lovely and sad with all their names - maybe a hundred.
There are International Red Cross boxes.
Towards the end of the war, everyone on Jersey was starving, occupied and occupiers alike. The Bailiff of Jersey reminded the Germans that, under international law, the occupiers were bound to provide for the occupied.
But the Germans had nothing to give. They were starving, too.
They did allow the Bailiff to contact the International Red Cross and Red Cross Packages arrived for relief of the islanders. Without those packages, families would have starved.
It is a legend on the island that the German soldiers never, not once, took any of the Red Cross Packages meant for the islanders.
Honor in the face of the devil.
The Nazis forbade islanders to have any kind of radio, but islanders were desperate to listen to the BBC, their only link to the outside world. They actually made tiny radios from Bakelite light switches and “Cat Whisker” fine wire conductors. Small so they could be hidden easily.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention.
The final thing that got me in that museum was the “Occupation” game.
Played like Monopoly.
Some places to land:
Extra bread ration - go ahead 5
Found torch batteries - go ahead 4
Identity Card lost - go back 4
Glass of beer! - go ahead 4
Talk about making the best of a bad situation!
Made it to the Wetlands Nature Preserve, took some pictures of the reed-encircled lake and then waited with a German? couple for the bus back home.
Supplies for supper at the Coop Grocery in Beaumont and Dunell’s Wine Shop.
All in all, a fabulous day.
Total Mileage:
6.2 Miles
Explosion shelter?
The Channel Islands Military Museum
Cat Whisker Radio (Crystal Radio)
Surfers in the UK
Distant La Corbiere lighthouse
Wetlands marsh
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