German Gun Battery Preserved

A gun battery that sprawls across Jerbourg point is given Grade A protected status.

The Germans built 64 separate bunkers across the fields and cliffs at Jerbourg.

It was one of a network of heavy coastal defence gun sites and it was code named Batterie Strassbourg.

It used four captured French 22cm guns, capable of firing around 13 miles out to sea.

The guns were directed from a multi-level command post that sits at the edge of the main car park and overlooks Herm, Jethou and Sark.

Each gun pit had nearby reinforced ammunition stores and crew accommodation plus light defence like machine gun and mortar bunkers.

Deputy Victoria Oliver, the head of Planning, says it's this unique collection of remaining structures that led the Authority to give it Grade A protected status:

"Although there is special interest in each of these individual features, when they are considered collectively as the naval battery, the high level of special interest becomes even more apparent."

"Part of the DPA’s role is to protect and preserve our island’s heritage, look, feel and culture, of which the German occupation and the associated structures form a significant part. Designating these as a Grade A Protected Building offers the protection that a site of this significance deserves.”

She says the wartime preservation group Festung Guernsey played a pivotal role in collating photos and a written history of the site for use by planners at their meetings:

“I’d like to express my gratitude to Festung Guernsey for the specialist support they have offered in surveying and researching the features that form this historic structure."

Many of the bunkers sit on private land and some have been converted for use as feed stores for cattle. The main command post used to have armoured steel observation domes, but these were taken off for scrap following the war.

Protected status means owners will be unable to convert or harm the structures.