Occupation Trail · 11 places
Jersey War Tunnels
After the order of 20 October 1941 to fortify the Channel Islands, a tunnel complex was driven into a hillside in St Lawrence — Hohlgangsanlage 8.
- Parish
- St Lawrence
- Type
- WWII Occupation
- Rarity
- Rare
- Tide
- Not tidal
Featured in: What to do in Jersey when it rains · Jersey’s history in twelve places
The story
After the order of 20 October 1941 to fortify the Channel Islands, a tunnel complex was driven into a hillside in St Lawrence — Hohlgangsanlage 8. Over 1,000 metres were cut. Organisation Todt brought around 6,000 enslaved and forced labourers to Jersey to build the island's fortifications, among them some 1,500 Russian prisoners of war, including Ukrainians and Belarusians, and 2,000 Spanish Republicans; 116 workers died. In 1943 the tunnels were redesigned as a casualty receiving station with room for up to 500 patients, with its own ventilation, pipework from which survives. Jersey Heritage records that the hospital was never used.
