While on a visit to Jersey, Channel Islands a couple of weeks ago we visited the WW2 German underground hospital that was dug out mostly by slave labour from Russia and other countries of which many of the workers did not return home.
Well worth the visit if you are in the area. I am not sure where one would upload photos of these tunnels so here are some in my personal album.


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Nice pictures, what's the rock it's dug through? From the pictures it almost looks like a mix of slate (or shale) and granite, not that different to round here.

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Not slate, but it looks like a type of rock that seems to be in layers , not sure what it is. We were told the workers would blast the rock face then poke the roof with long rods to losen it off. No helmets nor good working boots. And no chrunchie nut cornflakes for breakfast.
There are many WW2 tunnels in the channel islands I am told as it was well fortified in case of an attack. Loads of large concrete gun placements around the coast worth seing.

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Also some very good stuff worth exploring on Guernsey aswell. The underground hospital there is far(well, last time i went, which was sometime ago!) less developed as a tourist attraction. Torches and wander about job. The underground submarine refueling depot in St Peter Port is very interesting too.

Further inland, there is the 'Mirus Battery', a large gun emplacement that was firing something like 300mm diameter shells, a distance of 30 miles. In the generator room there used to be a fine painting of the german eagle on the wall, about 3' high. I wander if it still exists?

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Hells Bells this brings back memories. I lived in Jersey during the 70's and early 80's and having previously spent most of my time down holes in Derbyshire the lack of such "facilities" in Jersey was somewhat of a shock to the system! Turning to other pastimes I became a member of the Société Jersiaise, which monitored all things historical and archaeological on the Island. It was during the early 70's that the other entrances near to the German Underground Hospital were to be re-opened and explored for the first time since the war. I remember it was something of an anti-climax as very little was found in the way of artifacts. You have to remember that after the liberation anything vaguely useful was put to other uses, legally or not.
One of the tunnels ended up being a mushroom farm. Another gun/ammunition emplacement at the base of St Catherine's Breakwater was turned into shellfish ponds to hold crabs and lobsters for export. I know of this intimately as I worked there. Les Viviers de St Catherine.
The seaward side of the rock held the gun emplacement from the back of this the tunnel extended right through to the back of the rock. You can actually drive around the rock. Inside from memory there was just one short annex on the right hand side going from front to back.

The shellfish ponds were built adjacent to each other with a gradient so the seawater filtered from one to another and thence circulated. Every tide (12hrs) I would pump up fresh seawater. Generally speaking very little was held for long periods other than that for local restaurants/hotels.

Happy Days 🙂