The German Underground Hospital - Part 1

In 1971, shortly after decimal currency was introduced, Mr R. Ellington produced this small booklet, price 13p, which was about 2 shillings and 6 pence in old money, or half-a-crown, about the German Underground Hospital.

The research into that has increased, and the site now, under the title "Jersey War Tunnels" provides vastly more history of the Occupation as well as the history of the tunnels themselves. It has far more audio-visual means of telling its story, but back in 1971, this was what visitors to Jersey would have had. It's a very personal booklet, as Mr Ellington not only tells as much as he knows about the hospital from records, but also includes eyewitnesses who he spoke to at the time. It is in that respect, a time-capsule of social history.

The German Underground Hospital - Part 1

by R.M. Ellington

Foreword

The contents of this book are constructed entirely from first-hand reports given to me by people who were actively involved in the building of the German Underground Hospital and their experiences therein.

Regrettably there is no documentary evidence of any sort available either at the States offices or in the local history section of the Jersey Public Library. It would appear that any plans of the hospital and any further written evidence was destroyed by the Germans before the Liberation.

I dedicate this book to Conn Donoghue, Cyril Hopkins and my Uncle who wishes to remain anonymous for personal reasons. I also dedicate it to my very good friend Robin who has done all the art work and to my very good friend Penny Cronk without whose invaluable assistance this work could never have been done.

There are, no doubt, other people on this Island who have information relevant to the subject matter, but whom I have been unable to locate. Many of the theories put forward in this work may be controversial and are certainly unsupported by evidence, but they are included entirely on the strength of the verbal information given to me by the individuals involved.

I also wish to thank all those people who have helped me by reading and correcting the proofs and to all other who have supplied any material whatever which has assisted me in collating the information contained in this book.

R.M. ELLINGTON

February 1971

BACKGROUND

Because I have been a reader of books longer than I have been a writer, I am well aware that the majority of people never bother to read the Foreword, and it is for this reason that I shall repeat now something which has already been said in the Foreword.

There is no documentary evidence available regarding the subject matter of this book and it is virtually entirely collated from information given to me at first hand by people who were actively involved in the construction.

"Why"? Is the eternal question asked when people have been to visit the German Underground Hospital, and in answering the question, one has first of all to look back at the overall picture of German policy even before they occupied the Channel Islands.

The Germans were absolutely convinced that they would have complete victory in their war in Europe and end up with complete European domination. After this stage of the war was over, there would then have been a period of peace after which the Germanic Empire of Europe would attempt to tackle the American Continent.

The occupation of the Channel Islands was only one part of this overall picture and it is in this context that one has to view their construction of this hospital. -

Jersey, rather like Heligoland is a natural strategic fortification covering a part of mainland coastline, and it was therefore always intended that it should remain under permanent occupation and fortification with a view to protecting the stretch of coast from Cherbourg to St. Brieuc.

It would appear from all information available that the plans for this hospital were formulated before the war in Europe actually started and it was planned as a 500 bed hospital with its own operating theatre and also to be completely self-contained. The reason why it was built underground would appear to be mainly that they did not wish to despoil the Island's natural beauties, as it was part of their plan to use it as a holiday resort under their "Strength Through Joy" programme.

There is, or course, a precedent as far as underground hospitals are concerned, as anybody who has visited Gibraltar will know, where a British Military hospital has been in existence and active use for over 200 years and this is actually hewn out of solid rock.

A theory has been put forward that the Germans were actually planning to incorporate a gas chamber inside the German Underground hospital for the disposal of the aged, the infirm and the mentally unfit, but there is absolutely no evidence to support this theory.

The occupation of Jersey commenced on July 1st, 1940, but work on the German Underground hospital did not begin until sometime in the summer of 1942. The Todt Organisation was in charge of this project as they were in charge of all other construction of similar nature in Jersey and elsewhere, and the Civil Engineer in charge was a Major Teischmann. He was an elderly man in his middle sixties who before the war, had worked for some twenty years as a Civil Engineer in Africa. It was his job to move around from site to site so that he would probably have visited the German hospital approximately every second day and been there for perhaps some two to three hours checking on progress and also checking the levels of the tunnel floors as they progressed.

An ex-inspector of the Department of Labour actually had sight on several occasions of the plan of the underground hospital as it would have been in its completed state. He has reconstructed from memory this plan, which is shown on the centre pages of this book. Its authenticity obviously cannot be guaranteed, but there is virtually no chance of any copy of the actual plan being still existence, as it would appear from all evidence available that the Germans destroyed all documents at the time of the surrender to the British.

The geographical layout of the area was considerably different at the time of the construction. If you stand with your back to the entrance of the hospital as it is today, the area to the right of you was all one great meadow and everything to the left was part of the garden belonging to the cottage just a little way down to the left. Most of this garden was orchard, though some vegetable cultivation was undertaken close to the cottage. The pig-sties close to the cottages were at the time used for pigs which roamed quite freely in that area.

The building that is the shop and cafe was not built until long after the war, neither were the toilets. The present roadway was only about half the width it is today, from the bank as far as the white line in the middle of the road. It was virtually no more than a lane or driveway to service the house called Brooklyn up to the right. Through the meadow and running from there downwards was an open brook and this remained open all the way down to the corner of Meadowbank, with the exception of a small area which was bridged by the front entrance to the cottages.

The Germans constructed a system of rails of the same gauge as those that can still be seen on the floor of the German Underground Hospital and the trolleys that were used, were taken all the way down the hill moving very close to the left-hand side of the road for the first fifty yards or so and then moving over towards the right-hand side to come fairly close to the meadow in order to provide a convenient curve at the very bottom towards the left where they terminated at Cap Verd.

Originally construction commenced from the Cap Verd entrance, which is now blocked off, but because the geological formations encountered there were a mixture of mudstone and soil, progress was somewhat slow. A second starting point was therefore made at what is now the entrance. Cap Verd at this time was a low meadow some 8' lower in level then it is today, and the trolleys full of rubble were trundled down the hill and the rubble was used to raise Cap Verd to its present level.

The hillside into which they tunnelled consists of mudstone which is, in fact, one of the oldest geological forms found anywhere in the world.

In the first year or so after the liberation of the Channel Islands, many eminent geologists from Great Britain, America and Canada came to visit the underground hospital for the specific purpose of taking this unrivalled opportunity of studying this rare rock formation.

The cotils from the tunnel entrance all the way to Tesson chapel were heavily mined, and extensive anti-aircraft gun emplacements were situated on top of the cotil directly opposite the main tunnel entrance.