The German Underground Hospital - Part 4

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.

Parts 1-3 can be found here:
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-german-underground-hospital-part-1.html
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-german-underground-hospital-part-2.html
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-german-underground-hospital-part-3.html

The German Underground Hospital - Part 4
by R.M. Ellington

CONCRETING and PLASTERING

After the surrender by the Italians to the Allies in 1944, even Italian workers appeared in the German Underground Hospital, though whether as slave workers or contract workers has not been established

By this time all the tunnelling had been completed and the main work consisted of concreting and plastering the walls of the tunnels, as well as the installation of all the equipment, the electrical system, heating system, drilling the water well, etc., etc.

It was at this period that such local labour as was used, was put to work.

The method of concreting the walls was as follows:-

When concreting the floor, a nine inch footing was formed on each side. This formed the base for the shuttering which made the box frame for the concreting (see Diagram). By using a series of planks laid on top of each other horizontally and shoring them up and blocking off the ends, a box frame would be constructed to the height of the straight part of each wall (approximately 6' to 7'). Marks can be seen to this day on the walls of the German Underground Hospital showing how planks of different widths and thickness had to be used according to what was available. The box frame was then filled with concrete and left to dry. This method was continued all the way along the walls of each tunnel. In all, nearly 4,000 tons of concrete were employed in this work.

The curved roof was constructed in the following manner: - The Germans had prepared a number of curved wooden frames which were laid across the top of the straight concreted parts of the wall which had now dried and thoroughly hardened. Planks would be laid lengthways from one to the next of these curved formers, thus forming and enclosed box section for the curved part of the tunnel roof.

After removing any protruding pieces of rock with a hammer, chisel or long bar , this would be filled with concrete from the front of the section pushing the liquid concrete further and further in until it came to a stop at the end of the section (see Diagram).

By and large, the majority of the plastering was done by local labour. They first came on to the site on a system of 5 ten hour shifts per week earning £8 per week, but they complained to the Germans about the timing and conditions and after some bargaining, were put on a piece-work rate. This was assessed on the following system. A crew consisting of five plasterers and three labourers would have to plaster 35 sq. yards per day including having to move their own scaffolding as they moved from area to area. Under the new piece-work rates, their earnings rose to £12 per week, an almost un- heard of figure in those days.

The German foreman on the site was a Sergeant called Fritz (surname unknown) and they would call him in at the end of each shift, show him they had done their required yardage and then go off home, irrespective of how many hours they had worked. Most of these local workers came and went to work by bicycle. The Germans had occupied virtually all the hotels on the Island at that time and the furnishings in the hotels which were brought up by lorry to- wards the end when all the construction had been finished were taken mainly from these hotels, specifically beds and wardrobes (so I have it on first hand information) from the Grand Hotel on the Esplanade.

After the concreting and plastering was done, the divisions for the various side rooms, such as the kitchens, store-rooms, etc., were constructed of brick. The construction of these brick walls was done in the main by the Italian labour force imported in 1944 and plastered over by the same local labour force that did the plastering on the tunnel walls.

General Todt and the Visit of Field Marshal Rommel

It would appear that both General Todt, who was head of the Todt Organisation and Field Marshall Rommel, alias The Desert Fox, came to Jersey to examine all the German fortifications including the Under- ground Hospital.

Once again it must be stressed that these are theories put forward by individuals and no concrete evidence is available to back them up.

Richard Mayne, who has recently written a book on the occupation of the Channel Islands, and in the process has been corresponding with various German Officers who were part of the occupation forces, is trying to establish whether there is any truth in this story. If Rommel did visit the Island, it would be some time after the German evacuation from North Africa, probably in the latter half of 194

The Shirt and the Diesel Oil

One of the most amusing anecdotes that was told to me by Con Donoghue, was an incident which happened one night after the blasting had been completed at its usual time of 2 a.m. The German guard was lured to the entrance by a member of the local population who had a shirt for sale. This shirt with the pre-war valuation of approximately 6/11 d was offered to the German at around 40 Reichmarks, approximately £2.

During the period the guard was outside doing his bargaining, an old coat was placed over a drum containing light diesel oil (probably used for the compressors). A hose pipe was attached to the tap and run along the floor covered by rubble to camouflage it and when the German came back inside, he sat down on the old coat on the barrel while the locals were quietly siphoning off the diesel oil while he was actually sitting on the barrel. In many of the country districts in Jersey where there was no electricity at that time, light diesel oil was virtually the only fuel available on which their paraffin lamps would burn efficiently and without smoke and thus there was always a ready market for it.

These two adverts reproduced by kind permission of the Jersey Evening Post.

Neither of the two adverts met with any marked success, in spite of the tremendous incentive offered in regard to both money as well as extra rations. This cannot be too strongly stressed, as it shows up the local population in a very good light.

It is mainly due to the failure of the advertisement for interpreters that they made use of Conn Donoghue (see text) under the usual compulsory terms applicable to people who had been up before the German commandant.

A copy of this document was sent by the Bailiff's office to the Connétable of St. Peter on 22.9.1942.

REFERENCE DOCUMENT 1.)

Most of the farms referred to in this document are within a 1/2 mile radius of the German Underground Hospital and/or the underground tunnels in St. Peter's Valley by the side of the Victoria Hotel.

It will be noted that under paragraph 4.) the information passed on to the farmers concerned, states that-the construction of shelter trenches was the reason for the evacuation, though it would appear the true reason was the German's desire to keep the construction of the Underground Hospital as quiet as possible, and to keep the area clear of all non-essential personnel.

REFERENCE DOCUMENT 2.)

This would appear to be a warning mainly to the farmers near the slave worker's encampment on Goose Green Marsh, and near the entirely Russian encampment at La Moye.

The German Underground Hospital - Part 3

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 3
by R.M. Ellington

BASIC CONSTRUCTION

The work began at the Meadowbank entrance by drilling a series of holes (see Diagram below) with pneumatic drills. Drill bits of length varying from 1 ' to 9' were used. These drill bits frequently became blunt and had to be replaced or resharpened.

The power came from compressors situated at both entrances, which never ceased to operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and spares were permanently undergoing service in the workshops. When one compressor broke down, it would be immediately replaced by one of the ones which had just undergone overhaul. When the drilling of the holes was completed, the three in the centre would have a charge of dynamite inserted and this would be set off. Then the other eight 3m. deep holes would have their charges inserted, pushed right into the full depth of the hole and exploded. This then gave the rough outline of the tunnel.

Position of Holes for blasting.

The Germans themselves usually took charge of the actual blasting. Both the electrical and fuse systems were employed for detonation, but many failures occurred, as the components came, in the main, from factories in France where many of them were created deliberate duds as part of the French workers sabotage programme.

After the basic outline of the tunnel had been shaped in this fashion, the rest of the work was done mainly by hand. Long pointed steel bars were used to knock down the loose rubble from the roof of the tunnel and picks and shovels as well as some pneumatic hammers were used at the lower levels.

The tunnel floor would then be levelled and concreted with the rails inserted so that the trolleys could be brought right up to the blasting face to remove the rubble. Then the trolleys would be pushed by hand to the entrance where, when enough had accumulated to form a train, they would be coupled to a small diesel engine and driven down to Cap Verd. This is the way the main tunnel was constructed and the same system basically was used for all the galleries leading off this, i.e., wards, wash-rooms, operating theatres, kitchens, administration offices, Commandant's office, Doctors' quarters, etc., etc.

The work progressed twenty-four hours per day, a day shift from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m and a night shift from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The usual  system for the night shift was to drill the holes and explode the charges.

Because of the fumes, further work would then be impossible on the tunnel for some three or four hours with the compressors working non-stop to clear the air. Usually the blasting took place about 2 a.m. and then the night shift had little more to do until the end of their shift.

When the day shift arrived, the air in the tunnels would usually be cleared and the work of removing the rubble from the previous night's blasting would take up the whole of that shift. Thus progress per tunnel face was only approximately 9' per every twenty-four hours. Many of the slave workers were in such bad physical condition, that often two men would operate one shovel. The trick was to tie a piece of rope around the handle near the head of the shovel.

One man would then push the shovel into the rubble pile and the other would haul on the rope to help lift the rubble into the trolley. Mud-stone is a formation of variable quality, some of it being hard as granite, other parts being almost as soft as mud. This, combined with the comparative inexperience of the labour force and the continual deterioration in their physical condition inevitably led to a number of accidents and collapses. I will refer back to this in more detail at a later stage.

Before the well was sunk inside the underground hospital, water was collected in a sump drawn from the brook almost immediately in front of the entrance. This water supply was channelled into the tunnel by a pipeline running inside a shallow gully, which is still in existence today, covered over by wooden boards to facilitate servicing.

This same gully can also be seen in other tunnels. Its other function was to collect the surface water that rises almost everywhere throughout the construction, and channel it away into Cap Verd.

As the gully is very much more commodious than would be required by either of the above purposes, it seems likely that the Germans intended to put it to additional uses for unknown purposes, although a number of possibilities spring readily to mind.

In all, during the thirty odd months that the Germans worked at the Underground Hospital, well over a quarter of a million cubit feet of  rock, estimated at between 14,000 and 15,000 tons, were removed  from the hill-side and dumped at Cap Verd.

 It would appear from all reports that some 12 to 15 slave workers together with 2 to 3 Germans would be working together on each tunnel face. Concreting of the floors and laying the rails were then the main priority, but this was often carried out in such haste that the rail line was not as straight and level as might have been desired and the trolleys frequently fell off the rails and had to be re-loaded.

A rough calculation will show that at the height of the tunnelling activities, some 150 to 200 people in total must have been at work on each shift taking into account the number of tunnels being worked on simultaneously.

Feeding arrangements were fairly simple. A field kitchen drawn by two horses would haul a vast cauldron of soup up to the site: a soup consisting mainly of cereals, i.e., peas, lentils, barley, but with very little meat content, which they only got providing their work was satis- factory. This, plus a loaf per week, was virtually the staple diet of the slave workers. From all reports, it would appear that the German Todt Organisation workers were little better off, especially in the latter stages of the war when they even resorted to collecting stinging nettles for making soup for themselves.

Obviously, under these arduous conditions, the wastage rate of slave workers was rather high, but as the Germans kept the details of this very much to themselves, no numerical evaluation is possible.

But as the stream of replacement slave workers was virtually endless, this never tended to retard progress.

As has been stated earlier, the only Germans inside the tunnel were OT men and if-ally incident of misbehaviour or crime occurred among the slave workers, then the Military Police were called in to deal with it, even such trivial affairs as one slave worker stealing from another.

One of my informants was a man called Con Donoghue. After fiddling the occupation forces at every opportunity, he was seriously suspected, but nothing was ever proved against him. It was said that whilst driving a lorry on the airport construction, the said lorry was producing approximately 4 miles per gallon. By his own reckoning, he was thus able to "appropriate" anything from 4 to 6 gallons of petrol in a good working day. 1-le might well have been sent-to Germany to a ' concentration camp and, in fact, it seems that at one stage, his name was on the list for the next shipment (a member of the local police actually saw his name on the list). But partially due to the lack of concrete evidence against him and also because after the landings in Italy, the sea traffic between the Channel Islands and the French main- land was reduced to a minimum, he was reprieved.

As he spoke German and French, as well as English, he became driver and interpreter for Major Teischamann. (See advert 2 in appendix) It was from him that I obtained the details of the way the blasting was carried out.

Some clarification of the general situation would appear appropriate at this point. The Germans' general attitude was decidedly "vel- vet glove over iron fist". This applied to their relations all over the Island.

Several OT Officers set themselves up as genuine building contractors here in Jersey and advertised for local labour. They offered wages higher than the local jobs could pay, plus the inducements of extra rations which were worth even more than the extra money. The States of Jersey Labour Department, for instance, by order of the occupation Commandant, were allowed to offer a single man no more than £2.10s. 0d. to £2. 15s. 0d. per week, but the German contractors were offering 75d per hour for skilled labour, which for a 52 hour week would work out at nearly £3. 14s. 0d., not taking into consderation the extra rations. (see Advert 1 in Appendix).

This, of course, refers only to voluntary labour, but as it turned out, those of the local population who were compelled to work for the Germans compulsorily also got the benefit of the higher rates and extra rations. -

Although the German Todt Organisation members worked side by side with both slave workers and contract labour in the Underground Hospital, there was never any question about who was the boss. The Germans themselves worked very hard, but expected the same of the others. If the rate of work or the behaviour was not up to scratch, the Germans would hit out at the slave workers with shovel handle, boot or any other object which happened to be handy. As with all categories of people, the Germans differed very much in their approach from man to man. Some were harsh and brutal, some reasonable and humane.

According to Con Donoghue, not all slave workers were left in the rubble of the collapsed tunnels as is generally supposed. I now quote direct from his commentary.

  

"I do not deny that the Germans were our enemies at all times, but I do not feel that people should be condemned for something they did not do. I arrived on the site one morning when part of one of the tunnels had fallen in and three men had been killed. They dug into the rubble as fast as possible to get the bodies out, wrapped them in canvas and took them away by lorry to be buried. The same thing happened again in a later fall when 22 workers were killed and according to the lorry driver, they too were taken out in the same manner and buried in a corner of St. Saviour's Churchyard. Teischmann was a very humane man. He had a stream of tears down his face, even as though they were his own children".

The German Underground Hospital - Part 2

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 2
by R.M. Ellington

WORK FORCE

When work commenced in the summer of 1942, the labour force involved was a combination of slave workers and members of the Todt Organisation. The Todt Organisation was a Para-Military unit, roughly equivalent to a combination of our Royal Engineers, Sappers, and Pioneer Corps.

The slave workers consisted, in the main, of Russians (mainly Ukrainians) and Poles, also some Frenchmen and Spaniards. These Spaniards were men who had been on the Communists' side in the Spanish Civil War. After the Reds lost the Civil War, they escaped over the border into France and that is how they became taken prisoner by the Germans and drafted into the slave worker force.

The Todt Organisation men worked side by side with the slave workers in varying ratios according to the specific work being carried out. The people I interviewed were only on the site for a limited period and therefore each had only a part of the overall picture.

But it would appear that the main labour force lived in an encampment at Goose Green March, Beaumont, though some of the Russians were encamped at La Moye.

There was a force of some 200 odd Senegalese prisoners of war stationed at Fort Regent. They were French Nationals and still in the ragged remains of the uniforms they were wearing at the time of their capture. They were mainly negroes and half-castes, but there is little concrete evidence to suggest than any one of them were involved in the construction of the German Underground Hospital.

The situation regarding the slave workers is more complicated than would appear at first sight. Not all the people were in actual fact slaves. Many of them were OT employees recruited in occupied territories, some voluntarily, some compulsorily, frequently from areas where there was no other useful employment for them. They were clothed in semi-uniform fashion by the Germans with their own system of coupons for essential clothing supplies. The money for any clothing thus supplied would be deducted from their wages. These mainly unskilled workers were usually on a definite service contract, 3, 6 and 12 months being the periods most frequently quoted.

The actual Russian and Polish slave workers had been brought overland from their homes in Eastern Europe on rail trucks, where these were available, but most of the way on foot. The journey entailed the most strenuous and appalling conditions and many were in a state of partial exhaustion and semi-starvation by the time they arrived at the French coast to be enshipped to Jersey.

It would appear from all reports that there were no Gestapo overseers or guards with whips as are so often portrayed in the more gruesome accounts. The only guards as such, armed with rifles in the normal way, were at the entrances. Inside the Todt Organisation men, the slave workers and the OT contract labour force worked side by side.

There was an Italian officer by the name of Realini whose true rank no-one has been able to establish. He was the main Architect on the German Underground Hospital project, but under the overall control of Major Teischmann.

The slave workers were encamped at Goose Green Marsh and their accommodation consisted of long wooden huts. There was little heating in the winter and little for them to do when they had returned from work. The encampment was surrounded by barbed wire and they were allowed no contact with the local population. They had to make their own entertainment and leisure activities as best they could, but in the state of physical exhaustion and semi-starvation they were in, it is doubtful whether they would have very much inclination in this direction.

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.