Fortifications of Alderney
However, when Queen Mary came to the throne in 1554, the work was abandoned and dismantled, it was converted to a private residence for John Chamberlayne, the Lord of Alderney 1584–91.
King Edward III of England authorised Thomas de Ferres in 1337 to “levy and train” militias in the Guernsey, Jersey, Sark and Alderney, to the use of arms and to “aray them in thousands, hundreds and twenties.”[5][6]: 13 The first mention of a militia commander, Captain Nicholas Ling, was noted in the records in 1657.
In 1793, the fear of the French Revolution resulted in 200 soldiers together with trained artillery men were sent to Alderney.
[4]: 13–14 A telegraph tower was constructed above La Foulère in 1811, enabling signals to be relayed visually to Le Mât in Sark and on to Guernsey – early warning of attack during the Napoleonic Wars was of strategic importance.
Concerns by the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, over France and the expansion of their harbour at Cherbourg resulted in a commission in 1842 to look at the problem.
Following the construction of the railway line from the quarry to the harbour and the importation of two engines, the northern breakwater was begun.
Given the misleading title of a harbour of refuge so as not to provoke the French,[7]: 238 it was constructed by Jackson and Bean between 1847 and September 1864 when it had reached 1,500 m (4,900 ft) when works were abandoned.
Jervois, Corps of Royal Engineers was appointed and not only supervised the works but insisted on agreeing every detail, between 1852 and January 1855, assisted by 11th Company of Sappers and Miners.
There were three Royal visits by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Alderney, on 8/9 August 1854, when the Royal couple rode on an Alderney Railway car under a striped silk canopy, pulled by two black horses to the quarry before returning.
[4]: 23 Completed in 1855 on an islet, Fort Clonque, the most westerly in Alderney, connected by a causeway, mounting ten guns with a crew of 59 and bomb proof buildings.
[4]: 48–49 Originally the barracks were on the shore, making it impossible to get to the fort to man the guns at high tide.
[4]: 70–71 Built on a stone age burial site, a Guernsey archaeologist was distraught at the way the construction labourers threw the bones and artefacts over the cliff into the sea.
[13]: 7 Those that survived the harsh treatment were shipped back to France to work on the Atlantic Wall when that became a higher priority.
There are 397 known graves in Alderney and about 200 died when two German minesweepers were sunk by two Allied Destroyers on 7/8 July 1944.
Using a Spitfire aircraft as a spotter, it fired 72 sixteen-inch (406 mm) shells at a range of 40 kilometres (25 mi).
The 8.8cm batteries, generally with six guns in open-topped concrete emplacements, being controlled with mobile Würzburg radar that had a range of 40 kilometres (25 mi).
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Idiot’s Delight was shot down by Alderney batteries on 19 June 1944 and ditched in the sea.
[13]: 88–89 Roll bombs made from large calibre French shells with a long wire attached to the detonator, were located on top of cliffs.
[13]: 7 Thirteen Stützpunkt (Strongpoints) (SP), more than in Guernsey and many smaller Widerstandsnest (Resistance nests) (WN).
[13] An important element of defence, great care was taken to disguise fortifications from aerial observation using granite, earth, vegetation, paint, wire mesh sprayed with concrete, nets and dummy structures.
[4]: 104 Regular Allied observation flights took photographs of the Island from high and medium levels as works were being constructed, identifying most large objects, but misinterpreting a number of them.
German fortifications along beaches may be on public land and may be open for access, however great care should be taken.
[18] The breakwater is not as long as in 1863, part being abandoned as it suffers from the strong tides and winter storms which have washed away some of the protecting stonework and requires a high annual maintenance bill to keep it intact.
