Coastal fortifications of Jersey

[5] On 28 May 1778 the governor of Jersey, Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway, submitted plans to Lord Weymouth for the construction of 30 coastal towers to forestall, or at least impede French incursions on the island.

The Jersey towers are mostly built with local granite rather than brick, have a slighter batter (taper), and most importantly, originally did not have a cannon on the top platform.

(The Guernsey round towers have a strong batter on the ground floor and no machicolations; they too initially did not carry a gun on the top platform.)

Later, at the onset of the Napoleonic Wars, both the Jersey and Guernsey towers each received a 12-pounder carronade on a pivot mount for the top platform.

[8] The latest Jersey pound note design (2010) has a picture of the St Clement's tower at Le Hocq.

During World War II Nazi Germany constructed a considerable number of fortifications in the Channel Islands which form part of the Atlantic Wall.

The most distinctive new structures the Germans built were the Marine Peilstand (MP) towers that they used to search for targets at sea.

Organisation Todt built the fortifications using imported labour, primarily prisoners of war and workers deported from occupied countries.