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Jersey and the German Army

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German Military Geology and Fortification of the British Channel Islands During World War II

Part of the book series: Advances in Military Geosciences ((AMG))

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Abstract

Second Lieutenant (later Captain) Walther Klüpfel arrived on Jersey in July 1941: a 53-year-old university professor experienced in commercial as well as academic geology, and a veteran military geologist of World War I. Assigned as the sole geologist within a multi-disciplinary Fortress Engineer Staff for most of the next 3 years, seven of his surviving reports show how he advised on ground conditions that influenced a massive programme of coastal fortification and associated tunnelling for underground military facilities; quarrying of stone and sand/gravel to generate the considerable quantities of raw material needed to create concrete for construction; and development of essential groundwater resources, notably by compiling three groundwater prospect maps that were innovative in their scale and detail for ‘hard rock’ aquifers. He seemingly remained on Jersey until the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 cut off supplies of cement from the mainland and so brought fortification to an end. He returned to university teaching and research postwar, and died in 1964 at the age of 76.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Festungspionierstab 14.

  2. 2.

    Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv.

  3. 3.

    Zentrum für Geoinformationswesen der Bundeswehr.

  4. 4.

    The ‘best preserved collection of German Second World War defence works in Western Europe’: details accessible online at https://www.cios.org.je/, last accessed 6 December 2019.

  5. 5.

    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combats_du_Bois-le-Pr%C3%AAtre, accessed 29 November 2019.

  6. 6.

    A border city long fortified by the French against potential German attack, Strasbourg was regarded, with Metz, at the time of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 as one of the strongest fortresses in France. After siege, capture and annexation by Germany, it was re-fortified against re-capture by the French.

  7. 7.

    In German known as Lothringen.

  8. 8.

    Privatdozent.

  9. 9.

    Requiring evidence of significant independent scholarship: such as published articles or an unsupervised thesis of a standard considerably higher than that for a doctorate.

  10. 10.

    Now known as the Justus Leibig University Giessen.

  11. 11.

    A now well-established discipline: essentially the study of plant spores and pollen, other organic microscopic organisms, and particulate organic matter.

  12. 12.

    Privatdozent.

  13. 13.

    Kriegsgeologe.

  14. 14.

    Awarded in World War I.

  15. 15.

    Leutnant.

  16. 16.

    The German Geological Society: founded in 1848, this was the oldest and largest society for geologists in Germany.

  17. 17.

    In German each called a Bericht.

  18. 18.

    Abriss der Geologie von Jersey.

  19. 19.

    Wehrgeologischer Bericht über die Insel Jersey.

  20. 20.

    Leutnant.

  21. 21.

    Inspekteur der Landesbefestigungen.

  22. 22.

    Pi Baustab 14.

  23. 23.

    Bericht Nr. 3. Erläuterungen zur Rohstoffkarte der Insel Jersey 1: 25,000.

  24. 24.

    Oberleutnant.

  25. 25.

    4. Wehrgeologischer Bericht. Vorläufige Übersicht über die Grundwasserverhältnisse der Insel Jersey.

  26. 26.

    Über die Wasserverhältnisse auf der Insel Jersey.

  27. 27.

    Kurzberichte.

  28. 28.

    Geol. Kurzbericht über die Hohlgangsystem auf Jersey.

  29. 29.

    Geol. Kurzbericht über den Untergrund der Batterie-Stellung Quennevais nördl. Route Orange, NÖ. La Noye Schule.

  30. 30.

    Bodenuntersuchung für die Ufermauer Westküste, Baules 26.

  31. 31.

    Festungspionierstab 14.

  32. 32.

    Einsatzstellung.

  33. 33.

    Widerstandsnest.

  34. 34.

    Stutzpunkt.

  35. 35.

    https://www.jerseywartunnels.com/, last accessed 6 December 2019.

  36. 36.

    Hartsteine.

  37. 37.

    Captioned as the second edition of the 1: 25,000 series, produced according to marginal data by Armeekartenstelle 515—Army Map Office 515—from the ‘English’ 1: 15,840 map, in August 1941.

  38. 38.

    Of the same series as the ‘first draft’ water map but printed by Verm. u. Kart. Abt. (mot. 631) rather than Armeekartenstelle 515, so seemingly at a different time.

  39. 39.

    Batterie Roon.

  40. 40.

    Sickergraben.

  41. 41.

    Quellstube.

  42. 42.

    Sammelbehälter.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK

    Edward P. F. Rose

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    Edward P. F. Rose

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Rose, E.P.F. (2020). Jersey and the German Army. In: Rose, E.P.F. (eds) German Military Geology and Fortification of the British Channel Islands During World War II. Advances in Military Geosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22768-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22768-9_4

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