Nazi Megastructures "Season - 3" (2/6) : Hitler's Island Megafortress
For educational purposes
It’s June 1940 and the Nazis have taken the Channel Islands, where Hitler orders some of the most fortified structures in the Third Reich.
It’s June 1940 and the Nazis have taken the Channel Islands, where Hitler orders some of the most fortified structures in the Third Reich.
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00:00They're Nazi fortifications on an epic scale.
00:06It's more like a medieval castle with all these staircases.
00:09A group of tiny islands the Germans seize and strengthen at an astonishing rate.
00:16The Channel Isles were the most heavily fortified place on earth.
00:21Fort Knox times ten.
00:23Hitler becomes obsessed.
00:26I will not give up these islands to the British.
00:29Covering them in a network of bunkers, strong points and gun emplacements.
00:36And then ready to fire. Bang!
00:39Packed with 37,000 German troops, primed and ready for an Allied counterattack.
00:48This is the story of the most powerful Nazi island fortress of the Second World War.
00:54Built on British soil.
00:58Hitler's island megafortress.
01:02The biggest construction projects of World War II.
01:06Ordered by Hitler to secure world domination.
01:11Now they survive as dark reminders of the Führer's fanatical military ambition.
01:17These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:29The 6th of June, 1944.
01:33Luftwaffe command HQ on the Channel Islands.
01:38It must be a mistake.
01:40What is it?
01:41Hundreds of enemy planes and ships.
01:44Raise the alarm.
01:47Less than a mile away, 20-year-old anti-aircraft gunner Hubert Wolff is just starting his day.
01:55I took my field glasses to look up at the skies as I did every morning.
02:01I was shocked to see hundreds of American bombers on a direct approach from the north.
02:09Alarm!
02:12Alarm! The Allies are here!
02:19All men to fighting positions! The Allies are here!
02:26I was terrified.
02:29If they dropped their bombs on our island, we would all be finished.
02:42The remains of the Nazi war machine still litter the Channel Islands today.
02:51In the heart of a quaint little town on the island of Alderney,
02:54military historian Dr Peter Lieb has come to discover one of them.
03:01Wow! Stunning!
03:11This tower was the nerve centre of Luftwaffe command.
03:17This is the main entrance to the site.
03:20Here, anyone attacking would be shot right here from this machine gun post.
03:29Another machine gun post.
03:31So anyone trying to get into this place with a wrong intent would be shot from a left or from the centre.
03:41By 1944, this megastructure bristled with advanced telecommunications equipment
03:46as the Nazis scoured the airwaves for evidence of an Allied attack.
03:53Today, it operates as a storage facility for a cell phone company.
04:01Ah! Light doesn't work.
04:05This is a command post where all the messages came in.
04:13An Enigma machine, probably sitting somewhere in one of these rooms.
04:18All the information coming in from the various radar stations
04:23and also from the observers, from aerial reconnaissance.
04:27And all the information passed on through the chain of command to the high command of the Luftwaffe.
04:33A hatch for passing information, messages or telegrams from one room to the other.
04:48Wow! Breathtaking!
04:56The story of the Nazis' hold on the Channel Islands begins in June.
05:021940.
05:10Germany launches a lightning strike on France.
05:14And suddenly the Channel Islands, the biggest of which are Jersey, Guernsey, Polderney, are within easy reach.
05:26The British government believes these islands are impossible to defend
05:30and orders a complete military evacuation.
05:39On the 30th of June, the Nazis land at Guernsey airport.
05:49The occupation begins.
06:00Hitler is determined not to lose his foothold on British soil.
06:12Countermeasures on the Channel Islands must ensure that any British attack fails before a landing is effected.
06:24I order the permanent fortification of the islands.
06:28Turn them into an impregnable fortress.
06:32They must be secured at maximum speed.
06:37Yes, mein Führer. We will commence immediately.
06:45Hitler wants to turn the Channel Islands into a fortress.
06:48There's going to be concrete galore, there's going to be tunnels, there's going to be bunkers,
06:52there's going to be naval guns, there's going to be airfields, there's going to be camps.
06:55You know, this place is just going to be sort of bristling with defensive equipment.
07:05Hitler appoints Count Rudolf von Schmettoff as commander of the islands.
07:13Von Schmettoff knows they don't have the infrastructure to cope with a massive building program.
07:19Gentlemen, we face great difficulties and delays in the fortress construction here for a number of reasons.
07:27The inadequate railroads, the reloading facilities in the harbour are completely insufficient.
07:35It is a complete nightmare.
07:39Work on Hitler's megafortress begins with a vast program of road and rail construction.
07:5320,000 tons of steel and concrete are shipped into the islands every month.
08:00Even after his attention turns to Russia in 1941,
08:04Hitler still keeps a close eye on his Channel fortress.
08:09With Hitler turning east, what he really needs to be doing is focusing everything on going east,
08:16putting all his resources there.
08:18What he doesn't need is a tiny outcrop of concrete,
08:23going east, putting all his resources there.
08:25What he doesn't need is a tiny outcrop of little islands just off the French coast
08:31and then stuffing it full of tunnels and concrete and bunkers and all the rest of it.
08:36The occupation of the islands is a massive propaganda coup.
08:40He's determined not to let them go.
08:44You must press ahead with the fortification.
08:49I fear the British will attack at any moment.
08:53Strategically, overall, it just makes no sense.
09:00Hitler's goal is an integrated island fortress,
09:03the like of which the world has never seen before.
09:07A series of interconnected gun positions, observation towers, strong points
09:14and tunnels to withstand attack from sea or air.
09:20But Hitler isn't only interested in fortifying the islands.
09:27He decides they have a role in the thousand-year Reich once the war is won.
09:38The Channel Islands, because of their wonderful climate,
09:43constitute a marvellous location for the Strength Through Joy organisation.
09:48After the war, the islands must remain German.
09:52Our soldiers can recover there.
09:54We must hold on to them.
09:59Ultimately, the megafortress will become a Nazi island paradise.
10:10On the Channel Islands, phase two of Hitler's island megafortress build begins.
10:19Oh, I can already see concrete.
10:23Here it is.
10:26Wow, that looks like a crater. It's amazing. It's huge, enormous.
10:38At the Battery Miros on Guernsey,
10:40over 100,000 tonnes of concrete is used to build four enormous naval gun positions.
10:49The sheer size of it, just for one single gun.
10:59The barrel, 45 feet, weighing the entire gun 51 tonnes.
11:07And the mounting platform, a specially designed mounting platform, also weighing 40 tonnes.
11:19The gun could swivel about two degrees per second.
11:26So this means it took three minutes for the whole gun to swivel around.
11:31Overall, the gun could fire up to 30 miles.
11:40Two of the four gun emplacements at Battery Miros are disguised to look like quaint English cottages.
11:49But hidden beneath them lie ammunition stores, generators, heating and ventilation systems,
11:56and personnel accommodation for 72 men.
12:01Only the guns, rangefinders and crew entrance sit above the surface.
12:10This is very likely the entrance for the crew.
12:19In German, Feindherd mit, the enemy listens. So watch out, be careful what you say.
12:34A swastika, the emblem for the German armed forces.
12:46Normally they wore an eagle with a swastika like that on the breast of their uniform.
12:53Oh, another drawing.
12:57Wir fahren gegen England. We are going against England.
13:02Just shows who the enemy was here in this place.
13:11What is this? Are these drains?
13:16No, it's steel. Must be tracks.
13:20Now I see what it is like.
13:23Here, the German lorries brought the shells, hoisted them onto trolleys that were here on these tracks.
13:33The trolley is being pushed by a number of German soldiers back into the bunker.
13:42Wow, amazing. It feels like back in the war.
13:47Ah, now I fully get it. This here is the ammunition room.
13:54Oh, here are the tracks for the shells on the roof.
13:59The shells are loaded onto a second trolley. The trolley goes towards the gun and then ready to fire. Bang!
14:08Bang!
14:14As his only grip on Britain, Hitler's attention to the details of the island's defences verges on the fanatical.
14:30Have you got the plan ready?
14:34Show me.
14:43Something is missing. Look at this.
14:47This is unforgivable. I told you this is of the highest importance.
14:52There's a bunker missing. Do it again.
14:56I'm sorry.
15:01Such is Hitler's obsession, one island, Alderney, is given the codename Adolf.
15:08It has been cleared of civilians and is being transformed into a massive military base.
15:15One of over 3,000 men sent to the island to man these fortifications is anti-aircraft gunner Hubert Wolf.
15:24He gets an order to embark immediately for a night crossing from France.
15:31We boarded a small vessel of the German navy in Cherbourg.
15:36We were put on the floors of the various decks and started our night journey to Alderney.
15:41It was a very stormy night, and most of us, never having been on a ship before, were promptly seasick.
15:56Island's commander Rudolf von Schmettoff walks a fine line between showing the islanders respect...
16:03Good morning.
16:06Oh, thank you.
16:09...and keeping thousands of German soldiers ready for battle.
16:16Work continues on fortifying the islands.
16:20Phase 3 is a network of naval observation towers.
16:25Conflict archaeologist Dr Tony Pollard has been granted access to one of them.
16:32Now that is mega. This is what I came to see.
16:35This is what I came to see. It's an amazing big structure.
16:39It's known as a marine pelch dam, and it's for marine range fighting.
16:45This massive concrete building's sole purpose is to spot, identify, and precisely locate enemy targets.
16:55And even from here, it looks like the walls are about two and a half metres thick.
16:59Phenomenal structure.
17:01But this is the killer, its location on this cliff face.
17:06There's almost a beauty to this, and the locals describe it as the Odeon.
17:11They call it the Odeon because it looks a bit like an art deco cinema from the 1930s.
17:16But it's iconic. You only find them in the Channel Islands.
17:22It's a Nazi megastructure to beat them all.
17:32Oh. I didn't expect it to be spooky.
17:37Oh, good grief.
17:43Steps everywhere.
17:48Grief. It's huge.
17:55It's more like a medieval castle with all these staircases.
17:59The direction and range-finding tower has three levels,
18:03each monitoring the horizon for different gun batteries stationed inland.
18:10Once spotted, the precise distance and direction to an enemy ship is communicated back to the guns.
18:17With a network of nine towers around the coastline,
18:21the Nazis can defend themselves from a naval attack from any direction.
18:31Oh, wow.
18:34This is a really cool place.
18:37It's a really cool place.
18:40It's a really cool place.
18:43Oh, wow.
18:46That is beautiful.
18:49This is like one of those panoramic photographs.
18:54Complete 180.
18:57Top floor.
19:03There are other features in here.
19:06I can see already that there are tubes.
19:12Running all the way along here,
19:16that one just goes straight out.
19:20What they might be, and we come back to this idea of it being like a medieval castle,
19:25is a tube through which you could drop a hand grenade,
19:28and it would go down the tube, shoot out from the wall, and drop on their heads.
19:33There are still mysteries. We don't know everything.
19:36And in a way, these are like ancient monuments.
19:39In some cases, the secrets died with the people that manned them.
19:50The enormous Nazi gun emplacements and rangefinders on the Channel Islands
19:55mean any British ship that strays within 30 miles is likely to be blown out of the water.
20:03But Hitler has even bigger plans.
20:07The next phase of constructing his mega-fortress is about to begin.
20:18The Channel Islands, 1942.
20:21Hitler has demanded the construction of a vast network of tunnels.
20:26Their purpose? To provide protection for equipment, ammunition, and personnel.
20:33The other thing one has to realise about the Germans on the Channel Islands, and anywhere,
20:38is that they just don't do anything by halves.
20:41So again, it's not just a question of building naval guns
20:45and then building range-finding observation towers.
20:48They then start building tunnels, you know, 13 miles of tunnels under the Channel Islands.
20:53It's just a phenomenal engineering feat.
20:56In total, 8.6 million cubic feet of earth and rock are dug from the islands.
21:14This is the HO2 tunnel, and I'm led to believe it's really very special,
21:19so I'm incredibly excited about this.
21:22Grief.
21:28Wow.
21:30This is one of the few tunnels on the islands the British did not clear of Nazi equipment.
21:39It's amazing to see that some of it is still lying here in this...
21:44in this...
21:46It's amazing to see that some of it is still lying here in this...
21:52incredible graveyard of equipment.
21:55Look at that. Look at the bearings on that.
21:58I think that might be the limber for an artillery piece.
22:09You could drive a train through this, no problem at all.
22:16Look at this.
22:18Look at the size of this piece.
22:25Look, it's got a rotating disc on the base.
22:31This is a radar system known as the Würzburg,
22:35and these were used to control anti-aircraft fire,
22:38allow the guns to lock onto the target.
22:41And again, indicative of the lengths to which Hitler was going to make this place impregnable.
22:56Look, on the wall here, you can see these scratch marks.
23:02They've been created by caterpillar tracks crashing into the wall,
23:06and the point is that for a vehicle to hit the side,
23:11there may be two of them side by side.
23:13This has been stuffed full.
23:16I love all these little forensic traces they leave behind.
23:20They're sometimes more exciting than the really obvious stuff.
23:27Above ground, Hubert Wolff and his anti-aircraft unit are becoming increasingly bored,
23:33repeating drills for any Allied counter-attack.
23:37All right, let's go, boys.
23:41To your positions.
23:45Okay, load.
23:4835 degrees to the west.
23:53Okay, Müller, when you are ready, fire at will.
23:58Seize fire.
24:00We were restricted to daily gun practices.
24:03We were told to be on guard around the clock.
24:06So, we were looking up at the sky for British planes, but nothing happened.
24:11Very good, lads. That's it for today. Dismissed.
24:28Wolff's anti-aircraft position is one of 86 batteries and over 400 flak guns stationed on the islands.
24:39Alongside gun emplacements, towers and tunnels,
24:43the Nazis build a series of strongpoints throughout the islands.
24:47One of the most heavily fortified is strongpoint Josefsburg on Alderney.
24:53Fortifications expert Arthur van Beveren has come to the island to investigate.
24:59The Germans invaded the Channel Islands in 1940,
25:02and what they found were all these forts all over the islands.
25:05So, what they did, they reused the old Victorian fort.
25:14Built to withstand attack from any direction,
25:17this strongpoint is equipped with searchlight positions,
25:19four-inch caliber machine gun casements and anti-aircraft guns.
25:28But it's the northern tip, known as the Big Nose,
25:32that the Nazis turn into their mega-bunker.
25:36They pour concrete into the existing fort
25:39to create a bomb-proof accommodation block,
25:42topped with a steel observation and machine gun position.
25:46So, this bunker is a one-of-a-kind,
25:49and it has about three or three-and-a-half levels,
25:54and we're going down one level now.
25:57It's some really big stairs.
26:03This is seven feet of reinforced concrete,
26:06and it's about three-and-a-half meters high.
26:09So, it's a really big bunker.
26:12This is seven feet of reinforced concrete,
26:15and behind it is the original Victorian wall.
26:21The crew of this fortress,
26:23and I guess it was about 50 men inside this bunker,
26:26were all inside here,
26:28and they had beds hanging here,
26:32and the beds were hanging on these hooks,
26:35and you had three layers of beds,
26:38one here, one here.
26:39One here, one here, and one down here.
26:43So, it was a pretty small place for all these guys.
26:51By 1943, there has still been no Allied counter-attack.
26:57Hitler regards his fortification of the islands a success.
27:04The concept is taken further,
27:05to 1,700 miles of coastline to defend northern Europe.
27:11The Atlantic Wall.
27:15Now, with an area 20 times longer to fortify,
27:19some of Hitler's senior generals start to question
27:22his unwavering preoccupation with the islands.
27:28I will not give up these islands to the British.
27:32If they're going to attack us,
27:33I am sure this is where they will start.
27:37We must finish the island fortress.
27:45This is his island madness.
27:53Hitler is constantly putting an arm behind the back
27:57of his Wehrmacht, of his armed forces,
27:59by his meddling, by his strategic interference.
28:03His staff might say, you know,
28:05Mein Führer, I think you might want to reconsider that,
28:08because I'm not sure that's a good idea.
28:10But, you know, you're a brave man
28:12if you're going to stand up to Adolf Hitler and say that.
28:17In order to satisfy Hitler's obsession,
28:20the Nazis bring their darkest practices
28:23from Europe to the islands.
28:30Winter, 1943.
28:35Hitler's attack on Russia is faltering.
28:40More men are needed on the front,
28:43causing problems for the Channel Islands commander.
28:47About 6,000 young, well-trained NCOs and men
28:52had to be exchanged for men
28:54that were much older and little trained.
28:56The Continental Divisions did not have
28:59the fighting power necessary
29:01for carrying out the counter-offensives.
29:04Botshmatov is not a radicalised Nazi or anything like that.
29:07You know, he comes from a traditional military background.
29:10But, of course, you know, he's constantly having to respond
29:12to the dictates from Berlin,
29:15and these become ever more difficult to enact.
29:21But as German soldiers ascent east,
29:23captured Russians and Eastern Europeans are shipped west,
29:27forced to work on the islands in labour camps.
29:33For decades, nobody really knew what happened here.
29:39I'm heading to the Gates of Lager Silt,
29:42which is one of four camps on Alderney,
29:45but it's the only one that's a concentration camp run by the SS.
29:49There were 1,000 inmates here,
29:50and they included Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, French Jews
29:54and political prisoners.
29:56These people are regarded as the uttermention.
29:59They're less than human.
30:11Just a few haunting remnants of the concentration camp remain.
30:17Oh, we've got stonework here.
30:20And a stairway.
30:26And a stairway.
30:33That is a serious bunker, whatever it is.
30:38Snails on the wall.
30:42Wow.
30:44Creep.
30:50Well, this, I think, explains this room.
30:53We've got this big iron platform
30:57with heavy-duty water pipes leading into it.
31:00It's got to be a boiler.
31:02This is a boiler room.
31:04And look, you can see the coal dust.
31:06So that chute has supplied the coal.
31:08It's been put into the boiler, burned, heating the water.
31:11And here, you've got pipes running up to the surface,
31:16providing hot water.
31:20This is the shower and bath block.
31:22It's clearly not for the use of the workers and the prisoners.
31:26This must be for the use of the officers of the camp.
31:31Oh, we don't have to leave by the stairway
31:34because the plan does show a tunnel.
31:37You can see where the timber shuttering has been
31:40holding the roof up while the concrete sets.
31:44But we're back out in daylight.
31:50And I know from the plan that we're now outside the fence.
31:55We're outside the camp.
31:57But this is no escape tunnel
31:59because just here was the commandant's house,
32:02a guy called Maximilian List.
32:05And even though I can't see anything of the building
32:10because of the overgrowth,
32:12I'm guessing it probably looked pretty nice.
32:15So he's isolated himself from it.
32:17The only view he's got is a beautiful worn-out sea.
32:21It's kind of horrible, really,
32:23but it's quite typical of concentration camps
32:26where the commandants lived outside,
32:28maybe in a picturesque little cottage,
32:30sometimes with their families,
32:32getting away from the horror that was happening inside the wire.
32:40The slave workers have to endure daily beatings,
32:44malnutrition and disease.
32:47An estimated 4,000 die on the Channel Islands.
32:56I would like to complain most strongly about the action of the German army.
33:01The treatment of the slaves and the people of Jersey is totally unacceptable.
33:05One of the island's politicians, Alexander Coutanche,
33:08appeals on behalf of the slave workers.
33:11However, what you have to understand is that
33:14I am under strict orders from Berlin,
33:15which I personally cannot overhaul.
33:18These orders demand yet more fortifications.
33:23And the biggest megastructure on the island is still to come.
33:31By early 1944, Hitler's impregnable fortress nears completion.
33:38The Channel Islands were the most heavily fortified place on earth.
33:43It is just Fort Knox times ten,
33:47because you've got 175,000 mines,
33:5165,000 feet of anti-tank walls,
33:55440 guns, 86 anti-aircraft batteries.
34:00I mean, this place is absolutely bristling with defensive firepower,
34:06anti-invasion obstacles and so on.
34:09But the crowning glory of the island fortress
34:13is almost entirely invisible from the air.
34:19This unassuming doorway leads into the biggest megastructure on the island.
34:29The Guernsey Tunnels Complex is designed as an ammunition store and accommodation block.
34:36It's one of the largest single engineering projects ever undertaken by the Nazis.
34:45If ever you want to get an idea of Hitler's ambitions for the Channel Islands,
34:49step into this tunnel.
34:51A million cubic feet of rock was hewn away to create one and a quarter miles of tunnels.
34:57The walls are lined with 15,000 tons of concrete.
35:01The scale is just phenomenal.
35:03You could be in here forever.
35:06The Tunnels Complex
35:14Lying some 75 feet below ground,
35:17the tunnels provide complete protection from naval artillery fire and aerial bombardment.
35:26Spanning 75,000 square feet,
35:29they are entirely self-sufficient,
35:32with their own water supply,
35:34kitchen facilities,
35:36even their own cinema.
35:41Look at the curve on this corner.
35:44You can see the grain of the wood impressed in the concrete from the shuttering.
35:48And it's bent round.
35:50It's almost shipbuilding technology here.
35:52They're warping the planks to take this curve round
35:57and bringing us into a cul-de-sac
36:00because here we've got the end of this tunnel
36:03where work stopped
36:05because beyond here,
36:07it's just naked hewn rock.
36:10Gives you some idea of the construction process.
36:14Imagine how dangerous it must be working in that environment.
36:18Very dangerous job.
36:22Only 16 of a planned 40 tunnels are completed
36:26before they're called into action.
36:30But not in a way Hitler anticipated.
36:34At the Luftwaffe's nerve centre,
36:39Allied radio commands are intercepted.
36:44Raise the alarm!
36:48While the alarm is sounded in Luftwaffe command,
36:51gunner Hubert Wolff is starting his day.
36:56At 6.30am, I took my field glasses to look out to sea and was shocked.
37:03There were hundreds of ships.
37:10Alarm!
37:12The Allies are here!
37:16There was a howling of sirens.
37:18All men to fighting positions! The Allies are here!
37:22Everybody ran to the guns and made them ready for firing.
37:27We feared an attack on Alderney either from sea or air.
37:31The tension grew greater and greater.
37:34Then I looked towards the sky and saw 300 American bombers
37:40on a direct approach from the north towards Alderney.
37:44We had never seen so many bombers before.
37:48And our fear became almost unbearable.
37:51If they would drop their bombs on the island,
37:54we would all be finished.
38:04They're going past.
38:12As if by some ghostly hand, the planes turned towards France.
38:19Our comrades over on the other side didn't have the slightest chance.
38:24If there's one point that kind of illustrates
38:27just the enormous folly of all that engineering effort
38:32on the Channel Islands, it's D-Day itself.
38:36Because suddenly the Channel Islands are completely bypassed.
38:47While Wolff's comrades on the Normandy beaches
38:50face an unmanageable threat,
38:51the pirates on the Normandy beaches face an unparalleled onslaught.
38:56Soldiers on the Channel Islands look on helplessly.
39:07The Germans suffer massive casualties on D-Day.
39:12Suddenly the Guernsey tunnels fulfil a vital role.
39:17But with D-Day, the picture changed dramatically.
39:21And so did the use of this facility.
39:24And at that point, it became a hospital.
39:27And they shipped in wounded soldiers from France.
39:30And these chambers, and there are dozens and dozens of them,
39:33became hospital wards.
39:35And look, on the floor here, you can even see the impressions
39:39where the feet of the beds have pressed in to the surface.
39:44You've got a row here, and a row here,
39:49with a narrow gap just up the middle.
39:52And it gives you some idea of how many men were in here.
39:55Upwards of 800 patients.
40:0212th August, 1944.
40:05The Allies sweep through France and are close to liberating Paris.
40:14Isolated from their armies,
40:16Gunner Wolff and his men are still waiting for the war to arrive.
40:22Nothing happened.
40:24Our daily life and routine went on, like before D-Day.
40:28Waiting to be attacked, or perhaps not.
40:32But one day, the British battleship Rodney,
40:36positioned close to France, and out of sight to our guns,
40:40fired over 70 shells on Alderney.
40:51Several landed very close to us.
40:55Our lives had been saved by just a few feet.
41:06Despite creating the world's most fortified islands,
41:10in a bitter irony, HMS Rodney's planned attack
41:14was a failure.
41:16It was a failure.
41:18It was a failure.
41:20It was a failure.
41:21In a bitter irony, HMS Rodney's planned attack
41:25isn't detected by the Nazis.
41:29Hitler's megafortress fails its only major test.
41:37As the islands remain isolated,
41:40both German troops and the islanders begin to go hungry.
41:46Gunner Wolff and his men have to forage for food.
41:51Not knowing how long the war would go on,
41:54lack of food became our major problem.
41:57We tried all kinds of ways to survive,
42:00by collecting stinging nettles and fallen apples.
42:09Finally, 11 months after D-Day,
42:12on the 8th of May 1945,
42:15Churchill declares the war over in Europe.
42:22One day later, after five years of occupation,
42:26the Germans surrender the Channel Islands on board a British destroyer.
42:42In his final report,
42:44Count Rudolf von Schmettoff is damning of the entire islands project.
42:52In my opinion, the supreme command
42:55attached an importance to the islands
42:58that doubtless exceeded their value.
43:00Extraordinarily strong forces were committed and bound here.
43:04The reasons for this high valuation have not become known to me.
43:14After the war, Gunner Hubert Wolff became a successful engineer
43:18and recently returned to Alderney to find his old flag position.
43:24There's no question that Hitler does get obsessed
43:27with defending points that have been taken.
43:30They've built all these defences,
43:32they've built all these tunnels,
43:34they've built all these anti-invasion devices all over the place.
43:37And it's utterly, utterly pointless.
43:39It comes to nothing.
43:41They're never, ever used.
43:42Some of the best-preserved megastructures in Europe
43:46now stand on the Channel Islands
43:49as a legacy of Nazi occupation
43:52and a war that never arrived.