Batterie Moltke
To defend the beaches on St Ouen’s Bay and the waters on the west side of the island, the stretch of water up to the next isle named Sark, the Germans built defensive positions on the Isle of Jersey in the United Kingdom as part of the Atlantic Wall. Battery Moltke was an Organisation Todt project built by forced laborers from Spain, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. The plan was to deploy German 15 cm SK C/28 guns. These fast loading guns could fire 8 shells a minute and had a range of 23 kilometers, but weren’t at hand from the start of Battery Moltke. Instead French Canon de 155 mm GPF guns from 1917 were used, the Germans designated these 15,5 cm K418 (f) – the f for France. These guns had a reach of 20 kilometers and would fit in for the time being. To be honest, the entire Jersey coastline was within range of the French 15,5 cm guns at Batterie Moltke.
Open Gun Emplacements old and new
In the end four French guns operated in open gun positions. Next to these existing open gun positions Organisation Todt built four new gun positions for the German 15 cm SK C/28 guns but these guns never arrived. There were problems during manufacturing which delayed the delivery of the 15 cm SK C/28 German guns, the end of the war meant that the guns were never installed.
Beside the open gun emplacement there were four Regelbau M151 personnel bunkers, five Regelbau 512 ammunition bunkers, three 3,7 cm Flak anti-air gun positions, one 150 cm searchlight position named Artur. Three machinegun positions were created with turrets from World War One French Renault FT tanks.
Open Gun Emplacements 1, 2 and 3
Visit
Batterie Moltke is situated on top of the cliff overlooking the sea. It has a beautiful walkway up north towards Stützpunkt Butts and the MP 3 observation tower. There is a parking lot nearby. The Gun emplacements are always open for they are unfenced and outside. There is a little subterranean museum under Gun Emplacement number 4, check out the website of Jersey bunker tours or other websites for openingtimes or tour information, gun emplacement no. 4 is near the parking lot. Another option is walking to or from Stützpunkt Butts, it’s a short walk.
