W55, Widerstandsnest 55 – L ‘Oeiliere
With the use of a natural rock formation two gun bunkers are built inside the cliff overlooking two beaches. One to the north, the other two the south.
Defending beaches
Another Jägerkasematte can be found at Widerstandsneste L ‘Oeiliere. It is embedded in the rock. This resistance nest looks out over the south side of the beach of St Ouen’s Bay and the waterways in front. Next to the WaKoFest Jägerstand with its 10,5 cm French gun there was a Regelbau 631 with a 4,7 cm anti-tank gun really close to each other. They were connected with a small tunnel.
Regelbau type 631 was a flanking gun bunker with an officer and a crew of six. The gun was protected from the attacking side by a thick concrete wall. It fired on the more exposed side of the enemies transport or armor. The 4,7 cm Festung PaK (t) was adapted in the German Wehrmacht after the invasion of Czechoslovakia. This specialized anti-tank gun was removed from the defenders bunkers and used in the Channel Island defense. It came with two types of grenades, a high explosive one and an anti-tank grenade. The gun could penetrate 52 mm steel of sloping armor angled at 60 degrees over a distance of 100 meters, at 500 meter this was brought back to 47 mm and at 1000 meters to 40 mm. This gun had a coaxial machinegun type MG37 (t) intergrated like in a tank turret for close defence.
Both bunkers overlooked a different side of the cliff they were build in, the Regelbau 631 with its 4,7 cm Festung gun overlooked the bay at Petit Port beach southwards, towards Stützpunkt Corbière and the Naval Observation tower MP 2. This bay is only 250 meters wide. The other side, St Ouen’s Bay, was covered by the Jägerstand. The beach towards the north is about 6 kilometers long, well within reach of the 12 kilometers effective distance of the French 10,5 cm gun. On the far north side St Ouens bay was coverd by Stützpunkt Etacquerel, in between more defensive positions and a large anti-tank wall. A tobruk was installed at Widerstandsnest L ‘Oeiliere for close defense.
Strangely both the ex-Czechoslovakian 4,7 cm PaK (t) and the ex-French 10.5cm K331 (f), original an French Schneider gun are both manufactured by Skoda.
Visit
You can park your car near the walk ways from the south side or from the north side at La Pulente, it doesn’t matters much. It always will be a fun walk with a great view. Bring a torch so you can find your way in the dark bunkers.
