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Report - - German tunnels, Jersey: Hohlgangsanlage 1 & 2 update 2019 | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - German tunnels, Jersey: Hohlgangsanlage 1 & 2 update 2019

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GJ0KYZ

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Firstly, I'm new to the site so thanks for having me. I hope my first post is in the right place and in the correct format.

The German war tunnels in Jersey ('hohlgangsanlage') are well documented on 28DL and I believe some people from the UK have been over in recent years to explore them. I live fairly close to two of these (HO1 & HO2) in St. Peter's Valley on the south end of Rue de l'Aleval. I noticed the other day that both tunnels were open and I've been in a few times to take a look. HO1 remains in use as a commercial mushroom farm whilst HO2 is an unfinished tunnel on the opposite side of the road. Like most of the holgangsanlage these two are circular in layout with two entrances.

HO2 feels the more eerie of the two with some fairly sinister-looking canisters left over from the war lying midway along the first of the concreted sections. The majority of this tunnel is, however, bare rock of varying quality. There is evidence of recent access with food and drink debris scattered around and string laid on the floor presumably to allow egress if torches failed. Some graffiti on the central concrete section looks quite fresh. Of particular note is an in-situ bat detection device just inside the north entrance. This has been placed within the past seven days as it wasn't there last weekend. Please leave this be if you plan on exploring the tunnel any time soon. I didn't check the far concreted section as my mate was getting a bit freaked out by then so we left by the south exit. The air quality throughout was stale and given the aforementioned material we both wore masks. There's a video link below of the inside of HO2.

HO1: The metal gate at the south entrance to HO1 (next to the cottage) looks closed but is currently unlocked. HO1 is larger and more complete than HO2 and about half of the tunnel is fully concreted. Explorers should be aware that this tunnel is in use and to respect the property and fixtures found inside. Following the tunnel north leads to a fork with a blockage to the right. The left-hand route soon leads to bare rock with some dodgy-looking pit props and metal work. The first small side branch on the left takes you back parallel to the main section with the promise to join it at the tunnel's south entrance judging from the plans. However we found a blockage at that point so we had to retrace our steps all the way back. Midway along this bare-rock section is an old military vehicle that I was told was German (see photo below). The tyres, however, appear to have English writing on them so it's probably an allied vehicle left from when the tunnels were cleared after WW2. I have included a video link showing the intact section of HO1.

It's unusual to find these tunnels accessible. No doubt they'll be resealed and locked in the near future. In the meantime, I can be contacted should anyone need additional information or would like to explore them in person. If you're going in by yourself just be aware that the tunnels are hazardous. Make certain someone knows where you are in case anything happens and you fail to return. As an aside, I have only recently discovered the online world of urbexing despite having undertaken exploration on my own for many years. If anyone living in Jersey would like to get in touch to exchange stories or information then just drop me a line. Thanks.

HO2 near exit to the south

HO1 main section

Abandoned vehicle in HO1

HO1 in-situ military vehicle.jpg



Northern exit of HO1
HO1 north exit.jpg
 
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mjm

28DL Member
28DL Member
Nice footage! I've never been in Ho1, It's always looked locked up but I never thought to try the gate! And there's always been activity in that ramshackle house right by it. I might have to wonder down at some point...

The northern entrance on Ho2 gets welded up every now and then, but I've never seen the southern entrance closed up. I think most of the junk in there would be post war, but rooting around in the stub of the never-completed central entrance (level with the rock crusher outside) you can find gas-mask parts (someone took all their brass fittings for scrap!), relatively intact filter canisters, and the remains of klappspatens. Lying on the gravel somewhere in the inner area was an inconspicuous piece of rusting metal that a friend of mine recognised as the removable hand-crank of an air-raid siren. Something else surviving from the war you may have noticed are occasional marking from a survey of the tunnel post-war, brushed onto the walls in a thick white paint.

I'm sure you know but for the benefit of anyone else reading, the layout comprises of a long oval, which would contain a narrow-gauge track, with a few passages arranged in a grid within the oval, and extending past the inner side of the oval, which would have contained storage areas. On the valley side of the oval the tracks arc out, as if forming a figure-eight and make the main entrances. This would give five passages into the inner area, but four of these are blocked by cave-ins (Exclusively in unlined parts of the tunnel, sometimes immediately where the lining ends, the tunnel is dug into shale after all.) and the fifth is partially blocked by a slow continual cave-in where the rock is visibly different. This is the site where two boys, visiting the tunnel after some enterprising fellows found their way in in the 60s, lit a fire, damaging the shale above, and leading to their deaths of oxygen starvation. You think the air is muggy today, with two fairly open entrances, but at that time the only entrance was a small hole, visible in the upper right-hand corner of the current northern entrance (The cutting was back-filled and the very top of the concrete wall blocking the northern entrance had been dug down to. The north and south entrances were cleared in the 80s I believe in an abortive attempt to turn the tunnel into a museum similar to Ho8), which can be seen in a photo in a JEP article covering the deaths. Just a spooky story for you haha.

Come to think of it, this story has probably been recounted in the other posts you mentioned, but I've typed it out now...
 

GJ0KYZ

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
That's really interesting, thanks. The gate on HO1 has been open for a while now. The cottage appears to be empty at the moment but there were a couple of guys hanging around with their car yesterday. I'm not sure what they were up to but we waited until they left before we went in. The scrambling guys were up by the northern entrance to HO2 but they didn't seem interested in what we were doing. Have you been in any of the other tunnels or anywhere else of interest in the Island?
 

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