Fort Tourgis
| Fort Tourgis | ||
|---|---|---|
 Fort Tourgis 2010 |
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| Creation time : | 1855 | |
| Castle type : | Coastal fort | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | English royal family | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Saint Anne | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 43 '8.1 " N , 2 ° 13' 10.2" W | |
| Height: | 38 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Fort Tourgis is the ruin of an extensive fortress northwest of Saint Anne on the channel island of Alderney .
The coastal fort , completed in 1855, was planned to house a garrison of 346 men and was originally the largest of the Victorian-era forts on Alderney. The assembly of 33 heavy cannons in five batteries together with four 13 ” mortars was also planned. Fort Albert , which was built just a year later, in 1856, would eventually become the largest and most heavily armed fort on the island, but Fort Tourgis is still an impressive facility today.
history
The Victorian forts on Alderney were intended to defend the island and its port, which was to accommodate a British fleet to counterbalance France's maritime power in the English Channel. From 1860 onwards, the progress in weapons technology, in particular the advent of guns with rifled barrels and ships clad with armor plates, the island's 18 forts and batteries and the new port became increasingly dispensable. But a number of forts, including Fort Tourgis, were later equipped with more modern cannons. In 1886 the island's defenses consisted of 124 cannons, mortars and howitzers ; In 1893 only Fort Albert and the Roselle Battery were armed; Fort Grosnez still had two cannons manned by Alderney militia men. In 1908 only Fort Albert with its two 6 cannons installed in 1901 and the Roselle Battery with its two 12 pounder QF cannons were able to defend the island.
From July 1940, when Alderney and the other Channel Islands had been occupied by the Germans , defenses were designed to protect both the sea route from Cherbourg to Saint-Malo and a possible British attack to recapture the only part of the British Isles. which had been occupied by the Germans to withstand. Fort Tourgis became “Turkish Castle Base”. Fort Tourgis has a citadel with a barracks block, main magazine and other facilities, along with two small cannon batteries, one facing west (3 cannons) and one facing east (2 cannons). The main armament of the fort was housed in three batteries that faced the sea. The batteries are from each other and from the citadel through with drawbridges provided trenches separated.
After extensive clearance and security work coordinated by the Living Islands project and carried out by volunteers supported by the state construction department, part of the northern defenses of Fort Tourgis is now open to the public. Cambridge Battery (No. 2) is a prime example of the adaptation of the original Victorian fortifications by German forces during World War II when Alderney became one of the most heavily fortified sections of Hitler's Atlantic Wall .
description
Alderney was effectively demilitarized in the 1920s, but new life came to the fortresses during World War II due to German occupation. The Germans built five artillery batteries, 23 anti-aircraft batteries, 13 bases, 12 nests of resistance, three defense lines and brought 30,000 mines to the small island.
Fort Tourgis was called by the Germans "Base Turk Castle". An anti-aircraft battery with three 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, two 10.5 cm coastal defense cannons, two 7.5 cm anti-tank cannons, several searchlights and numerous machine guns were installed. What was remarkable was the ingenuity and high quality of the planning work to equip an earlier Victorian fort with military equipment from the 20th century.
The wild vegetation of the fort since 1945 provides an ideal habitat for invertebrates, small mammals and birds. Kestrels use the loopholes in the eastern wall as nesting sites and the fields and meadows outside as hunting grounds. Meadow greasers and occasionally even Provence warblers can be seen in the bushes that grow out of the undergrowth.
German tunnel
This tunnel leads under the Victorian wall through the former warehouse of the Cambridge Battery into the fort. It provided an easy-to-use connection between the fort and the gun bunkers outside and provided a shorter connection from Fort Tourgis to Fort Platte Saline and beyond.
The extent and concentration of concrete structures used by the occupying forces has over time become home to a wide variety of wildlife. Of barn swallows (which often nest in tunnels) up to a rarity in the British Isles, the Bloxworth - corn borer , this species animal observers offer ideal opportunities.
Victorian magazine
This part of the fort, used to store powder, grenades, and ammunition, served the Cambridge Battery and was built to stay safe and dry.
In the first phase of construction, the Cambridge Battery (No. 2) was equipped with eight 68-pounder and 32-pounder cannons without rifled barrels, which fired spherical explosive or non-explosive ammunition. The propellant charges were put together in the magazine and packed in powder sacks. These were then taken out to the cannon crew and the cannon barrels rammed, followed by the cannonball. The Germans probably used the magazine because they built a very thick concrete wall for additional protection.
Cambridge Battery
Battery No. 2 was one of five batteries in the fort. It was located in the northeast corner of the fort and was equipped with 68-pounder and 32-pounder cannons without rifled barrels. These fired from a gun bank over walls with earthen walls. The cannons were installed on heavy wooden platforms that rotated on iron pivot points with small metal wheels. These ran on semicircular or circular rails that can still be seen clearly today.
The battery's guards included a long, south-east facing wall with loopholes for musket fire, along with a caponier facing north to flank the north facade of the fort.
German generator and occupation bunker
Even if its purpose is not exactly known, it is likely that this bunker could have housed a small generator that supplied power for the neighboring 60 cm searchlight stand. An alternative or additional purpose could have been to protect the crew. The bunker is in a place where once, in Victorian times, there was a heavy cannon that stood on a pivot and rails that are now buried under concrete. Today you can see sparrows nesting there ; in a few years there will be up to three inhabited nests.
German searchlight bunker
During the First and Second World Wars, searchlights were an important part of all defenses in order to illuminate the sea and sky during night operations. They were often used in conjunction with noise detectors or radar. On Alderney there were a total of 35 German searchlights, 24 of which were 60 cm in diameter. Six of these were housed in bunkers that were unique to Alderney. The 60cm unit in these unusual bunkers was brought into position on rails that can still be seen in the ground today. If they were not in use, they could be driven back to an adjoining shelter. A turntable made it possible to position from this shelter in order to detect movements at sea, attacks on the beach and possibly air strikes on the fortress. The headlights had a range of over 5 kilometers.
Nature in Fort Tourgis
From the searchlight stand you can look out over the sea, but also back into the fort. Behind the viewer lies the coarse undergrowth, ivy-covered walls and wild bushes that have overgrown the fort for the past 70 years since the Germans surrendered. Today this forms a valuable habitat for species such as kestrels, buzzards , meadow pipits , meadow treacherous and white-toothed shrews . Alderney's forts became nature's bulwarks and many flowering plants and ferns have now settled on Fort Tourgis.
The rapid repopulation of the military facilities with their very different living conditions and habitats is one of the reasons why Alderney has a landscape with such a rich wildlife and flora. Often what looks like dry scrub is full of life.
Fort Tourgis searchlight bunker
The searchlight bunker offers a panoramic view of Clonque Bay and Platte Saline . To the east the view extends over the Victorian forts Doyle and Grosnez . To the left, to the west, one overlooks much of Alderney's Ramsar Area , an area of rocky coastline, islets and habitats on the sea floor that are protected by the RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.
The swellings created by the tidal rivers of Alderney's Swinge provide the nutrients that attract fish, and thus seabirds, making Alderney a center for seabirds in the English Canal. One sees pure white boobies with their black wing tips often flying in formation; Cormorants dry their wings on the rocks; the brown curlews with their long, downwardly curved beaks and the white little egrets catch fish in the tide pools below the bunker.
Victorian tunnel to the caponier
This tunnel allowed easy access to the caponier from the battery. In Victorian times there was no other access to the safe caponier outside the fort. The tunnel was probably lit by oil lamps.
Victorian caponier
The modern look of its interior means that the caponier dates from the Second World War, but it was only cleverly rebuilt and reinforced during this period by adding concrete cladding to the original stone walls. This created a stand for two German machine guns. Most of the German bunkers were painted white inside, but the larger ones often had wooden paneling on the walls and floors. From the outside you can clearly see that the caponier was part of the Victorian defenses; it probably had loopholes for muskets so that you could fire along the fort's walls and repel an attack. Further examples of this can be seen in Alderney at the forts Clonque and Raz , also on the east side of the citadel of Tourgis. They are also an important part of Fort Albert's defenses, the deep moat of which is protected by five capons.
German bunkers for machine guns and anti-tank cannons
This large room combined a machine gun stand with that for a 7.5 cm anti-tank cannon 40 , which could sweep the wide angle of fire visible through the large loopholes. The anti-tank gun was able to be pulled along a trail that can still be seen on the concrete floor today. This bunker of unknown type was built from concrete over a meter thick according to a reinforced field order standard. A large, presumably bulletproof door enabled easy access to the anti-tank gun. With the exception of the bunker for the 10.5 cm Jäger gun, none of the bunkers was gastight.
Türkenburg Fortress
After June 1940, Alderney was occupied by the Germans and was heavily fortified. Fort Tourgis, with its easily defendable location on a slope that slopes down to the sea, was an ideal location for a defensive structure. So required z. B. the development of attacks with tanks and amphibious vehicles with the help of landing craft, strong defenses on the beach and anti-tank guns. The first bunker at the entrance to the fortress housed both an anti-tank cannon and a machine gun. There is a tunnel from the Victorian caponier that is accessible from the bunker for the 7.5 cm anti-tank gun and leads up to the Victorian battery. This caponier was covered with concrete by the Germans and equipped with machine guns and two gun positions facing west.
After extensive clean-up and maintenance work carried out by volunteers under the direction of the State Construction Department, part of Fort Tourgis' northern defense facilities is now open to the public. The Cambridge Battery (No. 2) and its later German bunkers are excellent examples of the adaptation of original Victorian fortifications by German forces during World War II, when Alderney became one of the most heavily fortified sections of Hitler's Atlantic Wall.
German 10.5 cm gun bunker on the beach
This impressive, large hunter bunker housed a beach defense cannon, type 10.5 cm K331 (f) . This special type of bunker had both accommodation for the crews and a magazine and was only built on the Channel Islands. The French 10.5 cm prey gun was able to sweep the wide beach of Platte Saline , which, like many other beaches on the island, was susceptible to attacks with landing craft and tanks.
restoration
There are plans for a restoration, but an agreement has not yet been reached (as of December 2012). This work has not yet started. The derelict fort remains under the administration of the States of Alderney .
Individual evidence
- ↑ 'No exclusivity' on Alderney Tourgis site, says States . In: BBC News . December 3, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
