Telephone Repeater Station Bunker (right behide my flat)

[Stp Corbiere]

This Telephone Repeater Station (Verstärkungsamt) was built to boost the telephonic communication signal to such places as far away as Berlin, with out it the signal was very weak! But very soon after it was built in May 1944 the cable to france was cut by Americans. Then after the war it was modifed to house the States of Jersey civil Emergency H.Q & nuclear monitoring station.
The once open front which did house the generator has been filled in, & the old entrance is now blocked by garages, also the other buildings on top of the bunker are also built on after the war.
The area i have marked RED was the open section of the bunker!

Enjoy
Cheers Kevin

[Stp Corbiere]

last pic

[P. Heijkoop]

Hi,

Thanks for these interesting pictures.

On the homepage of the "Atlanticwall linear museum" I saw that a second Verstärkeramt
is located near W.N. Tannenberg on Guernsey (Gef.Std. 319 I.D.). Do you know how
many of these bunkers were built on the CI ?

Also, do you know if the Tannenberg bunker has the same ground plan as this one ?
Reason for asking is that I have at least one (and probably 2) bunker(s) within the
sector of 84 AK which had a very similar groundplan and were also used as Verstärkeramt.

Peter

[Stp Corbiere]

Hi,

Thanks for these interesting pictures.

On the homepage of the "Atlanticwall linear museum" I saw that a second Verstärkeramt
is located near W.N. Tannenberg on Guernsey (Gef.Std. 319 I.D.). Do you know how
many of these bunkers were built on the CI ?

Also, do you know if the Tannenberg bunker has the same ground plan as this one ?
Reason for asking is that I have at least one (and probably 2) bunker(s) within the
sector of 84 AK which had a very similar groundplan and were also used as Verstärkeramt.

Peter

Hello there Peter.

I'm glad you like the pics i have taken, i will try to see if i can take some more pics of the inside if i'm aloud to!
Now to your question it does seem that Guernsey does have a Telephone repeater station bunker! now if it is the same ground plan as the one in Jersey that i dont know,there are a lot of SK in the Channel Islands, so i have emailed the Guernsey C.I.O.S to see if they can help me out with some info.

As soon as i know Peter i will let you know ok

[P. Heijkoop]

hi kEVIN,,

Thanks! The AW-linear museum gives the same plan, but I don't know if that is correct.
Would be intersting though...
Thanks for asking

Peter

[Stp Corbiere]

hi kEVIN,,

Thanks! The AW-linear museum gives the same plan, but I don't know if that is correct.
Would be intersting though...
Thanks for asking

Peter

Hello Peter,

ok i have had an answer back from Paul in Guernsey here it is:

Hi Kevin
You are quite right. The existence of a repeater station was only confirmed
in the summer last year when we obtained permission to excavate the
entrance. The ground plan is identical, with the exception of the higher of
the larger rooms which has been divided into two with a concrete wall. There
isn't one in Alderney, and to my knowledge these two are the only examples
to be found on the Atlantik Wall, and they have no type number, despite
being fortress standard. If you need any further info let me know. I have a
series of photo's taken when we opened the bunker. I did e-mail a selection
to Matthew Costard.

Regards
Paul Bourgaize

I hope this answers your question Peter, If you need any more info please ask i will see what i can do to help

Cheers Kevin

[jopaerya]

Hello Peter

Where did you find the other Verstärkeramt in the
84 A.K. beside the 2 ones at the C.I.
Is there any simularitys according to you with the
Verstärkeramt at De Panne ( Belgium) ?

Regards Jos

[P. Heijkoop]

HI Kevin,

Thanks very much for this info.
So no bunker of this type on Alderney, interesting.
There's not much known about the communication bunkers
behind the AW-coast, especially the Vertärkeramte and Netzknotenpunkte.

Could you asl Paul for some of the pictures and put these on the forum.
Would be interesting to see what the bunker looks like. Very funny that
it was discovered only last year

To answer Jos' question:
There are series of comm.bunkers behind the coast, not much is know about
the function although a Verstärkeramt is the most likely function.
Bunkers can be found on the following locations:

De Panne
Dunkirk
Calais (I think Schaltbunker 'T')
Boulogne (2x)
Dieppe (well, some kilometers inland)
Rouen
Houlgate (or somewhere near there)

Interestingly is that the ones in Dieppe and Rouen are identical,
as are the ones in De Panne, calais, Boulogne. In Boulogne two
bunkers were built together. Will have to look if I can scoop the plans up.
Seems that Boulogne colocated a Schaltbunker and a Verstärkeramt

Furthermore, in AOK 7 the following bunkers could be found..

Saint-Lo
Cherbourg

I saw the bunker in Cherbourg some years ago, but never knew what it was.
After finding some docs about the building of a Verstaerkeramt in Cherbourg I
found out it was this bunker. When visiting the site last year I didn't see the bunker
anymore... The site had completely changed with new infrastructure. So, perhaps
we wil never know what it looked like. In any case the outside resembled the Verstärkeramt
of Saint-Lo very much. This V.A. was built in connection with the comm.bunker of the staff of 84 A.K.
Interestingly the bunker was added later (in '44) and just sticked to the side of the comm.bunker
with apparanty only a 80cm back wall (ofcourse with the 2m wall of the commbunker this is solid enough, but from the outside
it gives a strange joint). This bunker was however smaller than the ones on Jersey and Alderney
and as far as I can see misses the two large rooms and the generator part.

Other Verstärkeramte I know where not housed in bunkers. Interestingly there was an Ob.West plan
in the summer of '44 to built bunkers for these, for example in Pont L'Eveque... and I think in the Belgium
Ardennes to make a connection with the main part of the Reich. But, ofcourse these plans couldn't be finished anymore...

So, to answer Jos' question. There seems to be three standard types in AOK 15
and one type (large and small version) in AOK 7.
In AOk 1 and 19 not much is known about the V.A., althought the enlarged 617 in Rochefort
and the strange Vf.bunker in Lormont (Bo.101) seemed to house repeater-equipment.


Peter

[jopaerya]

Hello Peter

Thanks for your anwser on my quistion .
Do you think that the bunkers in Utrecht (Servaasbolwerk)
and Kolding (Cäsarstand) fit it in this organisation or
are these to far inland ?

Regards Jos

[P. Heijkoop]

Jos,

Well, the construction of the V.A. on the CI and the others along the coast were executed
on the level of the AOK 15 and 7 and probably in close cooperation with (or by demand by) OB.West.
So, all these bunkers fall in the structure of the Heer. The large S.k. in Kolding (no Cäsar in my
opinion, but quite similar) was a Luftwaffe telephone exchange, so falls outside this frame.

However, the Fl250 that is co-located with this bunker is a Verstärkeramt (good bunker for this
purpose because of the high ops room) and was as far as i can remember used by the Heer.
So, that bunker could fit in this framework.

The bunker at the Servaasbolwerk was according to Sakkers constructed by S&B for the Reichspost.
So not primary a military function... This most likely also goes for the ones in Huizen, Zwolle, Arnhem
and The Hague. I think all of these bunkers were used as large telephone junction in connection with
repeater systems or Trägerfrequenz-installations. What striks me as very interesting is that the concrete
that was put in these bunkers on Dutch soil almost equals all the concrete that was put in the other V.A. in
Western-Europe

Peter

[Stp Corbiere]

Here a couple of pics of the Repeater station in Guernsey, The bunker was completey covered so they had to excavate the entrance to gain excess to the bunker. The bunker has now been covered back over, since the owner of it does not know what he wants to do with it. Many thanks to Paul Bourgaize from the Guernsey branch of the C.I.O.S for the infomation & pics. Here is a link to there web site http://www.occupied.guernsey.net/index.htm

[Stp Corbiere]

Here a couple of pics of the Repeater station in Guernsey, The bunker was completey covered so they had to excavate the entrance to gain excess to the bunker. The bunker has now been covered back over, since the owner of it does not know what he wants to do with it. Many thanks to Paul Bourgaize from the Guernsey branch of the C.I.O.S for the infomation & pics. Here is a link to there web site http://www.occupied.guernsey.net/index.htm

[P. Heijkoop]

Hi,

Very nice pictures...
I for one would like to find such a bunker hidden in my garden...
and then I would know what to do with it
8) Hahah.

Nice to see the bunker is in original condition!
This could help a lot to determine the exact function of the rooms..
Do you know if there's a plan with gives such data ?

Peter

[Stp Corbiere]

Hi,

Very nice pictures...
I for one would like to find such a bunker hidden in my garden...
and then I would know what to do with it
8) Hahah.

Nice to see the bunker is in original condition!
This could help a lot to determine the exact function of the rooms..
Do you know if there's a plan with gives such data ?

Peter

Hi Peter

Here is a list of the rooms & there function.

51.Plant room
40.Fuel store
30.Generator
13.Telephone exchange
10.Ventilation room
5.Escape shaft
4.Standby room
3.Entrance defence
2.Gas lock
1.Tobruk/Observer's open position

A dream come ture to have that in your back yard!!! i would move in!
Cheers Kevin

[P. Heijkoop]

Kevin,

Thanks very much for the info.
A very interesting design; especially the height of the large rooms
where the repeater equipment was placed. These high rooms
are always typical for Verstärkeramte.

Peter