Fort Hommet

This was a very special day for the Festung Guernsey team. After more than 7 years of restoration work, they have now installed the last of the main components of the 5cm M19 Maschinegranatwerfer Automatic Mortar at Stp.Rotensein (Fort Hommet).

This has been a labour of love for many of the Festung team, and truly shown what can be achieved by a small group of individuals with a passion of history. When finished, this will be the only known example of a fully restored M19 that can be visited by an original Type 633 bunker. It will have have all of the original features of the weapon including the ability to turn through 360 degrees and raise / lower the weapon.

They will have some work to do including the final pour of the concrete roof but today was a major milestone. This bunker will open to the general public as part of the Fort Hommet open day on July 11th, so why not come and have a look and see what they get up to.

Festung Guernsey has submitted a planning application to restore Fort Hommet bunkers.

After prior application for permission to carry out three phases of the restoration of the German anti-tank gun shelter and bunkers, built during the occupation, the electricity supply has finally been approved.

It took more than a year for planning permission to grant Festung Guernsey with permission, which will eventually see the cable stretch the distance to the end of the headland, hooking up five bunkers to the mains.

Discussions would start with Guernsey Electricity on how to get the first two phases of the cable installation done this year. This would take the cable to the upper car park.

Currently, generators have to be used to get power to the bunkers. The bunkers have a lot of equipment and they also suffer terminally from condensation and damp.

The trench started for electrical cable from the main coastal road along the Hommet Road, into the lower car park.

The electrical trench has been dug from the bottom car park to the (shelter) bunker, where Guernsey Electricity set up the electrical board for mains electric, then continue trenches to different directions to connect up the three bunkers at the top of the headland.

The three bunkers at Fort Hommet top car park has been connected to the mains electric, meaning no more generators to power the bunkers!

Made some great progress on the PAK garage at Fort Hommet this morning, after a few weeks of preparation we poured the concrete infill and upstairs. We had to get a road closure for this one as we had to hi-ab the concrete from the road using a hopper. Once the concrete has set and we strike the shuttering the roof will be covered in ground and left to naturally re-seed. Message from Festung Guernsey Forum Website.

Festung Guernsey will use a tourism grant to continue work at Fort Hommet headland, Vazon.

Festung Guernsey, the volunteer group which restores German defences, has won a slice of a £150,000 one-off tourism grant.

The group has restored two large bunkers at the northern end of Vazon, while a third is restored and run by the Occupation Museum. But there are many more to uncover and preserve as the Germans fortified it heavily, given Vazon was an obvious landing beach.

Paul Bourgaize is the group’s chair and says the money will be used to help put Fort Hommet headland firmly on the visitor map:

Getting electricity to the tip of the site is a priority and comes at quite an expense, so Paul says the grant will be used for the mains extension and partly on upgrading the group’s website.

Festung Guernsey has applied for planning permission for work at Fort Hommet to make the site more accessible to visitors.

Festung Guernsey has applied for permission to excavate some German bunkers on a section of Fort Hommet headland. Project coordinator, Paul Bourgaize, lets everyone know through a site notice.

It wants to install gates and fencing to the water bunker, fencing to the machine gun Tobruk, and a replica steel tank turret, and expose a buried machine gun embrasure.

For three days, the project to power ducting / cable trench 200m from the top car park, along the pathway towards the end of the headland. There are only 100m to go.

Today we headed back to Fort Hommet to work on the next section of power cable trench.

This time we were armed with a much bigger second machine to be able to deal with the granite. We managed to complete all of the remaining trench so once we have had our big open day on the 5th October we will head back to pull the 300m of power cable through the ducting.

The ducting has reached the outside wall at the shell bunker this is such a milestone for shrine committee getting closer to having mains electric instead of relying on generators, Ian Blanchard committee member of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart.

Notification of Grant of Full Grant of Full Planning Permission!

Excavation and install fencing and gate to water bunker and machine gun Tobruk machine gun embrasure excavate install fencing and replica steel turret to tank turret position (site of special significance).

A selection from our first hit on the MG Tobruk at Fort Hommet. A big thank you to the CSR team from Collas Crill who spent the day with us.  Good news finding the top and then second step which means this just need some fencing once we finish excavating. We then managed to lose the eight bags of soil in various areas at Mirus so worked out well all round.

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It’s been a very busy week at Festung Guernsey! We have been focusing on completing the work to install mains power to our bunkers at Fort Hommet headland.

Last weekend we dug holes to expose the ducting joints that we laid last year, then this week a few of us took time off work to prepare the ducting for a draw rope to be installed, this in turn would pull a steel cable which would ultimately pull the mains power cable through the ducting.

Diamond Drilling & Cutting Specialists then did a great job in coring a hole into the Searchlight bunker ready for the incoming cable.With the kind assistance of local civil engineers Trant we were able to pull the 250m power cable from the top car park all the way to the end of the headland and into the bunker in one go!

This is one of the largest projects we have ever taken on with around 700 meters of trenches dug, ducting laid, and mains power cable installed.

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A special day today having the electrical cable pulled through into the searchlight bunker ready to be installed at a later date. The 260 meters of cable will need connecting from the (shelter) bunker electrical board and then the searchlight connection so we can have mains lighting and no more generator to operate.

Saturday saw the Festung Guernsey volunteers up at Fort Hommet, (Stp Rottenstein). The aim was to get the excavation of the Tobruk complete. I’m glad to say (even though I had to leave early!) the team successfully completed the excavation. All we need to do now is tidy the landscaping around the bunker so there are no trip/safety hazards. It was commented by a number of FG members that the PaK garage we excavated and restored last year has really settled in to the environment and looks really good!

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We started the day up at Fort Hommet to finish the landscaping around the Tobruk, however the weather was against us so we dropped to our wet weather to do list. This consisted of some concrete spalling repairs in the shell shrine and some upkeep of the ceilings in the personnel bunker. A detachment made for Batterie Mirus to remove a build-up of water from the recent storms, we all met up at Mirus for our coffee break and continued with tidying up the site.

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At the weekend the Festung Guernsey volunteers where back up at Fort Hommet to try and finish off the landscaping around the Tobruk. The work was all completed and just some safety fencing to install and this job will be done. We don’t have long left to get the major ground works done at Fort Hommet due to the spring and birds nesting, so we’ll be quite frantic in the coming weeks!

Fort Hommet Water Bunker - today a few of us took time off work to make a start on excavating the fortress standard water bunker at Fort Hommet. This interesting bunker was a little deeper than we initially thought and houses a small concrete water tank. Nearly 50 tonnes of post war backfill was removed today.

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Well what an amazing weekend! The Festung Guernsey #volunteers were out on Friday and Saturday this week to excavate the water bunker at Stp Rotenstein (Fort Hommet). This bunker will form part of the bunker trail for the headland and will remain open albeit secured.

Lots of demolition waste was used as backfill and luckily we had use of an excavator and tipper both days. A final thank to the #volunteers for the additional work on Friday and giving up a day’s leave. It really is appreciated and makes a massive difference on our ability to make progress.

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Stage Two: The Festung Guernsey #volunteers where back at Stp Rotenstein (Fort Hommet) on Saturday to continue the opening up of the water bunker. Thankfully all the excavation was done last week and a few post hole remained and then the pick and shovel can but put away again! We are covering the deep sections with some welded grid rated for foot traffic and then fencing around the remaining section which has a drop of 2.2m. We’ll hopefully get the remaining sections fitted and secured next week. It was a rather productive morning!

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The Festung Guernsey #volunteers where back at Stp Rotenstein (Fort Hommet) on Saturday to continue the opening up of the water bunker. We are covering the deep sections with some welded grid rated for foot traffic and then fencing around the remaining section which has a drop of 2.2m. We’ll hopefully get the remaining sections fitted and secured next week.

Message from Festung Guernsey Forum Website.

Due to Fort Hommet being a haven for birds and wildlife we can only carry out excavations before nesting season and times of stress (bad weather/drout etc) so the end of March is our deadline. The last point we wanted to excavate was the vf machine gun bunker. This sits below the vf PaK position and covers the rear road up to the fort. We located the bunker originally purely by mistake when investigating for the power cable. This, like the other machine gun bunker where later repurposing of earlier German bunkers. These Vf bunkers were built very early whilst the main fortress standard #bunkers where constructed. Message from Festung Guernsey Forum Website.

What we found was expected, however we now need to reconstruct the original embrasure. This appears to have been constructed in thick timber and over the years rotted away and the granite backfill has dropped filling in the machine gun slit.

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This year after 10 years of discussions, planning (three stages of work), permission, funding, trenches dug over 700 meters of ducting and electric cables being laid in the ground near Cabby Jacks coastal road to the end of the Fort Hommet headland into “The Shrine of the Sacred Heart” bunker the mains electric was finally connected. After 20 years this will enable this bunker to change over from generator power to mains electric. Having mains power in this area of the headland will enable to connect more German bunkers to future restorations projects. Thank you to Stefan and the team at Electrical Solutions Guernsey.

29th March 2025 2pm. This year after 10 years of discussions, planning (three stages of work), permission & funding, over 700 meters of trenches dug, ducting laid and power cable installed in the ground connecting the shell shrine bunker to mains electric. Today for the start of the new season the shell shrine bunker would be opened for the first time with mains electric with no more generator to set up, which is a dream come true for the Shrine Committee and the team, it’s a new era to enter the bunker and just having to switch on the lighting. A big thank you to the Festung Guernsey team who without them would not have been possible to have mains electric in our bunker.

We have been really busy down at Fort Hommet the last few months getting the bunkers up to scratch in time for summer season. Lots of work from finishing off the water bunker, having the floor of the M19 (R633) screened by Bailiwick Plastering Services, and the dreaded job of cleaning bunker ceilings!

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A big thank you to Annandale for supplying us with the necessary concrete beams required to span the side walls to the MG embrasure.

This is in place of the timber originally used that would have rotted away fairly quickly. We can now start reinstating the granite wall and ground above.

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Tank turret position is now empty and granite work and landscaping complete on the MG position.

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Today's mission to fit the tank turret completed, and some more granite and camouflage added to the MG embrasure.

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More progress on the trench and steps leading from the tank turret. Grill fitted to the MG tobruk and the replacement rungs fitted to the personnel obs position.

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More progress on the steps and trench walls leading from the tank turret at Fort Hommet.

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With thanks to the Agriculture, Countryside & Land Management Services, who are responsible for managing public paths, such as cliff paths and nature trails? The ACLMS team have created improvements to the access pathway from top car park unto the main pathway which leads to The Shrine of the sacred Heart Bunker and other fortifications on the far end of the Fort Hommet Headland.

As is tradition for the last Saturday before Christmas, the Festung Guernsey #volunteers meet up at Vistas Beach Cafe for breakfast before heading out, which was very nice. As there were a number of volunteers out, we split forces. Ben Drew has already posted some photo's and information for those who went to Batterie Mirus, I stayed with the group at Fort Hommet to finish off the work on the Tobruk. What an AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT, after MANY Saturday mornings of digging out this location, and then constructing steps and walls, the site is now accessible, as we installed the last fence posts and wiring. Our tank turret still needs a coat of paint, but we are there, another location to tick off the list as complete!!!

GREAT WORK by a very hard working and enthusiastic group of volunteers.

Today was our traditional ‘New Year Dig’ where we tick of a bunker of interest from the many we would like to explore.

This year we decided to have a look at a mystery bunker at Fort Hommet which we have wanted to do for some time.

The 1945 aerial photos showed a bunker in the corner of the top car park. After securing the various permissions due to this being a site of special significance we carefully made a start.

Initially we were just hitting bedrock but after a quick review of the research we had done we soon found the bunker.

What we found was a very well constructed single room bunker, we photographed and measured the everything before filling the hole back in and landscaping the area.

The purpose of the bunker is still not obvious but today’s dig will allow us to make a much better decission once a little more research is completed.

If you would like to get involved with Festung Guernsey then please contact us, we are always looking for more volunteers.

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The searchlight bunker has had a lot of painting in the corridor and second room over the winter months. We painted in the colours of yellow, cream, white and green as it would have been used in the occupation.  Also we’re added the stories about the Albecq Medieval Settlement & Guernsey Folklore & both at Fort Hommet Headland.