Notes from a small but very well protected island...
Here at Time Team it is quite common for us to receive some, how shall I say, unusual letters. From time to time people write in to let us know where the holy grail is, or that an entire Aztec civilisation has a colony under their shed, or that they have a previously undiscovered species of human living in the rabbit holes at the bottom of the garden (all true by the way).
So when the Les Gellettes letter arrived on our desk it nearly ended up in the same pile because, incredibly, it was suggesting that the team might like to excavate an entire WWII German military camp, not in Germany or France, but on British soil. Oh and the letter was written by a certain Tony Robinson.
On the 1st July 1940, German troops rolled onto the island of Jersey and they remained until their surrender on 9th May 1945. Like me, there will be many of you reading this that didn't know that Hitler got his mighty German army and his funny little moustache anywhere near British soil. But he did and once his mighty Wehrmacht had landed, there was no chance they were giving the channel islands up without putting up a mighty fight. During the next five years they undertook an extensive fortification of the islands unparalleled in the rest of their burgeoning empire. One of these sites was at Les Gellettes, Jersey.
So, how did we go about telling the story?
Well, first of all we had to ascertain what we might actually be digging and that means hunting for maps, plans and any documentary evidence as well as talking to as many experts as you can lay your hands on. Unsurprisingly, it being a German camp there wasn't a lot of original information we could get access to so we had to use maps, plans and aerial reconnaissance photographs put together by the Allied forces on what they thought was there. Poring over those images you start to imagine yourself in some anonymous bunker trying to figure out what those dastardly Germans had installed on top of that hill. One of my favourite moments was Andy Robertshaw (our resident military expert) pointing out three potentially important targets based on what he described as the German Army's poor track discipline . By taking short cuts around the camp the soldiers had inadvertently created tracks on the ground, visible from the air and pointing like arrows to otherwise camouflaged targets. Some of the things you learn on this job never fail to amaze me, although I can't think of another time when this knowledge might come in handy.
Once the potential archaeological targets are established and all the information handed over to the Team, who use it as their frame of reference over the three days, we could move onto the supporting story. What must it have been like for the islanders living on Jersey during the occupation? Luckily, there are plenty of sources to draw on - diaries, photographs and even people that were living there at the time - a few of whom very kindly agreed to come along and share their memories with us. Life was terrible for most. Not only were the islanders surrounded by soldiers but also by slave labour brought over from the continent. Any dissent was dealt with swiftly and harshly. The paranoia must have been unbearable. There's one photograph, though, that was brought along to site that sticks with me. It is of a German officer smiling for the camera whilst holding the freshly removed head of cat. At first glance, a simple act of violence but in actual fact an act of desperation. During the food shortages cats were a valuable source of protein, for both sides.
Once we've completed our three week research period, the rest is really is up to the archaeologists and this is the beauty of Time Team. You can prep as much as you like, you can have all the plans in the world and all the photos but until the archaeologists start to dig you can never be sure of what you'll find at the bottom a 2' x 4' hole. Watching the excavation over the three days you realise not just how skilled these archaeologists are, using techniques that work whether a site is 2000 or fifty years old, but just how important their work is. At the moment many WWII sites don't have the same status as other sites but unless they are recorded they'll soon be lost forever.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the project including The Jersey War Tunnels, the Jersey Tourist Board, The Societé Jersiaise, the Jersey archives and all our experts, archaeologists and production team (who managed to get us there even though a Volcano was having a hissy fit in Iceland) who all did a remarkable job.
Also, before I finish the article, the little boy in my head is screaming for me to tell you something else. I filmed someone blowing up some ordnance on the beach. It was really cool.
Ben Knappett - Assistant Producer
