German Underground Hospital

Overview

Built during the occupation of Guernsey by Nazi Germany using the forced labour of prisoners of war, many of them lost their lives during its construction. The Underground Hospital and Ammunition store stretches through one and a quarter miles of corridors and rooms. The Hospital area has eight wards, a mortuary, operating theatres, X-ray room, cinema all completely invisible on the surface apart from the entrance to the site.
We have investigated several of Guernsey’s haunted treasures in the past and each time we are told of the haunted reputation of the German Underground Hospital. Until now its not been possible for any form of ghost investigation and so this will be the first official ghost hunts held at this location. To the people of Guernsey this is probably the most haunted location, I can tell you that the other places we have also visited were ranking very high in the how haunted is this place charts so I think we are in for a real treat. Many of today’s visitors have captured strange phenomena and possible apparitions in their photographs.

Reputation

There is no shortage to the stories to be told about the German Underground Hospital. Footsteps that follow you though its dark corridors, a lady in white seen around the unfinished tunnels, marching coming from the entrance area, German soldiers, Hospital patients, Nurses, Children, a dog are just a few of the witnessed apparitions over the years. Pulling of clothes, breath sounds in your ear along with a whisper and the scene of something truly horrendous as explained by one of our guests.

Our hope is that over our times we are going to spend investigating with our guests we will be able to paint a much fuller picture and create an interesting account about what really goes on inside the German Underground Hospital.

History

German Underground Hospital Hohlgangsantage.40 (HO.40) and Ammunition Store (HO.7)
Guernsey

1940 – Following the fall of France and the retreat of the British from mainland europe the German Army (Heer) invades and occupies the Channel Islands. Before this on the 30th June 1940 German bombers attack St. Peter Port.

1941 – Hitler orders the garrison to immediately begin construction of various military buildings such as gun emplacements, anti-aircraft positions, refuelling depots for Submarines (U-Boats) and a whole host of other buildings vital to controlling and defending the Islands from a potential British counter-invasion.

1942 – Early in the year British photo – reconnaissance aircraft allow the Allies to find out that the Germans are constructing defensive tunnels on the Islands.

1943 – The first appearance of the HO.40 is on the German Construction Maps in early 1943, this is originally for a shelter for part of a Motorised Machine-Gun Company. This would be made up of a number of platoons in turn made up of three sections, each section had three Light Machine Guns, by this stage of the war the MG42 was replacing the MG34 in this role. One of these guns was fixed to the truck transporting the section, thus giving it its Motorised name. In one section there would also be seven or eight riflemen, there to carry extra ammunition for the Light Machine Guns and replace the gunners if needed.lastly would be two NCO’s, they would lead the section and if needed to split the section into two squads they would each lead one squad.

1944 – Roughly one year into contruction it was decided to convert HO.40 & HO.7 into a hospital capable of holding. Not long after the building of the vast majority of the Islands defences was completed and the majority of the workforce is taken away to mainland France to help with the building of the mainland defences. All that is left to be done at HO.40 & HO.7 is a link gallery (connecting tunnel) near the main joint entrance and part of the northern entrance tunnel of HO.7.

1944 – September, records show that 29,823m3 of rock has been taken away and 9,053m3 of concrete has been laid. Of the several accidents reported one tells of six Frenchmen crushed to death by a rockfall and in another instance seventeen men are killed in an accidental explosion. Their bodies are removed and buried at the nearby workers cemetery at La Vassalerie.

List of Organisation Todt members buried on the Channel Islands, this is a small proportion of those who died and were buried in unmarked graves. There are no reports or evidence of any mass killings however people were beaten and treated badly. Food rations were supposed to be the same as the German soldiers, however the daily ration was watery vegetable soup, bread and a piece of sausage about the size of an adult thumb.

Various Experiments conducted

Through the events our guest in teams conduct various experiments ranging from traditional glass moving to modern Thermal detection and much more. Below are some examples of the experiments conducted so far.