Fort Hommet, with Victorian and German accretions 2

Fort Hommet (or Fort Houmet) is a fortification on Vazon Bay headland (or '' houmet'' in

Guernésiais Guernésiais, also known as ''Dgèrnésiais'', Guernsey French, and Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island simply as "patois". As one of the langues d'oïl, it has it ...

) in Castel,

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

. It is built on the site of fortifications that date back to 1680, and consists of a

Martello tower Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand u ...

from 1804, later additions during the Victorian Era, and bunkers and casemates that the Germans constructed during World War II.

Early fortifications

In 1680 it is recorded that there was a fortification with one gun on the site. Following the French attempt to invade Jersey in 1781 improvements were made to island defences with

Guernsey loophole towers The British built 15 Guernsey loophole towers at various points along the coast of Guernsey between August 1778 and March 1779 to deter possible French attacks after France had declared itself an ally of the Americans in the American Revolutionary W ...

being built, including the nearby one at Vazon. During 1795 the fortifications were improved on the headland with additional gun positions added. By 1805 six guns were recorded on the site. The connection between St Peter Port and the fort were improved with an upgrade of the road to military standard around 1808, using money arising from the sale of land from the reclaimed Braye du Valle.

Martello Tower

The Martello tower was constructed in 1804 after the onset of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

, and during the tenure (1803-1813) of

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

General Sir John Doyle. To simplify matters, Doyle had a local builder named Gray construct the tower, and two others, under the rubric of "fieldworks", thereby bypassing the Ordnance Corps. The Fort Hommet tower, like the other two Guernsey martello towers, Fort Grey and

Fort Saumarez Fort Saumarez is a Martello tower in Saint Peter (Saint Pierre du Bois), Guernsey, on a headland that forms the northern tip of L'Erée and extends to the Lihou causeway. Martello tower The Martello tower was constructed on the site of an existin ...

, was intended as a

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

for the battery in which it was placed. The Guernsey martellos are all smaller than the British martello towers, with the Fort Saumarez and Fort Hommet towers being smaller than the Fort Grey tower. Each mounted a 24-pounder

carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color wh ...

on the roof to support the battery. Fort Saumarez and Fort Hommet also have exterior staircases up to the second floor.Clements (1998), p. 87.

Victorian era

During the Victorian Era, the fort received additional batteries and barracks. In 1852, 68-pounder and 8" shell guns replaced some of the 24-pounder guns in the batteries. The largest addition, however, occurred during World War II and the

German occupation of the Channel Islands The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are two island countries and British ...

. The Germans recognized the enduring utility of the site and fortified it further, creating the Stützpunkt (Strongpoint) Rotenstein.

Stützpunkt Rotenstein

The whole of the headland was designated a strongpoint. West of the Martello tower is a bunker that housed a multi-loopholed steel cupola. The Martello tower itself includes two bunkers that housed a 60cm and a 150cm searchlight, and crew accommodation. Facing north are two

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" me ...

s housing 10.5cm K331(f) guns. Two similar casemates face south across Vazon beach including one now open as a museum. A

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near ...

pit and a casemate for a 4.7cm Pak36(t) anti-tank gun complete the beach-facing defences. In the centre of the headland is a R633 bunker that housed a 5cm M19 automatic mortar. A reinforced field order emplacement, a fortress-quality personnel shelter, a minefield, field positions with trenches and machine gun pits, including a coaxial ball mounted MG 37(t), flamethrowers, and barbed wire completed the strongpoint's defences. Minefield No 27, comprising 417 S-mines, 464

Teller mine The Teller mine (german: Tellermine) was a German-made antitank mine common in World War II. With explosives sealed inside a sheet metal casing and fitted with a pressure-actuated fuze, Teller mines had a built-in carrying handle on the side. As t ...

s, and 624 captured British mines protected the headland.

Post-war

After the liberation of Guernsey in 1945, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

and the islanders stripped the fortifications. By the late 1940s all the metal fittings, including guns and blast doors, had been removed for scrap. Many of the bunkers, including the gun-

at Fort Hommet, were buried in an attempt to return the coastal landscape to its pre-war condition. More recently, the

States of Guernsey The States of Guernsey (french: États de Guernesey), sometimes referred to as the Government of Guernsey, is the parliament and government of the British Crown dependency of Guernsey. Some laws and ordinances approved by the States of Guer ...

has restored parts of the fort, and particularly the Fort Hommet 10.5 cm Coastal Defence Gun Casement Bunker. This is now open to visitors, though with restrictive hours. The

M19 Maschinengranatwerfer The M-19 Maschinengranatwerfer is a German 50 mm mortar which was used during World War II. The mortar was developed in 1934 for the purpose of defending permanent military bases. It had a maximum rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute and a r ...

bunker is under renovation.

Protection

The whole of Fort Hommet and associated structures and the whole of the German fortifications within the Fort Hommet headland was listed as a Protected Monument on 2 November 1990, reference PM137.

Footnotes

;Notes ;Citations

References

*Clements, William H. (1998) ''Towers of Strength: Martello Towers Worldwide''. (London: Pen & Sword). . *Dillon, Paddy (2011) ''Channel Island Walks''. (Cicerone Guide). {{coord, 49.474, N, 2.612, W, display=title Towers completed in 1804 Infrastructure completed in 1804 H Tourist attractions in Guernsey Coastal fortifications Martello towers