Saturday 8 October 2016

Visiting Jersey : Les Landes Observation Tower


About 500 metres from Batterie Moltke is MP3 (Marinepeilstanden und Messtellungen - naval direction finding and signalling position) at Les Landes. This was the building I wanted most to see and it did not disappoint. What a magnificent structure but its location makes it unknown and unvisited. We saw a small group of local dog walkers but no other tourists.









The roof was used for a very large Freya radar aerial. Inside is in the form of a spiral. Charles Stephenson writes in "The Channel Islands 1941 - 45" in the Osprey Fortress series

"(the towers) were originally created to realize the concept of range finding via triangulation with other (never-built) towers, each floor  controlling the fire of an individual battery. The concept was found to be flawed however, and they were the utilized as general observation posts and for mounting radar and anti-aircraft  guns."

The Germans planned to build eight towers around the island, but only completed three.

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