The Jersey War Tunnels also known as Hohlgangsanlage 8, or the German Underground Hospital, was a partially completed underground hospital, built during the German occupation, which was built by forced and slave workers. There is over 1 Km of Tunnels, and now these tunnels are preserved, and is a memorial to the slave workers who lost their lives building this.
Ho8 was intended to be a vast network of underground tunnels that would allow the German occupying infantry to withstand Allied air raids and bombardment (in preparation for an invasion).
The tunnels were then opened in 1946 by the states of jersey, however in 1961 it was ruled that the tunnels was owned by the land above it, therefore fell to private ownership. the complex was restored and made into a museum with collections of occupation memorabilia.
My Images:
Here You can see that i have chosen the images that I thought came out of good from the ones which came out blurry. Final 22 images I have then selected The images with a 4 star rating which includes 12 photos
Editing Selected Photos:
For the first image I have decided to see if it looks better in black and white, I have decided to go for black and white.I have edited the temperature and tint of the black and white.I have changed the exposure and the clarity, I have decreased the shadows and increased the highlights to try and remove the shadows in the glass.Final Image – Mini Beach Scene – Flag, Sandcastle
Edit 2:
I edited the exposure and highlights within the image to brighten the light, but also decrease the shadows to create the image more vibrantI have edited the Sharpening of the image therefore increasing the detail within the image, I have also increased the vibrant of the image to make the colour within brighter.Final Image- Unfinished Tunnel
Bob Le Sueur is a 99 year old man who is a survivor of the war, and is well known among the island for his involvement in assisting escaped Russian prisoners, in Jersey, during the second world war.
Bob Le Sueur was 19 when the island was occupied by the Germans, and 24 when they were finally liberated. Throughout the time Jersey was taken over, Bob got to work and helped to shelter 8 different Russian escapees from the Nazis who were hunting them down. One of these Russians was Feodor, also known as Bill, who had before been harbored by a woman named Louisa Gold. Bob knew Lousia through the company which he worked for, and found out that she had taken in the Russian after her son Edward was killed in action, telling Bob that, “she had to do something for another mother’s son.”
However a few years later she and her brother Harold were both arrested by the Germans and sent to separate camps to be murdered. From that point on, Bob made it his responsibility to hide Bill. At first he kept him in a filing room at his offices, told him not to go near any of the windows and took him food regularly. He later moved him between various addresses before settling in a flat occupied by two conscientious objectors sent over from the mainland.
Later Bob was able to shelter other Russians in the many remote houses he knew.
Bob’s stories
He told our class a story of when his friend Bill got so drunk off of strong apple brandy that he crossed his arms, started kicking his legs and sang very loudly a song from Russia, loud enough to hear out in the streets. Ofcourse, at that exact moment of time a German troop was making their way down the street right next to the house where Bill was singing loudly. But thankfully the German soldiers were singing themselves too, so before they could notice the Russian singing Bob and his friends manage to quiet Bill by shoving a washcloth in his mouth.
Bob also mentioned that they were able to get his Russian friend, Bill, an illegal registration card. When I asked him how one could get an illegal registration card back then, he explained that if you lost a registration card, you could easily go down to the registration office and come up with some excuse about loosing it, and they would give you a new one. Once you had the duplicate card, the extremely skilled would have been able to carefully remove the image and replace it with a picture of the person who would want to use it illegally. There was a purple stamp which was placed half on the card, half on the image, so it would have been hard to replicate. However, Bob said that there was this one girl in particular, who couldn’t have been too older than myself, was skilled when it came to copying the stamp, so she would sketch in the other half of the stamp on the picture so it looked like the real thing.
He recalled the time when two German Bomber planes flew over Jersey and released two cylinders attached to parachutes. At first he thought they were bombs, but later found out that they were messages to the commander chief of Jersey. However, the Commander had already left the island with his family, so the messages were delivered to the Bailiff so he could do something about it. The Germans threatened that if Jersey did not surrender within 24 hours they would carpet-bomb the island, which is when they bomb one area intensively. This would have been devastating for the tiny island, and no doubt would have left numerous casualties. This is one of the factors which lead to the island being surrendered.
Cutting to Liberation Day, Bob was telling the story of when he and his friends were on their way to get a good spot to watch what was happening. They were cycling on their bikes with their makeshift tires made of tightly pulled garden hose, when suddenly one of Bob’s tires snapped. It made a sound similar to a pistol shot, sending everyone in the surrounding areas to panic. There were two people who dropped to the ground, and two German solders, both who held rifles, turns towards him with guns pointed. He mentioned remembering thinking to himself ‘ It’s Liberation day and these are the last seconds of my life.’ At that moment it would have been terrifying, but Bob was laughing when he was telling us this story.
He did say that we had wished he had shook the hand of one of the German soldiers on that day, one which was obviously starving, young and about to be taken as a prisoner of war. He even asked our class if he should’ve done it, just out of courtesy, however it would’ve been too early to be seen with the enemy, so he didn’t. He said that he always felt a bit of regret for not showing that boy some compassion, even if he was fighting for the Nazis.
As part of out research into the Liberation and Occupation of Jersey, following the path of portraiture in order to document the lives, experiences and stories of those who experienced the liberation and occupation, we were lucky enough to be able to meet and listen to the stories of 2 individuals who experienced both the initial occupation of Jersey in 1940, and its liberation in 1945. Henley (14 at the time of the occupation) and Joan (6 at the time of the occupation) both gave detailed accounts of their experiences with life under German rule, with Henley recalling the time that, at the age of 14, he was able to render a German guard almost unconscious by continually giving him glasses of cider, and the soldier was drunk enough to not notice when the farmers had time to hide a lot of the wheat they had farmed in order to avoid having to hand it in to the Germans. In contrast, Joan was able to recall her experience with walking to school through a number of German outposts and identification points, as she passed by the fenced off and mine covered beaches. The lack of transport (confiscated by the Germans) and the censorship and limits imposed during the occupation brought the native community together, with adults crafting bicycle tyres out of hosepipe and rope, and children knitting water bottle cosys for the Red Cross. Both Joan and Henley recalled the liberation of Jersey as being a huge event, with Henley not being able to see the liberation ship for the huge crowds of people blocking his view, and Joan missing the crowds at the harbour altogether due to her inability to travel across the island from her home to town.
After listening to the stories of Henley and Joan, we had the chance to photograph them in the school studio. I was able to collect images of both Henley and Joan, and singular images of just Joan. In the studio I had my IOS set to 100 (as the lighting in the studio was already very bright) and my shutter speed was at F16. I also used the Daylight white balance in order to slightly correct the colour based on the studio lighting and colours. Below are the results of my photoshoot, shown in a contact sheet:
Key: GREEN “S” = Small issue with the subjects pose – GREEN TICK = candidate for final image – GREEN HASHED AREA = problem area/needs editing out of final image – RED HASHED AREA = problem area too big to edit out – RED “x” = rejected image
The first row of the contact sheet includes images that are so over-exposed that they appear as white boxes. This was my own error as I originally failed to adjust the IOS from 6400 down to 100, and so the amount of light that entered the lens was way too much to produce a clear image. I adjusted this afterwards and the rest of my images are shot at the right IOS.
After taking the images in the studio and using the contact sheet in Photoshop to nail down my selection to my final choices, I moved the final images onto the editing stage. The following are the results of the images I edited:
I was able to use Photoshop to adjust the contrast and colors of most of these images, in order to make the initial edits. I then moved the images to Light-room to further make use of the tools available on that software. In Light-room I especially focused on the last image, as I was able to edit the image to draw up the contrast in order to give it a more bold look. Below is the before and after Light-room edit:
The image on the right was the original from the Photoshop edit, which I found to be too over-exposed (especially around Henley’s right-hand shoulder). I used Light-room to adjust the contrast and more specific colour settings (highlights, shadows, blacks, whites and clarity). I feel like the final product (left) looks much more bold and eye drawing than the original on the right.
For some of the images, I adjusted the colour settings so that they were in black and white. I did this in order to make a link to the imagery of the occupation and liberation of Jersey, which was all taken in black and white as colour photography only became common for the average person in the 1960’s. I feel like black and white images also allow for the details in the textures and shapes of the images to be better emphasized, and it allows for certain aspects of the image (such as eyes and clothing) to present as more eye-catching, and can between hold the attention of the viewer. Below is an example of an image I edited into black and white for these reasons:
Furthermore, on some images I made the decision to simply lower the saturation of the images in order to dull down the colours of the image, giving the final image a more somber and dulled image. I made this decision as I feel that it accurately reflects the atmosphere and feelings surrounding the occupation of Jersey, as the overall atmosphere at the time (and the feeling that came with many of the stories given by Joan and Henley) was solemn and very close to being hopeless. I therefore tried to reflect this through the colour of some of my images, which are dulled and almost drained completely of colour. An example of one of these images can be seen below:
For the final image, I made the decision to raise the saturation and contrast, and made some colour adjustments in Photoshop that involved heightening the colour balance so that it fell more towards a lilac/subtly feminine colour (especially in the background). I did this in order to highlight that through the occupation, many individuals were still able to keep hope, and regardless of the solemn circumstances, many individuals were able to find pleasure in small things (such as dances and cycling). The editing of the colour in this image is a reflection of the subject being able to maintain her femininity and hope for a better future, even through the difficult times of the occupation:
After the initial editing of colour and saturation, I began to experiment with some of the images, using things such as boarders, adding in other images to the initial image in the form of collaging, and experimenting with different techniques in order to enhance the image further.
In the above image, I used the spot removal tool in Light-room to remove some of the light colored fluff that was on Henley’s jumper, which distracted from the image itself.
The above 2 images of Joan have been edited to produce a different framed effect on each of them. I experimented with this in order to see if the frames make the image seem more eye-catching.
I further experimented with the above image, using the same template for the frame as I used in the original, but this time cutting and stretching the damaged effect of the frame more over the subject, allowing the contrast between her darker shape/outline and the white damaged effect to become more clear. Below is the process I used to do this:
I selected the colour dodge option on the layer that the frame was on. In doing so I only kept the white damaged effect, removing the black background so the subject could be seen through it.
I then copied and pasted the frame onto multiple layers, and used the lasso tool to cut the frame so that I could fit it into the correct areas of the subject so that the damaged effect covered the darker areas.
The final effect was the damaged effect that can be found more clearly in the image above. I decided to do this because the effect that the frame gives the image reflects the same kind of damage that happens to old, archival images. Therefore here, I am referencing the past/youth of June, and contrasting it with the present, using the style of the image to reflect past trauma (through “damaging” the image) while the subject can still be seen smiling as her current self, a survivor.
Similar to a standard portrait however you go to where your subject spends most of their time. Often somewhere relevant to the person’s passion. If you’re taking a picture of an artist, you’d show up in their studio and take pictures while they work. If taking a picture of a family member, you might pick the place that associate most to them and use that as your environment. A good environmental portrait should bring out your subject’s personality in a stylized way however it needs to be an exaggeration.
Jersey War Tunnels tells the true story of wartime Jersey. It’s the best place to get a true picture of what life was really like in Jersey during WWII. The exhibition is housed within an underground tunnel complex, built by the Germans using slave labour.
My selection process:
Here I’ve roughly flagged the images which I like and dislike, and went from 422 images to 102
Here, I went through the flagged images again and went from 102 to 42 images.
Here I went and colour coded the images with red being most likely nto going to use, yellow might use, green most likely to use.
These are a few of the images I took at the tunnels and have edited:
Joan Tapley was 6 years old when the German Occupation began. She lived in the north coast of Jersey, therefore she could hear the bombings in France.
While the Germans were in France they wanted to invade the Channel Islands. The citizens in Jersey had to put up white flags or sheets as a symbol for the Germans to enter.
Joan Tapley would watch the planes fly over ahead and was fascinated by the white vapour trails. It was dangerous for her to admire them on the fields so she had to hide in the bushes to be protected from the bombings.
Les Platon, located in the centre of Jersey, is the highest point in the island and was used by the Germans for their artillery to aim and shoot towards France.
Even though Jersey traded with France, there was still a lack of food so people were served rations. The servings were small and the islanders were competing for food. Many citizens started growing their own food in their gardens.
The Jersey citizens had substitute food. For example they substituted tea by using parsnips and sugar by boiling sugar beets.
There were several military zones all around the island where citizens were prohibited to enter; These zones included beaches & cliffs. The Germans even introduced a curfew so people had to return back to their homes by 9pm in winter and 10pm in summer. The people in Jersey definitely felt restricted from movement.
Jersey also had blackouts where the islanders had to turn off their lights and cover their windows. The only advantage of the blackouts was being able to see several stars at night since there was no light pollution.
TECHNICAL:
After listening to Joan Tapley’s stories about her experiences during the German Occupation in Jersey, we were given the opportunity to photograph her in the studio. In the studio I used the manual mode to capture portraits of Joan. I set my IOS to 100 since the image was captured in a bright scene and had my aperture at F16 for a large depth of field. My shutter speed was at 1/125. These adjustments made my settings appropriate for studio photography.
LIGHTING:
In order to capture images of Joan, we used a two point lighting setup. One light faced towards Joan and one was illuminating the white backdrop. This allows the photographer to manipulate the lighting of the image so the subject can be illuminated in various ways and to either emphasise or eliminate shadows. The Key light is the most important light a photographer will use in a lighting setup. the purpose of the key light is to highlight the form and dimension of the subject. We also used a flash trigger which is a method of achieving flash sync without the need for a wired connection between the camera and the flash units illuminating the scene.
EVALUATION:
I wanted my images to conceptually represent Joan as a Jersey citizen who has experienced a lot during the German Occupation. To create a dramatic yet historical effect to my images, I decided to convert my photos into black and white. The filter represents the time period during World War 2 since only black and white film was available.
Hearing Joan’s stories of what life was like during the German Occupation has allowed me to gain a better perspective of what life must have been like during World War 2. I believe my images manage to contextually showcase Joan’s stories. Overall it was a nice and informative experience since she explained her stories in detail and cooperated well during the photoshoot.
Joan was 6 years old when the occupation of Jersey began, and we were lucky enough as a class to have her come in a hear her experiences first hand in order to help us gain a more personal insight into what things were like.
Joan lived on the North cost of the island, meaning she was closer to France so she could hear all the bombing that was happening over there. The British completely demilitarized the island, and Joan recalled everyone on the island having to hang white sheets outside of their houses to show the Germans that they surrendered. Joan spoke about having a younger friend who lived near her, with whom she watched the German planes flying above Jersey with from the bushes where they were sheltered.
Joan spoke about having ration books, and she also said how in desperate times people would try anything in order to have access to more rations. Joan’s mother registered with the farm across the road from where they lived which meant that they got extra rations of certain things per week.
Joan recalled how the Germans wanted to control movement in the island, so they introduced curfews in the military zone. Everyone who lived in this area had to be inside their homes at 9PM in the winter, which was extended to 10PM in the summer, and no one could leave their house before 6AM. Blackouts were also introduced in Jersey meaning that everyone had to cover their windows and doors, so that the British couldn’t find any areas to attack in Jersey. Despite being restricted, Joan spoke about one night where they took all the covers off the windows and they were able to very clearly and vividly see all the stars in the sky since there was no light pollution.
We were also told about the art of substituting, which became very common practice during this time. Since the amount of rations people got were very little, islanders came up with smart ways to recreate things such as tea and coffee. Parsnips were commonly baked until they were brown and then submerged in boiling hot water to make coffee and tea.
I was very interested to know more about the treatment of the Jersey people by the German solders. Towards the end I asked Joan how, on the whole, people were treated and she said that generally, if you followed the rules and didn’t cause trouble you would be left alone.
One story that stuck with me was when Joan told us about the German soldier who came to her house asking to buy an egg. Joan recalled how one day she came back home to find her father sitting down at the table with his head in his hands. When she asked what was wrong he said that he had denied a starving and ill German soldier and egg, and he said that he “never thought he would be part of man’s inhumanity to man“. Joan said that the German solder said he had been diagnosed with TB and he had not heard from his family in a couple of months. He also said that he had been working in London just before he was conscripted and had to go home and fight in the military. This story stuck with me since Joan mentioned how much her parents despised the German soldiers, but after hearing his story they were very sympathetic of him. It also made me realise that when thinking about the occupation, it is very easy to see the occupying forces as the enemy, however some of those individuals probably did not believe in the cause they were being forced to carry out.
Bob Le Sueur was only 19 years old when the German’s occupied Jersey Channel Island’s. During the 5 years of occupation Bob accomplished many things, but importantly he helped to assist Russian’s escape the prison in Jersey , which he was commemorated for by receiving an MBE later on in his life. During this time period he worked as an insurance agent, allowing him to move about. Soon after Bob decided to become an English teacher at Hautlieu school. Allowing Bob to come visit us at Hautlieu not only brought nostalgia to him but also allowed him to share his storied surrounding the topic of the Occupation and his political view points during this time.
To this day Bob can be considered a busy many, as he is constantly doing interviews to share his stories and heroic acts during the Second World War. Many more of his stories can be found online in video interviews, with some of them being linked below.
Interview with Mr Le Sueur
Previous Interview with Mr Le Sueur
“People in every part of the world are extraordinarily alike, with basic human values”
Bob Le Sueur
The Stories:
Le Sueur provided three different stories, almost in a chronological order of events during the war, the first being set of the morning of the German’s arrivals. That particular morning he remembered being awoken too bomb plane dropping two cylinders, connected to parachutes, which contained messages to the command force in Jersey, at this time their was no command force in Jersey, which meant the messages where taken to the Bailiff. The message said that the island had 24 hours to surrender otherwise there would be a carpet bombing onto the Island. This message lead to an emergence sitting at the states, to which they all decided to surrender. During this meeting many stood in anticipation outside the states, in the royal square. The woman believed that when the German’s occupied the Island they would be raped before nightfall, which created an unnerving and negative atmosphere to the already nightmarish situation. Soon after the Bailiff announced that the Island was going to surrender and allow the German’s to occupy.
“When this is all over we must hurry back home and barricade doors”
Two ladies waiting in anticipation – Bob Le Sueur
His Second story was set around the middle of the occupation, and was about a Russian student being hidden by two Islanders, in protection from forced labour and slave work. To set the scene he explained how one of the Russian’s was on his way home from school to which he was escorted onto a train and transported over to Jersey, leaving his parents clueless as to where his child was. He informed us how they managed to get this Russian a fake identity card, allowing him too have freedom and roam the streets in Jersey. This short story was interesting and gives us insight into his heroic acts during the occupation which lead him to the MBE.
“Liberation day was a day islanders knew was coming.”
Bob Le Sueur
The final story told was the day of liberation. His crystal set radio, hidden around households, informed him that Berlin Fell April 30th, and on May 1st was the important labour day in Soviet Union. Further to this the JEP informed islanders that Hitler was announced dead. On the 9th of September at 7:14am the papers of surrender were signed on the deck of the British destroyer at St Peter’s shore. On the day of liberation him and his friends where cycling up to see the shop, when his tire broke, due to the make of his tyre the noise created sounded like pistol shots. When this happened they where cycling pass two German soldiers armed with guns, this lead to everyone around him dropping to the ground. The soldiers lifted their guns and pointed them at Bob, to which they ended up laughing with Bob towards the situation, leaving a happy last memory of the German Soldiers on the day of liberation.
“I wanted to go shake the hands of the German Soldiers.”
Bob Le Sueur
Photoshoot Planning:
After hearing Bob stories about his memories of the war, we were then given the opportunity to photograph Bob in the studio. This allowed me to revisit studio photography and the artificial lights used within the studio environment. Capturing these images, I used a two point lighting set up, one facing straight on at Bob and one behind him, allowing the whole background to be completely white with no grey offsets. In addition I had my camera on Manual mode with the shutter speed being set at 1/125 and my aperture being at F16, making the settings appropriate for a studio photography. In terms of the style of photography, I would say the photographs fall into studio and documentary due to the nature of me building a relationship with the subject, and capturing his story within a portrait. I will be exploring capturing Bob, using head shots, half body and 3/4 body shots in order to capture my subject. I will be also experiment with the positioning of my model in order to create different effects, as well as the positioning of me and the angle at which I am capturing Bob from.
Edits:
First Edit – Flagged
Colour Edits:
For my colour images I selected a half body and 3/4 body shot in order to showcase Bob. To edit them I corrected the white balance, and then adjusted the contrast, highlights, blacks and whites till I was happy with the outcomes. These two photographs are successful as they show the detail of Bob’s skin and his eyes almost draw you into his story and I believe showcases his inner thought and mind. This clearly presents his intellectual and political personality and his thought provoking stories.
Black and White Edits:
For my black and white images I selected a 3/4 body shot (headshot) and a close up of Bob’s hand’s and cane. To edit them I corrected the white balance, and then adjusted the contrast, highlights, blacks and whites till I was happy with the outcomes. The photograph of the hands is successful as I have utilised the close of his hands to create a textural sense, which in itself presents Bob’s stories and have many conceptual representations based on his life. In addition, the headshot in black and white helps to present tonal contrast and a textural sense, creating an interesting photograph to look at
Evaluation:
Being able to explore Bob’s story has allowed me to gain a better understanding of what life at war was like, as well as first hand experience of a young man who lived through this period of time. I believe my imagery has managed to capture these stories, in a subtle way, allowing strong conceptual and contextual elements to be presented through my work, showcasing meaning. In addition, I have been able to extract quotes from Bob’s interview, in verbatim, which will help enrich my further studies as I explore Occupation and Liberation more. To conclude, I am happy with the imagery produce on top of exploring Bob’s life at war and produce strong evidence of further research.
As Bob stated during the interview, they were aware that the liberation day was coming however they were unaware when. In order to keep up morale for while awaiting their liberation, they occasionally held parties using home made alcohol, usually to celebrate the end of availability to a particular resource such as gas or electricity. According to Bob there were many Russian and Polish harbored by locals, the locals would forge an identification card for the refugee and apply for a ration book. this would allow the refugee to eat without cutting into the local’s food supplies.
An example of one of these parties was the night that the gas supply was to be shut off. “Guests that haven’t properly eaten in a year, give them rabbit and calvados” calvados being a form of apple or pear brandy. The house at which this party was being hosted also happened to be harboring a Russian refugee who happened upon the calvados before the party was due to start. While he was locally believed to be Polish by the other jersey residents, his behavior that night showed off his true heritage as his songs and dance could be heard down the street. There was an incident during this time when a group of German soldiers could be seen walking down the street which resulted in the Russian being pinned down with a dish cloth in his mouth. Thankfully the Germans were chanting there own songs and thus were distracted from the racket.
Due to their use of crystal radio sets as well as the German section of the newspaper, they were aware of essential events to the war such as the fact that Berlin had fallen. Bob spoke of the Germans that had told locals that Hitler had died, although the news had perpetuated the lie that Hitler had died defending Berlin in spite of his less glamorous reality. Hitler had appointed a naval commander who hastily made an appointment to negotiate an armistice on may 7th, and on the 8th Europe was liberated followed by Jersey’s liberation the next day. The surrender of the channel islands was signed on a British destroyer off the coast of Jersey.
