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Festungjerseymilitaria.com
Once upon a time...
| Lithograph of Hitler removed from the Pomme D'or Hotel in St.Helier at the Liberation in May 1945. A 40th Birthday present from my parents. |
| The funeral cortege of Oberleutnant Zepernick in 1943. It started in St.Helier at what is now the Jersey Tourism Office in Liberation Square |
| Mg.Battalion16 men taking a break at the "Seagull" in St.Ouen's Bay. |
| The end of the journey for Zepernik was here at the Heldenfriedhof (Heroes Cemetery) at St.Brelades Church. |
| My Name is Damien Horn, and I was lucky enough to be born on the Island of Jersey in the Channel Islands (Between England and France). The Channel Islands were the only part of Great Britain to have been occupied by the German armed forces during WW.2. From an early age I became aware of the vast amount of concrete German fortifications (bunkers) that are to be seen on this relatively small Island (9 x 5 miles). Inevitably as youngsters do I was attracted to these bunkers looking for the one that had lain undiscovered and remained full of vast amounts of treasure, in this case not gold but German helmets, Iron Cross and if I was really lucky maybe a Luger. As you might expect I never did find such a bunker, but by asking every Tom Dick and Harry that I came across if they had any "German stuff" I ended being given quite a lot of my early collection. Luckily for me my Father knew lots of locals and many of them were able to help with some quite amazing items. On one occasion I was given a couple of very nice German helmets, 3 radio sets and 2 ENIGMA decoding machines, those are items that don't appear every day. Now years later I have to gather up quite a respectable collection. I was at one time the co-owner of 2 of the Islands Occupation museums. These days I have just the one, "The Channel Islands Military Museum" in St.Ouen. As time went on I began to specialise in certain areas of the collecting field. My main area of interest these days is in German items with a direct connection with the Channel Islands, (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm). Items such as Soldbuch and Wehrpass, as well as photo albums from German soldiers who were stationed in the Islands are a particular favourite of mine. There is a certain something about tracing a soldiers progress across Europe and to finding out were he actually served here on the Islands. I have a reasonable collection of German helmets which these days are becoming quite scarce, and a firearm collection which is used on a regular basis with our local gun club, the "Modern and Military Arms Association". We are indeed lucky here to still have our handguns, so Lugers, P.38's and the such like can regularly be seen on the firing line. I also have a working Mp.40 and Mg.34 which are also licenced and can be used on our range. Some 15 years ago I acquired the rusting wreck of a Stoewer R200s radio car, since then it has been fully restored and put back onto the Islands roads (see Stoewer Restoration for more details). As a member of the Jersey Military Vehicle Club I take the car out to various events throughout the year. These days I am often accompanied by my son Sebastien. The Stoewer is the last German vehicle to be left in the Channel Islands from the German Occupation, again this was my main driving force in its rescue and restoration. As time has gone on I have come to realise that the vast amount of kit I have in storage is now getting out of hand and unmanageable. I am still as keen as ever to get my hands on new items for the collection, but I see no point in keeping items that don't fit into my collecting criteria. So I have decided to move on duplicate items that no longer are needed, these in turn will fund the purchase of those local items I am searching for. If your a collector and are looking for items for your own collection then have a look at my "Items for sale "page. If you do not see what your after email or phone and ask. I started to collect at the age of 7, today some 36 years later it has become an out of control obsession. I am still keen on the chase for new items but I now realise I cannot keep it all, as much as I might want to. |