page_title: Battery Lothringen
section_title: MP1 tower
hierarchical_section_title: Battery Lothringen / MP1 tower
caption_attribution_description: Nrf: Nièrmont, Saint Brélade, Jèrri, 24 dé Juilet 2009 Français&#160;: Noirmont, Saint-Brélade, Jersey, 24 juillet 2009
context_page_description: Batterie Lothringen was a World War II coastal artillery battery in Saint Brélade, Jersey, named after the SMS Lothringen, and constructed by Organisation Todt for the Wehrmacht during the Occupation of the Channel Islands. The first installations were completed in 1941, around the same time as the completion of the nearby Battery Moltke, in St. Ouen.
  The batterie site is located at the end of Noirmont Point, a rock headland which overlooks St. Aubin's Bay, Elizabeth Castle, and the harbours of Saint Helier. It was a part of the Atlantic Wall system of coastal fortifications, and most of the concrete structures remain today. The 3rd Battery of Naval Artillery Battalion 604 were stationed here.
  The site overlooks the 19th Century Martello tower of La Tour de Vinde. This is the black and white tower visible in the photo to the right. The tower is painted to serve as a daymark. There is no easy footpath from the battery to the tower.
context_section_description: The Marine Peilstand 1 tower, or MP1 tower, was used to observe targets at sea.  The round tower is around 16 metres (52 ft) tall, and has four observation floors, each with a wide, and narrow embrasure (for observation purposes only).  Each of these floors was assigned to observe for one of the four 15 cm naval guns. The tower has five floors, including a windowless lower floor, plus a further open rooftop floor. Access is gained via a steel door, at the top floor, which is protected by an adjacent embrasure, suitable for small arms.
  An Oerlikon 20 mm cannon was placed on the top of the tower for anti-aircraft purposes. In 2012, the gun is no longer present, but its steel support can be seen.
  The tower, built between April and October 1943, is located near the top of the steep sloping cliff, and extends no higher than the headland, which means its profile does not protrude into the sky when seen from afar.  The visibility of the tower was reduced further using camouflage.
  It is one of three completed direction and range finding towers, of this type, in Jersey. Nine towers were planned, but only towers numbered 1 to 3 were built.
  The towers were to be positioned around the entire coast of Jersey, so that any neighboring pair of towers could work together to pin-point a precise location of a target using triangulation. The position of the target would be passed on to the artillery, so that the gun could be rotated, raised or lowered to the correct orientation to fire upon that position.
caption: MP1 tower with panoramic views.
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