Alderney, third largest of the Channel Islands and lying seven miles from the coast of Normandy, possesses one of the finest concentration of 19^th and 20^th century military architecture in north-west Europe.

During the second World War, the Germans invaded the Channel Islands after the fall of France in 1940.  The Occupation, and subsequent fortification of the Islands has always been considered to be due to Adolf Hitler's personal obsession with the possession of British soil. Eventually they were to become one of the most heavily fortified sections of the Atlantic Wall and by 1944, with an allied invasion imminent, were designed as one of 12 fortresses that were to be defended to the last man.

Alderney was fortified to a far greater degree for its size than any other Channel Island with 13 infantry strong points, 12 resistance nests, 5 coastal batteries, 22 anti-aircraft batteries, 3 defence lines and over 30,000 landmines.  Using aerial photo-reconnaissance photographs taken by 542 Squadron within days of the German surrender in May 1945, the author has produced a series of line drawings of every battery or infantry strong point in Alderney. Each German position is described noting the surviving emplacements.  Also included are maps of the German minefields, tunnels and underground telephone system together with plans of all the fortress standard bunkers in the islands and their distribution.

The book is profusely illustrated with 10 maps, more than 50 plans and 250 photographs of which 90 are in colour.