THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

A novel setting
The other life of the only British territory occupied by the Germans in WWII
By Linda Matchan, Globe Staff | November 8, 2009 ST. PETER PORT, Guernsey - When you put your mind to it, there are plenty of ways to use a bunker on your property. Extra storage. Wine cellars. Recording studios. These are some of the creative solutions devised by the resilient residents of Guernsey, a small, scenic island in the far reaches of the English Channel that found itself in Hitler’s crosshairs in World War II. Guernsey was occupied by some 15,000 German troops between 1940 and 1945, and fortified so ferociously it was virtually impregnable. “You can’t go more than 3 miles without seeing a bunker,’’ said John O’Neill, a Guernsey photojournalist. But the Germans left in a hurry when the war ended, abandoning their estimated 700 bunkers and everything in them. Since they’re probably there for eternity, the people of Guernsey have made the best of them. O’Neill’s rock band used to rehearse in one. Others have used them to grow mushrooms and store fish. “We’ve seen people use them for billiards,’’ said Molly Bihet, author of several books on Guernsey’s wartime history. “They’re solid and they’re warm because they’re well insulated.’’ Until recently, the occupation has been a little-known footnote to World War ll history. The harbor was bombed in 1940, killing 41 civilians. Half the population and most of the schoolchildren were evacuated, and all residents not born on the island were deported and interned in camps. Thousands of slave workers from German occupied territories were shipped to the island, starved, and worked - in many cases - to death. But in the last year the island (population about 65,000) has been thrust from near-obscurity into the international limelight with the surprise success of an American book, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’’ (The Dial Press/Random House), by first-time