The Channel Islands At War Read online

  The Channel Islands At War

  Peter King

  Unknown publisher (2010)

  Tags: Non Fiction

  Non Fictionttt

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  The Channel Islands at War

  Peter King

  1940-1945

  ©Peter King 1991 First published in Great Britain 1991

  ISBN 07090 4512 3

  Robert Hale Limited Clerkenwell House Clerkenwell Green London EC1R0HT

  The right of Peter King to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Photoset in North Wales by Derek Doyle & Associates, Mold, Clwyd. Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and bound by WBC Bookbinders Ltd, Bridgend, Glamorgan.

  Contents

  List of Illustrations viii

  Acknowledgements x

  Preface xv

  A Selected Chronology of Events in the Channel Isles

  1940-1945 xix

  Part 1 The Sound and Fury of Battle

  War Comes to the Islands, June and July 1940 1

  Inside the Channel War Zone for Five Years 11

  lnsehvahn: Hitler's Channel Fortress, and its Garrison 25

  Part 2 Ruled by the Third Reich

  The German Rulers and their Organizations 38

  The Island Governments and the Germans 50

  Part 3 Collaboration

  The Forces of Law and Order: The Black Market 61

  Working for or with the Germans: The Informers 70

  'Boots for Bags': Fraternization by the Island Women 76

  Part 4 The Dangerous and Lonely Decision: Resistance

  9 Espionage and Undercover Information 83

  Public Demonstrations and Secret Politics 92

  The Courage and Suffering of Island Escapcrs 97

  Part 5 Occupation Life for Ordinary People

  12 War Crimes: Billeting, Looting, and Destruction of Goods

  and Property 106

  The Wretchedness of Everyday Life 116

  The Last Year and the Red Cross Ship 124

  Part 6 Hitler's New Order in the Channel Islands

  The Todt Workers and the Death Camps 131

  The Deportation of the Islanders 141

  The Fate of the Jews on the Islands 152

  Belsen, Buchenwald, Frankfurt, Naumburg, Neuengamme,

  and RavensbrQck 156

  Epilogue: The Liberation Days 163

  Appendix: An Estimate of the Total of Dead in the Channel

  Islands War Theatre 175

  Source Notes 181

  Bibliography 189 Index

  193

  To

  Cecil Horace Beeby and Peter Frank Wells formerly Headmaster, and Second Master of The Skinners' School Tunbridge Wells

  Illustrations

  Plates

  Between pages 30 and 31

  A German soldier manhandles an anti-tank gun into position, Guernsey

  A German sentry at the Forest Hotel in Guernsey

  East Lynne Farm, Jersey. Home of Wilfred Bertram and other resistance workers

  A small German patrol boat in St Peter Port harbour

  Searchlight and machine-gun at Chateau a l'Etoc on Alderney

  Chouet Tower on Guernsey, one of seven Marinepeilestande

  Between pages 78 and 79

  Procession entering the centre of St Anne on Alderney in 1942

  Braye Harbour seen from Fort Albert

  Female Todt workers

  Todt workers constructing the Minis battery on Guernsey

  Todt workers on Guernsey being fed at a camp

  The entrance gate to Sylt camp

  The remaining foundations of Norderncy camp

  Between pages 126 and 127

  The Underground Hospital at St Lawrence in Jersey

  Entrance to Hohlgang 12 beneath St Saviour's Church on Guernsey

  The graves of Todt workers on Longy Common, Alderney

  German military graves on Alderney

  Jewish graves on Alderney

  Baron von Aufsess, chief of administration on Jersey

  The conference between Coutanche and Carey, Iselin and Callias, chaired by Huffmcicr, December 1944

  Collecting Red Cross parcels, St Peter Port, Guernsey

  Liberation Day, St Peter Port, May 1945

  Figures

  Fig. 1 The German Government of the Channel Islands 39

  Fig.2 Some examples of black market prices 69

  Fig.3 Camps and prisons in Europe to which Channel Islanders

  were sent: Part 1 146

  Fig.4 Camps and prisons in Europe to which Channel Islanders

  were sent: Part 2 157

  Preface

  In May 1945, Herbert Morrison, the home secretary, reported to the cabinet on his recent visit to the Channel Islands a week after they had been liberated from five years of German occupation. 'Nobody', said Morrison, 'who has not lived under the Nazis can fully realize what this means'. It is important in studying such a situation as an enemy occupation, with its undertones of hatred and treachery, anger and guilt, not to fall into the role of an armchair critic doling out blame on all and sundry for acting as they did, or for failing to take actions which seem obvious to us with the benefit of hindsight. What each of us might have done under Nazi rule is unknown because mainland Britain did not have the same experience. If Hitler had landed, brave people and cowards might have been found in all kinds of surprising places.

  Evidence is part of the historian's craft and, when it is lacking, although reasoned inferences can be drawn it is important to realize that without specific evidence one cannot be absolutely sure. There is hardly a part of this book where this does not apply. There was no Royal Commission in 1945. The official history was only commissioned in 1970, and mention of the Islands in standard works on collaboration, resistance, and Hitler's New Order is noticeably lacking. The official history drew attention to gaps in the records of the Military government or Kommandantur, and of Organization Todt that ran most of the camps. SS records are noticeably reticent about their camp, Sylt, on Alderney, and the German authorities are still cagey about disclosing details of SS trials.

  Island records too, are sparse, particularly the police files. Unlike the rest of occupied Europe, the Island governments made no effort in the 1940s to collect information about either collaboration or resistance. There is even a lack of memorials to escapers, Jews, resisters, or those who lost their lives. Herbert Morrison told the cabinet that atrocities would be investigated, but many of the statements taken then have vanished for 'lack of space', and even official reports have disappeared. An investigation into possible collaboration was carried out, but in November 1946, the next home secretary, Chuter Ede, said there would be no prosecutions. Only twelve cases had even been considered. The records of evidence taken in this matter remain closed until 2045. In spite of investigations by Major Pantcheff and others no one was tried for war crimes. Eight guards were later punished for killing two Alderney Todt prisoners in transit at Sollstedt. From this lack of official response it would seem that the Islands, uniquely in Fortress Europe, experienced neither

  the evil of Nazi cruelty nor the shame of collaboration.

  The last time a general history of the Islands was written, and it was a good one, was by Alan and Mary Wood in 1955. The long-delayed official history by Charles Cruickshank came out in 1975. Although it had valuable material from German and British government records, and sheds much light on the official reasons for certain events, it has little to say about the issues of collaboration and resistance, surely central to any occupation history? It
makes no attempt to assess in numerical terms the crimes and suffering of the times, and mentions very few of the well-authenticated cases of cruelty and death. Islanders who died in Europe are almost completely ignored, for example. It is essentially an administrative history which makes no use of detailed diaries of events deposited in the Imperial War Museum which confirm the picture presented by other well-known contemporary' sources.

  This is surprising because the occupation has become part of Channel Islands' life. What the Germans left behind has become a major tourist attraction with numerous museums containing items like informers' letters. Many an occupation tale is told in the bars of St Helier and St Peter Port, and there has been a continuous stream of diaries, articles and books. Some of this material is unhistorical, containing factual errors such as confusing the Feldpolizei with the Gestapo and statements which are extreme or unproven. Nevertheless, this contemporary information, by and large presents a different picture from the one put forward by the Island governments, the British government, or in the official history.

  For the first time this book brings together the official story and the evidence accumulated over the years of what happened to ordinary Islanders. In particular I have used articles from the Channel Islands Occupation Review (CIOR), previously neglected in histories of the time. As a continuous commentary on events I have selected one contemporary record from each of the Islands which internal evidence suggests is largely accurate, and not written in a hysterical state of mind. For Sark I have relied on Julia Tremayne's little-used letters, for Guernsey on Mrs Cortvriend's account based on a diary and published in 1947, and for Jersey on the well-known detailed account by Leslie Sinel published in 1945. In 1985 the diary of Baron von Aufsess, a Jersey official of the Kommandantur was published providing an invaluable check from the other side, and this confirms in many ways the grim picture of occupation given in this book. Although I do not agree with some of the allegations, facts, or surmises in Solomon Steckoll's book on Alderney, it contains important documents which, although fragmentary, substantiate the darker side of occupation life.

  What has emerged is, I hope, a new picture of total war in the Islands. They were part of Hitler's New Order. They were a massively fortified and heavily garrisoned fortress. They contained a large population of Todt workers and POWs. They were in the Channel war zone seeing air and sea warfare in all five years of occupation. The people experienced every misery of their compatriots in mainland Britain with the Germans living next door. Thousands went through the war divided from their families by evacuation and deportation, and had no leave-time meetings with their serving relatives. The treatment of the concentration camp inmates, the Todt workers, and certain categories of foreigners, like Russian POWs or French escapers, meant that few Islanders avoided contact with brutality and degradation. Most of the Islanders, except for a privileged few, suffered degrees of deprivation in every essential of civilized living for far longer than is often realized, and remained in bondage and suffering in spite of limited measures to help them taken from December 1944. Some Islanders may be annoyed by what I have written. I have tried to stay clear of Island history buffs and form conclusions based on general resistance and wartime history: to judge the Islands in the light of what we know of German methods and resistance history today. It is often not a pretty story.

  But Islanders must accept both sides of the story. The book also reveals how ordinary people suffered emphasizing that wartime and occupation hazards went together, and affected particular families in several, not just one, respect. The book describes the resistance that took place. It gives details of brave acts of defiance that led to imprisonment and death. There were Islanders who helped the British military, Island escapers, and Todt workers. There were many more escapers than is often realized, some of whom took out valuable information. The record of the courageous and patriotic, by the standards of those times, is made plain.

  There is, however, the other side. As German brutality and Island sacrifice is revealed, the argument that it was a moderate occupation, and therefore did not justify official resistance, wears increasingly thin. It begins to look like a justification for mistakes in policy by the British government and the Island governments. The conduct of the Island governments which Cruickshank called passive co-operation looks increasingly like collaboration of various kinds. Collaboration by black-marketeers, Jerry bags, informers, and those who worked with the Germans is along the lines familiar enough in Denmark or Norway of the time. The Island governments opposed resistance and while, occasionally protesting and helping with individual acts of generosity, carried out German orders concerning the Jews deportation and other matters to the letter. In all this there emerged two occupations: one for ordinary Islanders and one for the privileged classes.

  Peter King

  Hurstpierpoint 1990

  A Selected Chronology of Events in the Channel Isles 1940-1945

  1940

  12 June Imperial staff presented a paper to the cabinet on the

  Channel Isles. First French refugees arrived in Alderney

  15 Decision to carry out demilitarization of the Islands made

  - 20 Military evacuation carried out

  -19 Channel Islands' small boats help in evacuation of St

  Malo

  19 Islands informed of decision to demilitarize, Germans

  not told until 30 June, and to evacuate on an ad hoc basis

  21 Victor Carey, bailiff of Guernsey, and Alexander

  Coutanche, bailiff of Jersey, sworn in as acting governors. Guernsey Controlling Committee set up

  21-3 Haphazard civilian evacuation: 30,000 go, and 60,000

  stay

  All but 20 of Alderney's 1,442 inhabitants leave

  Jersey Superior Council set up

  28 Air raid on St Peter Port, Guernsey, and St Helier,

  Jersey kills 44 people

  30 Operational conference for invasion of Channel Isles

  meets in Paris. Operation Grune Pfeile started by

  Luftwaffe. Occupation of Guernsey

  1 July Jersey occupied. Arrival of Albrecht Lanz and Erich

  Gussek, the first German commanders

  1-2 First escapers from the main islands, to be followed by

  c.80 from Jersey, and c.80 from Guernsey

  Token occupation of Alderney

  Sark occupied

  9-28 Philip Martel and Desmond Mulholland land in

  Guernsey, give themselves up, and are sent to France

  13 -14 The first 'commando' raid on Alderney fails

  1 Aug Ambrose Sherwill broadcasts on Radio Bremen

  9 FK 515 military government established under General

  Friedrich Schumacher with HQ at Victoria College, St

  Saviour's in Jersey

  16 Purchasing mission established at Granville by Raymond Falla

  4 Sept.-21 Oct Hubert Nicolle and James Symes hide on Guernsey. On their surrender three officials are deprived of office, wireless sets confiscated, and a heavy fine of £3,000 is imposed

  27 Sept First anti-Semitic Laws introduced (others on 31 May 1941 and 26 June 1942). The arrival of the first military commander, Colonel Graf Rudolf von Schmettow

  2 Nov Fifteen Guernsey Islanders imprisoned in Cherche Midi, Paris where Louis Symes committed suicide (Dec 22)

  1941

  17 Mar Execution of Francois Scornet at St Ouen's Manor, Jersey

  21 Carey denounces sabotage as 'stupid and criminal'

  24 Bread rationing starts

  30 Arrival of 319 Division. The garrison eventually rose to

  a maximum of 36,960 early in 1943

  May – Aug Work party of 15 Sarkees go to maintain St Anne

  breakwater

  15 June Hitler orders the fortification of the Islands

  June Geheime Feldpolizei 131 (troops), and 312 (civilians) established in the Islands with HQ at Silvertide, St Helier, Jersey, and the Albion Hotel, St Peter Port, Guernsey


  8 July Carey issues a poster offering £25 reward to informers for chalking up V-Victory signs. Kathleen Le Norman and Mrs Kinniard imprisoned at Caen for this offence Major Carl Hoffmann becomes Commandant of Alderney