The Channel Islands At War Read online

  Aug. Milk rationing starts

  13 Oct. Mrs Winifred Green sent to Caen for using insulting words

  18 Major Friedrich Knackfuss replaces Schumacher in charge of FK515

  20 Hitler's Fortification Directive. Major-General Erich Müller becomes Commander until September 1943 with his HQ at Hotel Metropole, St Helier and later at La Corbinerie, the Oberlands in Guernsey

  Nov. Visit of Dr Fritz Todt whose organization based at St Malo, and later Cherbourg, begins a fortification programme. Some 16,000 OT workers came to the Islands.

  Dec. Fuel rationing introduced.

  1942

  Jan. Raids on St Peter Port by RAF sink ships and kill

  harbour workers. Dr Wilhelm Casper succeeded by Baron von Aufsess as Chief of Administration in Jersey. Four camps (Helgoland, Norderncy, Borkum and Sylt) start on Alderney

  Feb. The first of three German brothels opens. Lieutenant-

  Colonel Zuske, appointed Commandant of Alderney

  Mar. Eighteen Guernsey policemen involved in black market

  activities arrested

  6 Apr. Start of the teaching of German in primary schools

  21 Auguste Spitz and Theresia Steiner, Austrian Jews,

  deported

  2 May Three boys fail to escape from Jersey with military

  secrets. One drowned, two imprisoned. One, Maurice Gould, later died at Wittlich Camp. Start of Guernsey Underground News Service (GUNS) with a circulation of about three hundred

  June Sherwill returns as Attorney-General in Guernsey.

  Bulletin of British Patriots published in Jersey. Ten hostages taken. Herbert and George Gallichan sentenced to Wolfenbuttel and Dijon for producing the bulletin

  26 June Surrender of all wirelesses.

  7 July The extended Jersey railways reopen for quarry

  purposes

  8 Aug. Casquets lighthouse raided and seven Germans

  captured

  15 Sept. Deportation order issued by Knackfuss on orders from

  Berlin

  16,18,29 1,186 deported from Jersey: 26, 27, 834 from Guernsey

  and Sark. Suicide of Major John Skelton to avoid deportation

  19 Escape of two fishermen and two girls from St

  Sampson's in Guernsey

  Sept. Edward and Nan Ross imprisoned for feeding Todt

  workers

  Oct. Order issued forbidding Germans to fraternize with

  Island women

  3-4 Oct. Operation Basalt in Sark. Two Germans killed and one

  captured. Lieutenant Herdt court-martialled

  12 Trial by court-martial of 14 boys involved in riot at the

  time of the deportations

  Nov. Lancaster crashes on Aeroplane Field, Sark. Three

  crew captured. This was one of c.30 Allied aircraft which crashed on the Islands or nearby.

  1943

  Jan. The Xaver Dorsch went aground at Braye, and the Schockland sank off Jersey

  6 Stanley Green, who had provided photography for resisters, and cut telephone wires, was sentenced for having a wireless and sent to Fresnes and Buchenwald

  18 German made compulsory at all educational institutions

  12, 13, 25, Feb, Second deportation order. Suicides at Grouville and Beaumont. 87 deported from Jersey, and 114 from Guernsey and Sark; no news of them for six weeks.

  23 Feb. Sylt becomes a concentration camp with 1,100 prisoners

  Mar. Captain Maximilian List becomes Sylt's camp commandant

  3 Mar. Illegal conscription of Island labour begins and, in spite of protests, continues until 24 August

  30 Apr. Illegal reduction in bread ration which continues in spite of protests until 1 August

  6 June Franzeph Losch, a Todt worker, executed at Fort George for possessing a wireless transmitter

  13 Two Guernsey fishermen killed and two injured when their boat hits a mine

  22 Mrs Louisa Gould and Harold le Druillcnec sentenced for hiding a Todt worker. Le Druillenec ended at Belsen, and Mrs Gould died at Ravensbruck in February 1945

  2 Aug. Complete ban on fishing

  14 Four men and three women escape to Dartmouth from St Sampson's

  Sept. Von Schmettow resumes command of the military, and moves his HQ to Guernsey. Colonel Siegfried Heine replaces him in Jersey

  23-24 Oct. Convoy battle west of the Islands. Loss by the British of HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne with 504 killed

  Nov. Lieutenant-Colonel Schwalm becomes Alderney Commandant

  17 Charybdis Day when 41 of the naval dead in the convoy battle were buried, and large numbers of the public attended

  Dec. Mrs Tremayne's house, Grand Dixcart on Sark, subjected to house search after raid on Sark. Two Frenchmen killed

  27-8 Failure of last raid on Jersey and death of Captain Ayton

  1944

  3 Mar. The Channel Islands declared fortresses. Knackfuss

  replaced by Heider. Lieutenant Braun becomes commandant of Sylt camp

  6 Apr. GUNS trial. Legg, Duquemin, and Falla imprisoned in

  Frankfurt and Naumberg. Machon and Gillingham died in prison

  8 Two Guernsey men become the only civilian escapers

  from Alderney

  5 May Schwalm's order to hand Sylt inmates over to the SS if

  there was an invasion

  19 May FK515 becomes PKI with a reduced status

  May-Aug. Air war over the Islands with attacks on forts, ports,

  and shipping: 22 raids sink 12 ships and damage 13

  17 June Hitler declares the Islands must be defended 'to the

  last'

  24 Alderney bombed. About 200 civilians evacuated to

  Guernsey

  27 Capture of Cherbourg, Granville (30 July), and St

  Malo (17 Aug.), cuts the Islands off from supplies

  July Removal of camp inmates to St Malo and later

  Buchenwald. Some escape in Belgium. OT workers evacuated

  7 Sinking of Minotaure by the British with the loss of 250 lives including French Jews

  27 Lancaster shot down south-west of Alderney. Captain

  Massmann, the harbour commandant refuses to allow the rescue vessel to put out. Arrival of German casualties for underground hospitals at La Vassalerie in Guernsey and St Lawrence in Jersey

  8 Aug. HMS Rodney shelled Blucher battery in Alderney

  killing two Germans

  25 Mr Jehan of St Saviour's killed and his son wounded

  trying to drive off German marauders

  1 Sept. Violation of food regulations made subject to the death

  penalty

  9 End of the gas supply in Jersey

  Keitel's OKW Directive for 'the complete stopping of rations' if necessary on the Islands

  Germany informed the Swiss that civilian supplies 'are exhausted'

  Sept.-Dec. 66 people try to escape from Jersey and 44 of them succeed

  Sept. Vice-Admiral Friedrich Hüffmeier replaces von Hell-

  dorf as Chief of Staff

  7 Oct. Deputy E. Le Quesne sentenced for having a wireless,

  and then released after only a fortnight

  11 Douglas Le Marchand shot while trying to escape

  25 Admiral Krancke placed in charge of Island administration

  3 Nov Frederick Noyon and William Enticott escape with information on the food shortage

  5 Germans permit the bailiffs to appeal to the Red Cross

  7 Britain agrees to Red Cross relief provided Germans maintain the basic rations (Germany accepted this 23 Nov.)

  11 Four drown off Jersey trying to escape when

  2 Dec Mmes, Malherbe and Schwab sentenced to death for anti-German propaganda

  21 End of the gas supply in Guernsey

  27 to 30 Dec First visit of the Red Cross ship Vega with 750 tons of food, and medical supplies. Other visits: 7-11 Feb., 6-9Mar., 5-8 Apr. and3-7 May)

  1945

  8 Jan Two American airmen become the only succ
essful evaders on the Islands

  13 Telephone service ends. Three milkless days start. The first cases of malnutrition in the German forces reported

  16 Order banning the cutting of all timber

  23 Escape of the le Page brothers and Xavier Golivet with naval information

  25 Electricity supply ceased

  17 Feb Bread ration ends (until 12 Mar.)

  22 Five escape from Jersey with military information

  28 Hüffmeier replaces von Schmettow, and naval captains

  von Kleve and Reich put in charge of Jersey and Guernsey. Major General Rudolf Wulf placed in command of 319 division

  7 Mar Explosion at the Palace Hotel, Bagatele kills nine Germans

  8 to 9 German raid on Granville releases 55 POWs and captures 30 men

  18 Attempt to kill Major General Wulf fails

  25 Hüffmeier's picture palace speech saying there would be no surrender

  23 All communal kitchens, cafe's, and ovens closed

  28 Von Helldorf banished to Herm Island

  8 M ay Operation Nestegg liberation fleet arrived off the Islands

  9 German surrender. 27,000 POWs captured. Jersey, Guernsey and Sark liberated. Brigadier Alfred Snow sets up military government

  13 German POWs start to leave

  14-15 Visit of Herbert Morrison, the home secretary

  16 Alderney liberated

  7 June Visit of King George VI

  25 Evacuees begin to return from Britain

  Aug. 2,190 deportees return after being screened at

  Stanmore. German POWs clear 117,000 mines from the Islands

  25 New lieutenant governors arrived, and the government

  of the Islands restored

  12 Dec. The War Honours List largely ignores escapers, prisoners, and resisters

  15 Start of the return of 685 people to Alderney

  Part 1

  The Sound and Fury of Battle

  War Comes to the Islands, June and July 1940

  In the spring of 1940 life in the Channel Islands, like that in mainland Britain, had been little changed by real war. People wanting to visit the Islands for Easter were assured by the home secretary that there were no travel restrictions, but sadly not every visitor who accepted his assurance that all was well was able to return. Mr and Mrs Dunkley of Ramsgate who went to see relatives were trapped on the Islands, and the whole family were deported to Laufen early in 1943. However, the Islands were still seen that spring as a safe haven from the expected mass-bombing of Britain. Some evacuees were sent there from Southampton, and Sark offered to take 15 children. The Peace Pledge Union urged men who did not want to be called up to take agricultural work on the Islands and over a hundred arrived in Jersey. Trapped by the German invasion some of them worked for Organization Todt when it was established on the Islands. One of them, Derek Leister, grandson of a German baker from Camden Town, found his way from Jersey to a girlfriend and flat in a suburb of Berlin and membership of John Amery's British Free Corps.

  No one had any reason to suppose the Islands would be invaded, and preparation for war was piecemeal and slow. An Air Raid Precautions organization was set up under Major William Crawford-Morrison, but no shelters were constructed. There was a National Savings Campaign, and a Special Aid Society to provide comforts for soldiers at the front. The ancient defence forces of the Islands - the Royal Guernsey Militia and the Jersey Insular Defence Corps - were embodied, and a few measures of self-defence, like the construction of a machine-gun post to protect the Guernsey telephone exchange and the blocking of roads with obstacles, were carried out in early summer. The last regular army unit had just left the Islands although there were fortifications like Fort George south of St Peter Port. About a thousand assorted military personnel were still there including naval ratings, the Royal Army Service Corps, and an army technical school for boys. These were joined in the period before demilitarization by Royal Engineers, small anti-aircraft units, and briefly, two squadrons of Hurricanes. The last units were only despatched to the Islands on 14 June, and it seems clear that until then at least it was proposed to retain and even defend them. A machine-gun training school

  equipped with fuel dumps and a military hospital was set up on Alderney.

  But successive defeats in Norway and Belgium, and the collapse of France; produced a change of heart at the War Office. On 15 June the Imperial General Staff recommended to the cabinet that complete demilitarization take place, and agreement was given the same day in spite of grumbling from Churchill. Britain needed all the troops she could get, and had no resources to fling across the Channel to defend the Islands. It was a sensible decision. The next day, the administrator in charge of Alderney, Judge Frederick French, was told that military evacuation had to take place within six hours - although official notification was not given to the bailiffs in Guernsey and Jersey until two days later. Within four days, military evacuation was completed at such speed that only on Alderney was there time to destroy facilities. The Royal Engineers who came to Jersey for this purpose were rebuffed by the bailiff, Alexander Coutanche, and as a result recently completed cables to France stayed intact. The limited civil defence and fortification measures were put into reverse, and the Island militias joined those of military age leaving the Islands. Lastly, on 21 June the two lieutenant-governors, who were also military commanders of Jersey and Guernsey, withdrew delegating their functions to the bailiffs.

  There followed an administrative comedy of errors that turned to tragedy. Because the evacuation of troops from France was still going on, followed by that of Island civilians, it was decided by the Home Office that the press release prepared for 22 June to say the Islands were demilitarized should be delayed, and the War Office agreed saying the Germans probably knew anyway through intelligence sources. On 24 June a message from King George VI was received by the bailiffs, but as this referred to the withdrawal of the armed forces the Home Office stressed that care should be taken not to publish the message. In Guernsey the bailiff, Victor Carey, read it out two days later on a loudspeaker from the window of the Guernsey Evening Press in South Street, and few therefore knew the message had come. Four days after the civilian evacuation was completed, the BBC was allowed to mention the demilitarization on 28 June, but it was only on the day that the Germans started their occupation that the Foreign Office officially informed Germany about demilitarization.

  Near as they were to France the Islands were not left long in doubt about events there. As early as 9 June clouds of smoke could be seen rising from French harbours, and soon fishing boats, with crucifixes nailed to the masts and pathetic bundles of possessions in their bottoms, arrived with the first refugees. Six boat loads reached St Peter Port and also brought over nearly a hundred French naval ratings. On Sunday 16 June Coutanche received a telegram from London which asked the Islands to help evacuate the remaining personnel from St Malo. Potato boats and small craft were commandeered that evening and put under the command of the yacht club commodore, William Le Masurier. A destroyer arrived in St Helier to take a native pilot on board for the trip to St Malo. Soon afterwards the first of 17 boats put out for France as a British task force

  complete with NAAFI canteen arrived to cope with any rescued troops. The Island boats brought off the demolition party, wounded troops, civilians and a party of Belgian nuns, although the main bulk of the troops from St Malo were carried straight across the Channel.

  By now alarm created by demilitarization and refugees, and the obvious collapse of France, was causing the bailiffs desperate concern because there was still no word from London about the fate of the Islanders. On 16 June the Home Office asked that Island representatives be sent to discussions, and it was decided that a Jersey jurat, Edgar Dorey, should represent both Islands. He flew to London next day to meet Alexander Maxwell and Charles Markbreiter, the officials responsible for the Channel Isles. It was agreed demilitarization should be announced, together with evacuation of certain groups of c
ivilians. But when Dorey flew back to Guernsey and then on to Jersey on 19 June it was by no means clear who should be evacuated. Unlike Gibraltar, where the whole population was to be taken off, confusion marked events in the Channel Islands. Categories specified were vague and evacuation was to be voluntary, throwing the burden of decision on to individuals torn between accusations of cowardice, fear of the unknown, and fear of staying. In spite of experience gleaned in Britain no advice was given by the Home Office, although the Treasury insisted that the Islands foot the bill for any shipping involved.