The Liberation of the Channel Islands - 9th May 1945

by Mark Patton

In an earlier Blog Post, I explored the circumstances under which, during the course of the Second World War, the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark became the only British territories in the Western Hemisphere to be occupied by the forces of Nazi Germany. German troops took control of the islands in June 1940, but the islanders suffered their greatest hardships in the final year of the war. After the D-Day landings of June 1944, the islands were effectively cut off from all external supplies. Islanders and German troops alike came close to starvation.

A German officer with a Channel Island policeman.
Photo: Imperial War Museum (non-commercial license).

Despite the very real threat of execution, many islanders kept illicit radios in their home, enabling them to listen to the broadcasts of the BBC. The news of Hitler's suicide on 30th April circulated widely, both among the islanders and within the German garrison, yet there remained uncertainty. The formal instruments of surrender were signed at Reims on 7th May, and Churchill declared VE Day on the 8th, but the islands remained in German hands. There were rumours that the German commander of the islands, Admiral Huffmeier, an ardent Nazi, would refuse to surrender them.

On the 8th May, the Bailiff of Jersey, Alexander Coutanche, raised the British and American flags from the twin flag poles of the island's parliament building, and spoke to the assembled crowd in the Royal Square. German troops, still armed, mingled with people in the streets (Huffmeier was on Guernsey, and Coutanche's action had probably been authorised by one of the senior German officers on Jersey, most of whom were not Nazis).

Later that day, two Royal Navy warships, HMS Beagle and HMS Bulldog, were dispatched from Plymouth and anchored four miles off Guernsey. Huffmeier at first threatened to fire on them, and subsequently declared that he would only surrender the islands after having detonated all the ammunition stored on them, but there were, among his own officers, several who were willing to assassinate him rather than allow this to happen. The surrender was signed at Saint-Peter-Port at 0714 on the 9th May. Shortly afterwards, an RAF force of Mosquitoes and Mustangs overflew the islands, whose people were reassured to see that they met no fire from the German batteries.

The surrender of Oberst Heine,
one of the senior German officers, to British troops.
Photo: Imperial War Museum (non-commercial license).

The Beagle continued to Jersey, where officers came ashore and raised the British flag. British troops were in control of both of the larger islands before the sun went down that day.

The crowd in Saint-Peter-Port cheering
as the British flag is raised.
Photo: Imperial War Museum (non-commercial license - D24590).

The larger infantry force of "Operation Nest-Egg" (the last military operation of the war in Europe) arrived on the 12th May in landing craft and amphibious vehicles. It took several months to evacuate all of the German troops, who were dispersed among a number of prisoner-of-war camps around the UK (many first needed medical treatment for the effects of malnutrition).

The arrival of British troops in Saint Helier.
Photo: Imperial War Museum (non-commercial license).

The evacuation of German prisoners-of-war 

from Saint Aubin's Bay, Jersey. 

Photo: Imperial War Museum (non-commercial license).

The restoration of normal life on the islands would, of course, take years. Some islanders had been deported to internment camps on the continent, and not all had survived; others had been serving with the British armed forces; those who remained on the islands had lost all contact with those who were elsewhere.

Some islanders were considered to have "collaborated" with the occupiers (acts of "collaboration" ranged from the denunciation of neighbours to the Gestapo, to romantic liaisons with German troops), whilst others took pride in their acts of resistance (hiding escaped Russian and Spanish slave-workers, for example). Divisions were opened up which certainly endured into my life-time (my mother, who moved to Jersey from England after the war, befriended a local woman who was shunned by many of the islanders as a "Jerry-Bag").

The physical reminders of the Occupation - concrete gun-batteries, bunkers and observation towers - endure to this day. Some were my childhood playgrounds, others have been put to ingenious uses, from fish hatcheries to strawberry and mushroom farms, radio stations and cafes.

German observation tower at Les Landes,
Jersey, part of Hitler's "Atlantic Wall."
Photo: Man Vyi (image is in the Public Domain).

But the 9th of May will always be remembered on the islands as "Liberation Day," commemorated with annual ceremonies and public statues as marking the end of the islanders' darkest days.

The monument to the Liberation in Saint Helier.
Photo: Man Vyi (image is in the Public Domain).

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Mark Patton blogs regularly on aspects of history and historical fiction at http://mark-patton.blogspot.co.uk. His novels, Undreamed Shores, An Accidental King and Omphalos, are published by Crooked Cat Publications, and can be purchased from Amazon.

The German Occupation of the Channel Islands

by Mark Patton

From June 1940 until May 1945, the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm were the only parts of the British Isles to be occupied by German military forces.

A German marching band in St Peter-Port, Guernsey.
Photo: Imperial War Museum (image is in the Public Domain).

Possessions of the English Crown since the 13th Century (and of the Duchy of Normandy prior to that), the islands are geographically much closer to France than to England. After the fall of France in the opening months of the Second World War, the British Government decided that the defence of the islands would not be possible without an unacceptable loss of life. Most men of military age had already left the islands to join the British forces, and many of the island's Jewish residents chose also to leave. The authorities in Alderney encouraged everyone to evacuate, which most people did, whilst those in Sark encouraged people to stay). Many Jersey and Guernsey families, particularly those engaged in farming, preferred, in any case, to remain on their land.

German forces took control of the islands on 30th June 1940. In the months that followed, thousands of German troops were moved to the islands, ultimately outnumbering the islanders by a ratio of 2:1. German commanders took full advantage of the propaganda value of the occupation, releasing photographs and film footage of British policemen, in their distinctive uniforms, chatting casually with German soldiers. The islands were heavily fortified, however, with bunkers, observation towers, and heavy artillery as part of the "Atlantic Wall" defence preventing any possibility of an allied invasion on the western coast of Normandy or the northern coast of Brittany. Most of these were built by slave-workers, including Spanish republicans captured during the civil war, and Russians and Ukrainians taken on the eastern front.

German observation tower at Les Landes, Jersey.
Photo: Man vyi (image is in the Public Domain).

Slave labourers of Organisation Todt laying
railway tracks in Saint Helier, Jersey.
Image is in the Public Domain.

Within the civilian population, armed resistance was impossible. Many islanders did listen to BBC broadcasts on illegally held crystal wireless sets. Some risked their lives to help escaped slave-workers. One local woman, Louisa Gould, was caught sheltering a Soviet worker: she was sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck, where she died in the gas chamber. A further 570 people were deported to internment camps in Germany, of whom 31 died of various diseases. The islands' civilian authorities refused to cooperate with Nazi measures against Jews. 30-50 Jews remained on the islands, and they were neither forced to wear yellow stars nor sent to the concentration camps.

Curfew notice from Jersey.
Image is in the Public Domain.

Perhaps the most remarkable act of non-violent resistance was carried out by the surrealist artists, Claude Cahun and Suzanne Malherbe. They presented themselves as sisters, but were, in fact, in a lesbian relationship. Cahun also identified herself as being Jewish. They published fliers and posters, which they circulated among the German troops, translating extracts from BBC reports into German, and giving details of German defeats and war crimes. They were arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out: by this stage it was clear that Germany was losing the war, and senior officers feared to take any actions for which they themselves might be condemned.

The final months of the war brought great hardship both to the civilian population of the islands and to the German garrison. After D-Day, the islands were effectively cut off, and supplies of food and fuel ran very short. Almost all of the horses owned either by local farmers or by the occupying forces were slaughtered for their meat. Some islanders (around 200 in total) managed to escape in small boats and made for the French coast, where they offered their services to the British forces.

Liberation came on 9th May 1945. With Hitler dead and Berlin fallen, the German garrisons surrendered without a shot being fired. The 9th May, "Liberation Day," has been a public holiday on the islands ever since. The German troops were shipped as prisoners of war to camps on the British mainland, and were gradually repatriated over the following three years.

German and British Officers on board HMS Bulldog
prior to the signing of the surrender on 9th May 1945.

A British officer raises the union flag outside the
parliament building of Saint Peter-Port, Guernsey. 

Photo: Imperial War Museum (image is in the Public Domain).

The German occupation of the Channel Islands has provided the background to several historical novels, notable among which are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows, and The Book of Lies, by Mary Horlock. I have been researching the topic for my forthcoming novel, Omphalos.

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Mark Patton's novels, Undreamed Shores and An Accidental King, are published by Crooked Cat Publications. E-book editions can be purchased from the Crooked Cat Bookstore, and the paperback versions from Amazon UK and Amazon USA.