by Peter King
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.