The German Occupation
During the World War II, for a period of five years, the Channel Islands have been military occupied by the Germans. Starting from the 30th of June 1940 and until the 9th of May 1945 Guernsey, Jersey, and the smaller islands Alderney and Sark were the only British islands to be invaded by Germans, but they were not actually part of the United Kingdom. After long analysis, the United Kingdom’s Government officially announced on 15th of June 1940 that the Channel Islands will be demilitarizes since there is no strategic importance in them and there is no need to be defended. However, this was supposed to be kept secret from the German army in order for them to spend most of their resources before realizing the lack of importance. And so it happened, by allowing the German army to defend the Channel Islands the British managed to avoid other strategic attacks from more important parts of the Western Coast of Europe. There was no purpose at all in invading the Channel Islands besides the German pride that some British territories have been occupied. The Channel Island’s representatives along with the British Government worked together in order establish a plan regarding the evacuation of the islands and to avoid the natural chaos that would have occurred. The authorities made available lots of ships and they advised all their inhabitants to leave.
On these recommendations, almost all inhabitants of Alderney evacuated the island. Sark islanders have been advised to stay, and so they did. Guernsey Island chose to evacuate all the school age children with their school, the parents still had a choice of keeping them home, but most of them did not. In Jersey, things were different, no matter the advices most of the inhabitants choose to stay.
Germans had no idea what was going on in the Channel Islands so they started attacking them. On June 28 1940, Germans sent a squadron of bombers in a mission to destroy the ports of Guernsey and Jersey. Guernsey officially surrendered on the 30th of June, in front of a reconnaissance pilot; Jersey surrendered on the 1st of July; Alderney had only few inhabitants remaining and they were occupied on the 2nd of July; Sark surrendered on the 4th of July.
Shortly after the German army started to organise things around the islands, they brought their infantry, established all kind of defences and air services.
The Channel Islands have finally been liberated from the German occupation in 1945, when the World War II was over, and the German troupes surrendered. On May 8 1945, the Germans officially announced the islanders that the war was over and the next day, HMS Bulldog came to Saint Peter’s Port in Guernsey and made all Germans surrender, same thing happened in Jersey but here the HMS Beagle made their liberation possible.
Ever since year 1945, the 9th of May remained the day that all islanders celebrate the Liberation Day, their National Holliday, the day they managed to escape the German occupation. Alderney on the other hand, had no population on the island during the German occupation so they had no liberation; their National Holiday became the Homecoming Day on December 15th, the day when the first ship of Alderney inhabitants brought some of them back to their houses.
During the German occupation a large number of fortifications have been preserved among which the underground hospitals from Jersey and the Liberation Square in Saint Helier. | ||
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