| Germany Occupies Channel Islands |
 |
 |
| menu: |
| Back To Republican Slave Labourers In Britain Bibliography |
 |
| Home Page |
|
| German Nazi military forces invades... |
|
| e-mail us on: editor@spanishrefugees-basquechildren.org |
|
| < > |
| The above picture shows St Peter Port up in smoke just after the area of the port was bombed by the Luftwaffe on the evening of 28 June 1940 as a prelude to the islands invasion by German Nazi troops. |
Hitler's mark on the Channel Islands will never be obliterated. Under his direct orders an impregnable fortress was created which became nothing but a useless ploy. And this methodical and fanatical urge to build walls of steel and concrete round the islands may well go down in history as one of his greatest follies. There were immense preparations against attack which never came and gigantic installations which were hardly used. There was a huge underground building programme which was never completed and a complicated coastal defence system against every possible form of invasion. For all the sweated labour which brought despair and death to the forced labourers and for all the fire power so cunningly devised, the islands were regained by British forces in 1945... Today there is little to see of these defence works. All that was destructible has been destroyed. But the islands are still left with a legacy of phantom-like holes in the earth; smelly bunkers, gaunt towers, weed-grown gun emplacements, machine-gun positions and searchlight batteries. The majority of islanders ignore these reminders of five years of terror, suppression and near starvation and it is only the visitor who asks questions about these mouldering chambers, built with great speed, which now stand as memorials to a vast international brigade of workers who ere trapped in the Hitlerite war machine and forced to work or starve. |
| Six cinemas kept operating in the islands durin the war. When the Occupation started such propaganda films as Sig im Westen (victory in the West) was shown for troops and islanders |
| A German military band marches through the town of St Peter in Guernsey. Hitler issued a OKW (Supreme Command) for 'the build-up and defence of the English Channel Islands...account must be taken of the possibility that the English may at any time carry out isolated attacks as the result of pressure from their Eastern allies anf for political and propaganda reasons; in particular they may attempt to recapture the Channel Islands, which are of considerable importance for our escort traffic'. |
| The Luftwaffe had the honour of taking the Channel Islands. It was a simple, swift operation carried out without a shot being fired. Guernsey was occupied at 7 p.m. on the evening of Sunday 30th June 1940, but few people were aware it had passed into German hands until they received their newspaper free next day. (click on pictures for better view) -- MORE TO FOLLOW -- |
|
| Oberst Graf von Schmettow Commander-in-Chief was replaced by Vice-Admiral Huffmeier in June 1944. |
| On 28 June 1940, a squadron of Heinkel IIIs (similar to the type above) bombed and machine-gunned St Peter Port and St Helier prior to the landing of troops. |
| A German column marches in Guernsey. |
| The British Armed Forces Adandon the Channel Islands |
Most text taken from Hitler's Fortress Islands by Carel Toms. Photographs from mainly The War in the Channel Islands-then and now by Winston G. Ramsey. |
| The Spanish Slave Labourers and others who suffered defeat, humiliation, deprivation, hunger and terror under the nazis occupation will truly understand the meaning of freedom. |
| The picture above shows a placard on a jewish owned shop front. It states 'Jewish Undertaking'. All Jewish businesses were ordered to be sold soon after Nazi occupation. The Jewish population, 17 in total, were to experience Nazism in its most brutal form and its lack of humanity. They had to register with the authorities and were subsequently rounded up and deported. Some are belived to have been sent to their deaths to concentration camps. -- MORE TO FOLLOW -- |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| (click here to see a larger picture of the King's Notice) |