The two commandos, Nicolle and Symes are still at large and moving around the island. Much happened in the run up to their surrender, their treatment after they surrender and the consequences following this. I wrote a more detailed article here about them.
As many of you will know I am writing a book about escapes from the Channel Islands. Whilst doing some research I found a reference to a court case involving am Irishman, Joseph Ridgeway, who claimed to have escaped from the Channel Islands in January 1944. I thought the escape would be interesting to write about so did some more digging in the archives in Guernsey, Jersey and the UK.
He was prosecuted in Carlisle in December 1944 for assuming ‘a name other than that by which he was originally known.’ Having researched this further it would seem that his name was not the only thing that wasn’t true. His claim of escaping would also seem to be untrue! It becomes even more curious!
If he had been in Jersey until January 1944 he couldn’t have avoided having registered with the German authorities and I can find no record of him having done so. The Jersey Archives contain a record of all of these registration documents and he cannot be found under his assumed name or his real name. He also doesn’t appear in any of the lists that exist of people that escaped after the Germans arrived.
You can read about the court case in the articles below. You can find the rest of my thoughts on this after the articles.
Interestingly the£2 cost of telephone calls to investigate this would have been £77.21 in today’s money at the time of writing!
The only Joseph Ridgeway I can find in the Jersey Archives, with the same year of birth, is a man who applied to return to Jersey after the war.1 In his application he states that he left the Channel Islands on 21st June 1940. That means that he would have left on one of the evacuation ships rather than his story of escaping.
All in all a bit of a mystery! If you know anything about this drop me a line!
Keen to learn more about the occupation? Read on!
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
The latest episode is out. You can find it on all your favourite podcast apps and here.
In this episode Keith and Nick talk you through the events of September 1940.
We take a look at the following the civilian perception of what is going on in the war, various commando raids, an escape, RAF operations in the area, a failed rescue attempt, islanders serving in the British forces and much more!
In this episode we mention Captain Parker who was captured (photo below) and details of his reparation.
Photo from display at Occupation Museum.Reported 29 April 1944 in Guernsey Press
We also mention a new podcast about Bomber Command called “Never mind the Dam Busters” a podcast about RAF Bomber Command. You can find it here and on all your favourite podcast apps.
If you listen to the podcast and like it please do like and share it with your friends. It would be great if you could also comment on the podcast on your favourite podcast app.
Thanks to Gnet Radio for recording and our producer Sean Johnson.
Two weeks have passed already since the last podcast!
We are back for episode 3! We now have an appropriate theme tune thanks to our friend Jim Delbridge. He has kindly allowed us to use his song “5 to 7” from his album ‘The Navigator’. You can find details below about the song and the video.
You can find the podcast on all the usual podcast apps as well as here.
Keith and Nick talk you through the events of August 1940 the second full month of the islands being occupied by the German forces. We talk about matters both civilian and military.
Freedom of worship except for some. Major Marie Ozanne see more about her and a video here. Food & Essentials. The Bailiff’s controversial broadcast on German Radio. A mission to rescue two commandos.
During the podcast we talk about some adverts from the Guernsey Press which are below.
We now have some intro and outro music thanks to our very talented friend Jim Delbridge.
If you listen to the podcast and like it please do like and share it with your friends. It would be great if you could also comment on the podcast on your favourite podcast app.
The latest episode of the ‘Islands at War’ podcast is out. In this episode Keith and I talk about the first month of occupation.
In this episode we cover the following:
Arrival of the German Forces.
The initial orders from the Commandant.
The initial Commando raids being ‘Operation Anger’ and ‘Operation Ambassador’ and their results.
Germans buying up everything in the shops.
The locals reaction to events.
You can find the podcast on all the usual podcast apps. Please do give us a like and subscribe. If you have a moment it would be great if you could leave us a review. It costs you nothing but helps us out massively.
You can also find the podcast here with links to all the podcast apps.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
Whilst trawling through the British Newspaper Archive I found this reference to a letter from Guernsey in the Nottingham Evening Post of Saturday 17 August 1940.
This is curious for a number of reasons. Firstly the scheme for sending letters by Red Cross was not established until later in 1940, indeed the scheme was still being arranged in October 1940, in any event was initially restricted to ten words then later increased to twenty five words. Initially you could only send a message in reply to one received although this was changed later. You can find more detail about the Red Cross letter system in the article I wrote here.
It therefore isn’t possible that this letter came through the Red Cross. If you read the newspaper article I will continue to consider below how and why this information appeared in August 1940.
The article refers to the letter coming through “the usual route of France, Spain and Lisbon” which wouldn’t have been set up at this stage being only six weeks after occupation of the Channel Islands on 30 June 1940.
So how did this information arrive in England? It is possible, but unlikely, that it was a letter that somehow got out of Guernsey but that would seem to be unlikely. Even a Red Cross Message once the system had been set up later in 1940 took six weeks to arrive. So how would a letter, in the unlikely event it had managed to be sent by some means via all of these countries, manage to arrive six weeks after occupation but containing information from July 1940.
My initial reaction was that this must have been information garnered from one of the early commando raids either “Anger” or “Ambassador” or the attempt to rescue those stranded and then given to the media. This happened for later raids and appeared in many newspapers at the time. This ‘letter’ was only reported in one newspaper so that seems unlikely in this case. To read about those raids click the links above.
It is unlikely that it was information garnered from an escape from Guernsey. There were a spate of escapes on the first few days of July and possibly one in August, although it may have been early September, and again normally information appeared across multiple newspapers.
The only other way I can think a letter may have got out via this route was the French consul in Guernsey. Again this would seem unlikely but may be a possibilityin the initial days of occupation.
All in all a bit of a mystery that will probably never be solved but I thought it was worth sharing. If anyone can shed any light on this I would love to hear from you.
Whilst writing I should mention I am co-hosting a podcast talking through the occupation of the Channel Islands with local guide and historian Keith Pengelley. You can find links to all the major podcast platforms here or just go to your usual podcast app and search ‘Islands at War’.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
The June 1940 episode of the podcast ‘Islands at War’ is out now. The collaboration between Nick Le Huray and Keith Pengelley. You can find us on all the major podcast sites or click the links at the bottom of this post,
In the June 1940 episode Keith and I talked about a couple of corrections and additional information from the pilot episode. Links to books and things we talked about are here.
Then we get on with the events of June 1940 about the run up to the German occupation of the Islands. This episode covers the refugees escaping through the islands, the part that Jersey played in Operation Ariel, bombing raids and much more.
You can find some links to events we talked about here.
Take a look and if you like it subscribe for free. Email us with questions or observations at occupied@gnetradio.com. Also on Twitter here and Facebook here.
and many other podcast sites. Just sign up to follow so the next one automatically downloads for you. Comprehensive list of where you can find the podcast here .
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
My co-host on the Islands at War podcast Keith Pengelley has written this blog post which is a slightly tongue in cheek look at fire precautions. Well worth a read.
Picture copyright Keith Pengelley
My grandmother kept a number of documents relating to the lead up of World War Two; mainly dealing with everyday life here on Guernsey.
One of the items she kept was Public Information No 5 which dealt with fire precautions resulting from an air raid.
You will see from the photograph that it was issued from the Lord Privy Seal’s Office in August 1939. So a pretty generic UK wide information leaflet that gives a rather casual though detailed set of instructions of how to panic….sorry….proceed should one’s house be hit by the Luftwaffe..or indeed by any other air force…presumably even the RAF.
The information within seems now a trifle tentative…as I say…casual though detailed. I particularly like the inclusiveness. See under Home Fire Fighters…all are urged to get involved. A bit like Christmas…EVERYBODY we are assured has a part to play…even presumably Bob the dog. All large fires start as small ones…an assertive promise if not confirmation of impending doom.
Picture copyright Keith Pengelley
Once we are at least kidding ourselves that we can snuff out a large fire by intimidating a small one, we now turn our attention to THE FIRE BOMB itself. An “ordinary” fire bomb is not in the least like a high explosive bomb…on no…this one, whilst it may not explode at all (so don’t just stand looking at it !) it could blaze up and scatter burning material in all directions. So no need for a compass.
The Fire bomb we are told will not simply bounce of our roof but will make its way, unassisted to the first boarded floor below the roof. After period of consideration…it will the set about turning the roof spaces, attic and upper storeys into a blazing inferno. So keep the wireless low, it’s not going to pop downstairs and introduce itself.
Working on the assumption that we are aware that the upper part of the house is ablaze we now have to DEAL WITH A FIRE which means that we need to ACT QUICKLY. We must realise that, and this I guess is small comfort, a fire started by a bomb is just like an ordinary fire thus we need not worry about panicking in any way than we would normally panic. Plus of course every minute we delay will make the job of putting out the fire more difficult. Not the time to be putting the kettle on.
Fortuitously, our leaflet informs us HOW TO DEAL WITH A BOMB. WE must not just throw water (or tea) as that will do more harm than good….a fine spray will be far more effective so the procurement of a stirrup pump with special nozzle is the best appliance. This is best done as soon as possible as the nation will require around 40 million stirrup pumps and it would be best to be at the front of the queue….again….not the time to making a pot of tea.
Should a pump be procured…best keep it down stairs….not in the roof spaces or attic…then all could be well; simply spray around the bomb and this will make it easier to approach it.
Say what !
Picture copyright Keith Pengelley
At this point our leaflet rather gives up on what happens once the bomb is approached but it seems too imply that there may be an opportunity to coax it into a bucket. Remember to keep the bomb coaxing bucket downstairs…not in the roof space or attic because…yup….they will be well ablaze.
But back to the bomb…
If the application for a stirrup pump is still at the post office it may be possible to introduce some sand…yes…sand…into the bomb coaxing bucket…four inches should be fine…possibly five…not a time to quibble. Then simply scoop up the bomb and place it therein.
Remove the bucket to a safe place. Not upstairs because…exactly.
All done…well apart from the roof spaces, attic etc. they will be well ablaze….you can’t have forgotten.
Picture copyright Keith Pengelley
However…WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW ?
Well here the leaflet comes up trumps. Clear the attics of “junk” old or otherwise that may have been collected there.Especially the inflammable stuff.
Have ready a number of buckets, shovels, scoops, pumps and nozzles. Possibly even a garden syringe.
Then you’ll be fine.
An anti-aircraft gun would be good. Even an air force. But there’s a war on….
So….don’t forget to look at the reverse of the leaflet…now !…not when the house is on fire.
There is though time. We are advised that IF THERE SHOULD BE A THREAT OF WAR ACT AT ONCE AS FOLLOWS:
Purchase buckets and keep filled with water, as you can’t bank on the fire brigade giving you any, move the bath downstairs but place the buckets and other appliances upstairs in a place near but not too close to where the bomb is going to land.
Rest assured that if living in a small house you may hear the bomb striking the roof but if in a larger house a watcher may be deployed on or near the top floor. Tell him, or her, to take a whistle.
If the house does catch fire and you have approached the bomb and then successfully coaxed it into a bucket sand…go and find someone…anyone…..
A.R.P. St Martin’sNotice
Having taken a tongue in cheek look at the generic fire precautions we now can see that the Guernsey authorities issued localised A.R.P. Notices.
My grandmother retained her specific area details. These were for the parish of ST. Martin’s which is situated in the south west of the island. More specifically these would have been for the locality known as The Old Mill.
My grandmother was at that time resident with a number of other family members in an area known as Ville Aumphrey. The cottage still exists though passed out of family hands post-war.
We will though, in later episodes refer to that address.
The notice now informs us that sand dumps have been deposited in a field next to the tennis courts. Everyone in the area would have known where these were and indeed they still exist.
The notice further informs my grandmother that the nearest A.R.P. Post is Number 1 and who here wardens are. She may well have known them personally.
So….at the time of receipt, grandmother would have had time to collect her bucket of sand, settle down, make a pot of tea and await the incendiary bombs to fall.
Put that Bloney light out !
Picture copyright Keith Pengelley
Thanks to Keith for a very entertaining an informative article. You can catch Keith and myself on GNET Radio every other Monday evening or if you want to catch us on the podcast you can find details here and here. If you have any questions for us to address on the podcast email them to occupied@gnetradio.com.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
The pilot episode of the radio show ‘Islands At War’ is now available to listen to on demand. You can listen in your browser by clicking on the link below. Keith and I talk about the phoney war, refugees from France escaping through the islands, confusion about whether to stay or go, the German bombing raid and much more! If you have a spare 46 minutes go take a listen.
We will be releasing a discussion about each month of the occupation every two weeks. Any feedback gratefully received.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
I alluded a while back to something coming up that I couldn’t talk about but now I can reveal all! Well apart from the other things that are on the list of things that might be happening that I still can’t talk about that is! Starting on 5th February I will be co-host of a radio programme & podcast about the occupation of the Channel Islands.
I have been talking for a year or so about the idea of teaming up for this project with local tour guide, amateur historian and broadcaster Keith Pengelley. You can find out more about Keith and his tours here. He is a stalwart of GNETRadio as well as a tour guide and member of the team that looks after visitors to our heritage sites.
Each episode will cover a month of the occupation starting in June 1940. The idea being that we will talk about social issues, life under occupation and the military impact. We will be using diaries of those that were here, our combined research, our families experiences and also talking about other things that were going on in the wider European theatre of operations that impacted the islands.
We finally managed to align diaries and recorded a pilot show for GNETRadio which has now been scheduled for broadcast on 5th February of the pilot episode. We had so much fun with the pilot episode that we decided it was worth putting out. Rest assured the later episodes will be more polished, well we hope so anyway!
Click the link here if you want to listen live on 5th February at 19:00.
Our aim is to broadcast an episode every two weeks which you can either listen to live online or listen later by downloading it from Mixcloud or using the GNETRadio website.
I will be posting links here and on social media each time an episode is released for catchup on Mixcloud. Sign up here to be notified by email of these.
We have a lot of other ideas about where we can take this concept and will be working on these over the coming months and announcing them as we firm them up!
I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog post.
I also co-host a podcast with Keith Pengelley in which we talk about the occupation of the Channel Islands month by month using first hand accounts, diaries and our research in the archives. You can find us on all the major podcast services. Just search “Islands at War” or visit our podcast page here.
You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.
If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorised posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.
You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.
I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.
Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.
