This episode delves into the daily life and struggles of individuals living under German occupation in Guernsey during World War II.
It highlights the challenges of food shortages, the impact of malnutrition on health, and the complexities of justice as seen through a police scandal. Personal anecdotes and historical accounts provide a vivid picture of life during this tumultuous time, showcasing resilience and adaptation amidst adversity.
In this episode, the hosts discuss various historical topics related to Guernsey and Sark during World War II, including the murder of Dr. Goebel, the role of propaganda in the Guernsey press, and insights from the diary of Louis Guillemette. They also remember the Jewish ladies deported from Guernsey and explore the ongoing research into escape attempts from the islands. The conversation wraps up with a look ahead to future projects and events.
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.
Nick had a brainwave that it might be fun to explore the use of the local language, Guernésiais, Pronounced ‘JEHR-nehz-yay’, it is also known as ‘Guernsey French’ or ‘patois’. It is a form of Norman French, which evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the region when it was part of the Roman Empire.
There was only one man for the job of coming in for a chat about this subject that man was Yan Marquis. A local tour guide and heavily involved in promoting the language. Nick has known
We chat about the Guernsey language #guernesiais and its use amongst the Guernsey occupied and evacuees during WWII. Challenges they faced included: incomprehension, suspicion, adaption, isolation & linguistic disconnect. Fascinating chat about how the language was a benefit to those occupied and also a problem for those evacuated, that returned unable to speak it.
We also talk about some stories that people have told Yan over the years about their time during the occupation.
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.
It is the December 1941 episode and we look at what Christmas was like for different families and across the Channel Islands.
We talk about food and some of the crazy prices being paid for livestock, difficulties in obtaining some some essentials.
Military activity hots up and the barrels are delivered for the huge Mirus Battery. This unfortunately causes a tragic death of a 6 year old girl who was crushed. This happened at Le Ville au Roi. In the photograph below you can see the junction itself.
Below you can see photographs of the vehicles used to pull the gun barrel.
Read more about the big guns in the article below.
Pearl Harbour happens and the Germans take measures against the Americans resident in the Channel Islands.
We look at various different families and how their lives were impacted so far.
We also touch on the German Officer who as a boy scout had been awarded a medal by the King of England.
Listen on your favourite podcast app or click the player below.
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.
Keith and I can’t believe we have covered a year of the the Occupation this episode! There was a lot going on some of which was a bit disturbing to say the least.
Blackberry tea and how it was gathered and made.
Food or the lack thereof and the impact on people.
The third Jewish order is published. This is awful and we look at it in some detail. Essentially this third order was an attempt to make the local population hostile to the Jewish population. It had different impacts across the islands and Keith and I talk about that.
We talked about the build up of troops and how some were puzzled as to why they were here. Some talked of being demoralised already.
We talk about one of the first concrete and extensive gun batteries in Guernsey. Batterie Strassburg up at Jerbourg is a complex of 64 different positions around the Jerbourg headland. You can see some of them here.
We talked about the Doyle Monument being demolished. You can see it here and you can probably see what the problem was.
There are some excellent books on fortifications. If you take a look on your favourite book shop, Festung or here
A message from A.J. Sherwill, was recorded in Guernsey on 1st August, 1940, and subsequently transmitted twice by Bremen Radio. Once on 24th August 1940 and again on 30th August. It was a controversial broadcast when viewed from the UK and also was viewed with some suspicion locally. Keith and I spoke about on the August 1940 episode of the ‘Islands at War’ podcast. You can listen below.
I thought it merited further examination and explanation than we were able to give it in the podcast.
In this blog I will add some more information and context to this broadcast; who requested it, who thought it was a good idea, the content of the message and how it came about! I will also talk about the the other message that was recorded but never broadcast.
The idea was first mooted on 5th July 1940 in the meeting of the Controlling Committee, the body formed to run the Bailiwick of Guernsey during the war. The President of the Controlling Committee was Ambrose Sherwill.
The President informed the Committee that the Commandant of the German Garrison has asked him to prepare a message of approximately 100 words, with a view to being broadcast through the German wireless station. Mr. Stamford Raffles suggested that the Commandant he asked if it can be requested that the British Broadcasting Corporation be asked to re-deliver the message and also that the English papers be asked to copy.
Minutes of the controlling committee 5th July 1940
Stamford Raffles, information officer, and the rest of the Controlling Committee must have thought it was a good idea as they didn’t oppose it and there is no more mention of it in the minutes. It would therefore seem unfair for Ambrose Sherwill to be singled out for criticism. That is if criticism was indeed fair which I will look at further into this blog post.
The Commandant, I use the English spelling but you could refer to him as Kommandant as the German terminology, was Major-Doctor Albrecht Lanz. Lanz was the first Commandant of Guernsey and was killed on the Eastern front during the battle for Smolensk in January 1942.
The Speech!
The speech was recorded by the Germans on 1st August 1940.
This is His Britannic Majesty’s Procurer in Guernsey, Channel Islands speaking to the people of the United Kingdom, and in particular to those who left Guernsey and Alderney during the evacuation which preceded the German occupation.
I imagine that many of you must be greatly worried as to how we are getting on. Well, let me tell you. Some will fear, I imagine, that I am making this record with a revolver pointed at my head and speaking from a transcript thrust into my hand by a German Officer.
The actual case is very different.
The Lieutenant-Governor and Bailiff, Mr. Victor Carey, and every other Island official has been and is being treated with every consideration and with the greatest courtesy by the German Military Authorities.
The Island Government is functioning. Churches and Chapels are open for public worship. Banks, shops and places of entertainment are open as usual.
Naturally, the sudden and entire severance of communications with the United Kingdom created innumerable problems with which we have wrestled and are still wrestling.
Perhaps the best indication of the measure of our success will be shown by the latest figures of unemployment, which are as follows: Males unemployed (of whom hardly any are fit for manual labour) 186; females unemployed, 191. Relief by way of public assistance is not above the normal figure.
The States have set up a Controlling Committee to speed up public business. My friends, Sir
Abraham Lainé, A.M. Drake, R.O. Falla, R.H. Johns, John Leale, Stamford Raffles, and Dr. A.N. Symons are collaborating with me on this Committee and are working like trojans.
The conduct of the German troops is exemplary.
We have been in German occupation for four and a half weeks and I am proud of the way my fellow-Islanders have behaved, and grateful for the correct and kindly attitude towards them of the German soldiers.
We have always been and we remain intensely loyal subjects of His Majesty, and this has been made clear to and is respected by the German Commandant and his staff.
On that staff is an officer speaking perfect English – a man of wide experience, with whom I am in daily contact. To him I express my grateful thanks for his courtesy and patience.
And now let me end on a more personal note.
To Elizabeth College, the Guernsey Ladies’ College, the Guernsey Intermediate Schools, the Guernsey Primary and Voluntary Schools, to both Teachers and Scholars, all our love and good wishes.
To all men of military age who left here to join His Majesty’s Forces, God speed. To all wives and mothers and sweethearts, God bless you. To all Guernsey children in England, God keep you safe.
God bless you all till we meet again.
And to Mary Rose, to John and Dick, Mummy and I send our fondest love and best wishes.
Tell Diana Raffles that her parents are well and send their love.Will the B.B.C. please re-transmit this message and will the daily papers please publish it
Evening Press 2nd August 1940 from my collection of newspapers.
Some Guernsey folk were angered that he had taken the opportunity to pass a message to his children when they couldn’t get a message to their own. It was however not a selfish act but an effort to prove that the message was genuine.
The German officer recording the broadcast then informed Mrs Sherwill that there was still time for her to record a message.
This is Mrs. Sherwill speaking for the mothers of Guernsey. We are all quite happy and contented with life over here if only we could have news of all our children to whom we send our very dearest love.
They are always in our thoughts and prayers. The Guernsey woman is always cheerful and philosophical under adversity – and the following story is typical of the spirit of the Island both before and since the occupation.
A Guernsey fish-woman in the market said to me just before the arrival of the Germans: “Ah! but ain’t some people awful, say! There’s a woman, she ses to me, she ses: ‘The Germans is to the back of the Island.’ ‘Ah well!’ I ses to her ‘Tell them to come round to the front.
Occupied Guernsey – Herbert Winterflood
Mrs Sherwill’s message was never broadcast, which Ambrose himself thought was probably due to the insolence of the second part which probably irked the Germans.
As for Ambrose’s broadcast that did go ahead although not quite achieving what he, and Stamford Raffles which was to be rebroadcast by the BBC and reported in the UK Newspapers.
The broadcast was barely reported in the Newspapers in the United Kingdom and for good reason. Churchill was reportedly furious. You can read the news coverage below. After that you will find my analysis of was it a good idea and the motivation.
In Guernsey it did make the newspapers. The following comments were made in a leading article in the Guernsey Evening Press of 2nd August, 1940, regarding A.J. Sherwill’s message. One has to bear in mind that the newspaper was subject to German censorship and indeed forced to publish propaganda articles written by the Germans.
We feel sure that everyone in Guernsey will feel a thrill of joy that a message from Mr. A.J. Sherwill, President of the States Controlling Committee, was recorded by him yesterday, and is to be broadcast in the near future from the Bremen Station in Germany, and that the B.B.C. are being asked to re-transmit the message and the daily papers to publish it.
The message has been made possible by the kind permission of the German Commandant, and it was made on a gramophone record, which has been sent to Bremen for transmission.
The possibility of some such transmission of good news was made to our Information Officer some days ago, by a representative of this paper and we are glad that a means has been found for putting it into effect.
The actual time of transmission by wireless from Germany is not yet known: it may be expected in the near future, and if Mr. Sherwill’s request is carried out, it is safe to assume that every Sarnian now on the mainland will hear it and, still better, read it at leisure. Mr. Sherwill’s message, in well chosen words, is one that is at once homely, loyal and true to the history of the Island since the evacuation of part of the population and of our life, under changed, but not unhappy, conditions since the German occupation. It is a message such as any Guernseyman, anxious to reassure his loved ones beyond the reach of correspondence, would have himself wished to send, and it is therefore one voice speaking for all and with the heart of each with it.
The thanks of Guernsey will be given to the German Commandant for this happy and considerate gesture, one which all islanders will deeply appreciate.
Guernsey Evening Press of 2nd August, 1940
What about Jersey?
The governing body in Jersey was the Superior Council, the equivalent of the Controlling Committee in Guernsey. Having looked at their minutes and other archive sources I can’t see that they were requested to make a similar broadcast. What is certain is nobody from Jersey made such a broadcast.
I can think of a few reasons for this but these are only my thoughts rather than actually any hard evidence either way. Firstly Jersey had a different Commandant to Guernsey, Captain Gussek who was Commandant in Jersey was a very different character to Lanz who was in charge in Guernsey. He viewed his command of Jersey more as a conquering hero and being of a temporary nature. He was about to lead his men on to the next stage to invade England on Operation Sea Lion. He was therefore less interested in the civilian administration of Jersey and any propaganda to be gained from it.
My second thought on why no broadcast came from Jersey was simply that there was a much smaller number of evacuees to the UK from Jersey. Only about 6,500 people had been evacuated from Jersey’s total population of circa 47,000 as opposed to almost half of the population of Guernsey being evacuated. A similar broadcast from Jersey would therefore have had much less propaganda value.
Analysis of why and was it wise?
As noted above Churchill was reportedly furious. He was noted to be furious about a number of things to do with the Channel Islands i the month of July so it is unsurprising he was furious about this in August. His initial fury was at having to give the islands up at all and then the less than impressive Operation Ambassador which you can read about here. This broadcast just annoyed him further.
With the passage of time and all the information that is available perhaps it is unfair that the speech was viewed by some as sucking up to the Germans and providing propaganda for the Germans.
If you had been in his position, one month into being occupied by the enemy that has rolled across Europe in quick fashion, cut off from a large portion of your population who have been evacuated and are anxious for news of their loved ones who are still in the Channel Islands. What would you do?
At the time he recorded the speech he had no idea how news from the Channel Islands could be sent or if it was ever going to be allowed. Talks about the use of the International Red Cross setting up a message system had not yet begun.
He took the decision, approved by the Controlling Committee, to take this speech and pass the message to those in the UK that their families were safe, that they were being well treated, at that point of the war, and to allay the fears of Channel Islanders in the UK.
Some of what he said may have been slightly naive or maybe it was just a case of at one month in to the occupation he hadn’t as yet get to grips with what he may or may not be allowed to say and hedged his bets. Better to get his message across to those desperate for news rather than recording something that the Germans then refuse to broadcast.
What he probably hadn’t have foreseen was how the German propaganda machine would use it with an introduction stating that it was proof that it wasn’t so bad to be living in an occupied country and that rumours of ill treatment were untrue.
For those that thought Sherwill was going too far and being too co-operative with the Germans and doubted his loyalty to the King they were soon to be proved wrong. In October 1940 he was sent to prison in France for helping Symes and Nicolle when they were here on a commando mission. You can read about that here.
Conclusion
Looking at all the evidence available I really think that it is harsh to say that Sherwill shouldn’t have made the broadcast. He did so with the best of intentions to quell the worries of those that had been evacuated. He had after all been left ‘holding the baby’ when the British government decided to withdraw from the Channel Islands.
In the end the broadcast did no harm to him as he received a knighthood post war and became Baliff of Guernsey from 1946 to 1959. For those not familiar with the role of the Bailiff he is the head of the judiciary and the most senior islander with a non political role. The Baliff also acts as the equivalent of the speaker of the House of Commons in the Guernsey parliment.
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.
As we are about to celebrate Christmas with our families all together and with as much to eat and drink as we want I thought it would be a good time to reflect on Christmas during the occupation of the Channel Islands.
I will look at it from the perspective of those trapped in the Channel Islands, those in exile in the United Kingdom and those who had been deported to Germany. Their experiences were quite different.
1940
Christmas festivities in the islands, in the first Christmas under occupation, were not too different than in previous years; aside from a multitude of regulations to comply with. In Jersey this was partly due to a lot of secret pig killing that had been going on. If the Germans had caught wind of the amount of food that was available on islanders tables’ that Christmas they would have been quick to adjust the situation.1
In Guernsey the Essential Commodities Committee allowed additional rations for the Christmas period. Fifty percent extra of meat was allowed, along with the ration of butter and cooking fat being doubled. In addition the remaining supplies of currants and raisins were released.2 This, coupled with the fact that some people had kept back provisions that they had been ordered to hand over undoubtedly helped the Christmas dinner tables look relatively normal.
The issue of tea had stopped in the middle of November 1940, with all stocks being collected and held centrally. In time for Christmas a one off ration of tea was issued.3
On Christmas Eve the Guernsey Evening Press front page announced that the islanders who had been sent to a Paris prison in October were to be released and returned to the island. They had been sent to prison following the commando raid by Nicolle & Symes. Sadly the reprieve came too late for Louis Symes who died in prison. You can read more about this here.
The Germans had also announced the return of islanders’ radios on Christmas Eve following their earlier confiscation so at least they could also enjoy the BBC Radio broadcasts. These radios were returned on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
A Christmas fund had also been raised to ensure that all children remaining in the islands had at least one Christmas present. Entertainment was also arranged around the parishes including the screening of three suitable films for children at the Regal Cinema.
In Jersey, Philip Le Sauteur, manager of a builders merchants, noted in his diary that it was the first Christmas Eve that he had not had a slap up feed of tea and buns. 4
In the UK, whilst the adults were desperate for news of relatives still in the occupied Channel Islands, the evacuated children were treated to Christmas parties for their first Christmas away from home. This news was announced by the Ministry of Health who arranged for at least one Christmas party to be held in each district of England & Wales. Santa was played by members of the armed forces.5 Some of the children were also desperate for news as they had been separated from their parents and were living with strangers that had effectively adopted them for the duration.
1941
The Germans extended the curfew hours so that islanders could stay out until 1am.
Hartley Jackson, the vicar of St Stephens Church, was furious when he saw that the Germans had “improved” his Christmas message in the Star Newspaper by inserting “The recognition that Christ was born into the world to save the world and to bring peace on earth is the need of Britain and her other Bolshevist allies!”
In his diary Reverend Douglas Ord notes that 2lbs of potatoes each were to be issued for Christmas and that men were to receive extra tobacco rations. He laments that unfortunately the womenfolk were not to receive anything extra, despite their ceaseless work to keep families fed and looked after. He also records another death by starvation which is a continual occurrence even by this stage of the occupation.
Ord and his wife spent Christmas Day with friends and family although their only “Christmas box” was the news from the BBC that “Benghazi has fallen” as the shops had nothing to sell.6
Philip Le Sauteur, recorded the situation in Jersey in his diary on 27th December. Whilst there were no sweets, except for a few given to school children, and fruit was absent his mother still managed to conjure up a Christmas pudding of sorts. They had some unwanted company on Christmas Day as a German Corporal, presumably billeted with them, joined them for lunch. He was quite clearly an avid supporter of the German cause however Le Sauteur notes that he was a “good tempered chap” and they were able to have a lively exchange of views. He finished the entry with a note that they hadn’t been affected by Russian prisoners stealing or begging for food unlike other parts of the island.
Evacuee children in the UK were again entertained with the WVS and Scouts organising parties, food and toys across the UK. These parties managed to cobble together an excellent tea, despite rationing and as well as the playing of games they sang songs including Guernsey’s anthem ‘Sarnia Cherie’.7
At least by this Christmas it was possible to send and receive the short Red Cross messages although they took months to come through. If you want to read about how these messages worked you can read my blog on it here.
New Year’s Eve in Guernsey saw an incident that marred the ringing in of the new year. A number of Germans indulged in drunken activities which included them firing their pistols and rifles into the air at midnight. Despite having been warned slightly before this not to go outside George Fisher, a resident of Collings Road, did go outside and was accidentally shot.8
Fisher was recorded by the coroner as having died due to an ‘excessive haemorrhage caused by a bullet wound’. The news of the manner of his death was not reported accurately in the local newspapers as they were controlled by the Germans. The Evening Press did however report the name of the German NCO who had fired the fatal shot, although they omitted to report that the German was so drunk he could hardly stand.
1942
Islanders could no longer rely on listening to the BBC to entertain themselves as the Germans had taken their radios away on 8th June 1942 and were to hold on to them until the liberation. Some risked the stiff penalties and held on to the radios. Others made crystal radio sets to enable them to continue to listen albeit at great risk. One of the side effects of the manufacture of crystal radio sets was that public telephones were soon without earpieces as they had been appropriated for crystal sets.
As food was becoming scarcer the cost of a Christmas turkey had escalated from £2 17s 6d at auction the previous year to £25 on the black market. At the time of writing this in December 2023 £25 is the equivalent of £1,452 and the equivalent of the 1941 price is £156.9 It was at this time that the Germans imposed price restrictions as they were ‘Shocked and horrified’ at the prices being asked. This legislation had little effect other than to force people to turn to the black market or theft.
Unlike the previous year the curfew was not extended to 1am and people had to be indoors by 9pm throughout the Christmas period. Ord records in his diary an encounter with a fellow who wished him a happy Christmas and opined that they hadn’t extended the curfew because they knew they were losing the war.
Some Christmas traditions continued with the panto carrying on.
Notice from the Star newspaper in Guernsey on 5 December 1942
This was the first Christmas for those deported in September 1942 to Biberach, Wurzach-Allgau, and Laufen. Red Cross parcels had not yet started to arrive at all of the camps so they were on meagre rations of watery soup twice a day and a one kg loaf between five people each day.
Those evacuated to the UK continued on as in previous years with parties for the children and life carrying on as usual, within the constraints of rationing. They were probably in the best position of everyone at this point in the war.
Mr & Mrs H J Morgan of Yeovil advertised in the local newspaper that they had a copy of a booklet, produced by the Channel Islands Refugee Committee, which told of conditions in Guernsey and the German pronouncements. This was based on information obtained from the ‘Guernsey Press’ and the ‘Star’ between 16th September and 2nd October 1942.10
The advert advised that they would be happy to show the booklet to anyone and that a copy was available at the office of the newspaper. This booklet was the ‘Channel Islands Monthly Review’.11 Given the dates of the newspapers and the lack of any escapes from Guernsey in this time period, other than one escape on 15th September 1942 it is safe to assume that this information came from this escape and the commando raid on Sark, Operation Basalt. The information must have been passed to the review by military intelligence.
This would seem to have been the most information provided to the public since the escape in September 1940 which I wrote about here.
Back in Guernsey Christmas 1942 did not pass without another incident with a drunken German and a firearm. This time the victim was a cow which was shot whilst some Germans were out horse riding.
1943
Potatoes had been scarce for some time and one would have to queue for hours in order to obtain your ration. It wasn’t unusual to find that the queue for the market trader or shop that you were attempting to purchase supplies from ran out before you reached the front of the queue. During Christmas week a supply of 2lbs of potatoes was authorised but this had the unfortunate consequence that the following week supplies were completely exhausted and none were to be had until April.12
Evacuated Guernsey children singing was broadcast on the BBC at 10:45am from the UK. Although how many of those in Guernsey would have heard it? They had to listen on illegal radios and usually only risked that for the news.13
One evacuee received a Christmas parcel from Mrs Roosevelt, the wife of the US President.
In Jersey, permission had to be sought from the Germans to sing carols out of doors.
B/A/W50/125 Jersey Heritage Archives – Bailiff’s Chambers Occupation Archives
Life for those that had been deported was somewhat better as they received regular Red Cross parcels, one per person per week, and sometimes parcels from relatives in the United Kingdom. The Red Cross parcels included; milk, fruit, jam, fish, soap, and cigarettes. Some toys and board games were also received. The December parcels also included sweets and small Christmas puddings.
This Christmas another edition of the ‘Channel Islands Monthly Review’ was able to provide a great deal of information about life in Guernsey for the period ending 23 August 1943. The review mysteriously says that the information is compiled from several sources without divulging anything further. Given the dates referred to it is likely to be from escapes from the islands. You can read the news if you open the scanned copy of the review on the link below.
Electricity supplies were rationed and cut off at the mains. Gas supplies were strictly rationed and eventually exhausted just before Christmas 1944. This reduced those with no other method of cooking to attempt to cook in their fireplaces, but that was only if they could obtain wood or coal both of which were scarce.
The Guernsey authorities had argued with the Germans and succeeded in being allowed to issue six ounces of beef, six ounces of rice, a little cheese and some cooking fat. A typical Christmas Day meal in many houses therefore consisted of some fried potatoes for breakfast, followed by a meal with some meat and a pudding fashioned from some apples and rice for lunch. There was no milk to use in the pudding. A pudding in these times was a luxury. Bramble tea substitute was the drink that was typically had. 14
I have tried bramble tea and can assure you dear reader that it tastes nothing like tea or indeed anything else one may wish to drink.
If they were lucky they may get some thin soup made with cattle carrots, turnips or parsley.
Carrots and parsnips eaten in a house without heating or light was Christmas day dinner.
Letter received in May 1945, after the liberation, by Florence Adey from her relatives in Guernsey.15
The Taylor family Christmas Day lunch consisted of one dog biscuit, an apple, some seaweed and a tiny portion of meat from their ration for each of them.16.
Islanders did get a late Christmas present in the form of the arrival of the Red Cross ship ‘Vega’. The ship arrived in Guernsey on the 27th December with parcels for the islanders before sailing on to Jersey on the evening of the 30th December.
SS Vega picture from the Guernsey Weekly Press 15 May 1945
The parcels contained things that they had not seen for years such as salmon, corned beef, lamb, coffee, tea, jam, chocolate, condensed milk and marmalade.
Those in camps in Germany received the last of their parcels in December 1944 after which the German transport system collapsed so they were unable to be delivered.
From the February 1945 edition of The Prisoner of War. A free monthly newsletter produced for those in the UK by the Red Cross and St John, War Organisation in London. This card was sent from Laufen Internment Camp by a Guernsey civilian to his mother in England.
For the evacuated children the Christmas parties continued as in the prior years. Fortunately for most of them this was to be their last Christmas away from their homes and relatives.
If you have made it this far thank you. You will probably be feeling, like me, extremely grateful for the Christmas you are about to have compared to that experienced by those during the occupation. We will be surrounded by friends and family with as much to eat and drink as we want. Swapping presents, not worried about being bombed, and able to go about your business as you please.
I hope all of my readers have a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. Thank you for your support since I started writing the blog. I really value all of the comments, feedback and information provided. It takes a lot of time to pull these blogs together and this makes it all worth it.
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.
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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.
Jersey Heritage Archive – Discontinuation of the issue of tea, stocks being held at the Overseas Trading Corporation Ltd. Special Christmas issue of tea. Ref B/A/W32/2/32 ↩︎
This is the story of eight men who made a daring escape, by small boat, to England on 6th September 1940. The escapees were Frederick Hockey, a signalman at St Peter Port harbour, his three sons Frederick, George, and Harold. The remainder were William Dorey, William Mahy, Percy Du Port, and Herbert Le C. Bichard. Apart from Frederick they were all tomato growers.
It is incredible to think that they made this journey at night, in a 20ft boat, initially to Dartmouth and then on to Brixham. A journey of approximately eighty-seven miles through some challenging waters. They also didn’t have charts!
I had read a very brief report about this escape in the 1978 Channel Islands Occupation Review and decided to see if I could find more information1. This blog post is compiled using multiple sources which are detailed in the footnotes at the end.
I managed to find quite a bit of additional information as, unusually, it received quite a lot of newspaper coverage in England in the weeks following their escape. This included the names of all involved and a lot of other information about the occupation of Guernsey. This is partly because it was relatively early on in the occupation and thoughts about family members left behind being impacted hadn’t been considered.
The British government even sent three RAF bombing raids to Guernsey, as well as bombs they also dropped leaflets and copies of the the Daily Sketch and Daily Mirror newspapers reporting the escape. More of this later.
As with the all of the escapes in 1940 there doesn’t appear to be any MI 19 reports of interviews with them, unlike the later escapes where it is possible to obtain detailed reports. MI 19, a section of British Directorate of Military Intelligence, interviewed anyone arriving in England from the continent or the Channel Islands. This was to establish that they weren’t spies and to obtain valuable intelligence about the enemy. They also interrogated German prisoners as well as listening to their conversations covertly to obtain information. If you are interested in the activities of MI 19 I recommend the book by Helen Fry ‘The London Cage’.2
This escape, and the escape immediately preceding it, had serious ramifications for fisherman in Guernsey. Following these two escapes an order was issued on 26 September 1940 that all boats, including those stored on land, were to be moved to St Sampson and St Peter Port harbours by 1 October. The Germans were worried that escapees would provide valuable intelligence to the British authorities.
As a result of these restrictions this was to be the last escape from Guernsey until some two years later in September 1942.
Planning
In a newspaper interview Frederick said he felt that “All of this German business was getting a bit two thick.”3 The Germans were importing a large number of German women into the island and they were working in cafes and other places. Frederick’s son Harold went into a cafe and ordered a cup of tea but some Germans who came in after were served first. In typical British fashion Frederick said “This was the sort of thing that makes your blood boiling angry.” The other thing that irritated him was the “oily politeness” and attempts to ingratiate themselves with the local population.
All of the restrictions introduced by the Germans were in Frederick’s words making living in the island impossible.
Expecting air raids, there had been raids in August 1940 on the airport, the Germans had made all civilians dig air raid shelters at home and at their place of work. They also appeared worried that the British may try to take back the island and had, just before this escape, commandeered a number of large yachts and boats and had them fuelled and ready for them to make their getaway should this happen.
This made the prospect of escape by civilians more difficult. Despite this Herbert Bichard approached Frederick and discreetly enquired if he had ever thought of trying to escape. They went to Frederick’s house and sat in his kitchen where they discussed the possibility of an escape. Bichard had access to a 20ft boat, the ‘Tim’, and wanted to use it to escape along with three friends.
As they were all tomato growers they needed someone with boating experience. Frederick had considerable experience of boats sailing around the Channel Islands and this was why they had approached him. He agreed on the proviso that he could take his three sons with him.
They met several times after this, in his kitchen, to come up with a plan as to how to get away. Eventually they agreed on a plan and the night they would attempt it providing conditions were suitable. They needed a pitch dark night and the right tide.
Escape
At ten thirty, half an hour after the curfew started, on the evening of 6th September the men left their homes and set off on foot. They carried a few recent copies of local newspapers, some heavy spanners and some petrol for the boat engine. The petrol was difficult to obtain despite this being only two months after the Germans occupied the island.
Frederick said that they hadn’t dared to leave the petrol on the boat so carried it in cans with them. Another report said that they used beer bottles to transport it so it is not clear which method they used. He declined to say how they had acquired it but one can safely assume they pinched it from the Germans!4
They had armed themselves with heavy spanners as they knew some of the areas were patrolled by Germans. They had decided that it was “them or us” if they were stopped by a German patrol.
In order to attempt to avoid the German patrols they made their way through fields, back gardens and vineries. You can see from the photograph below how many vineries there were in that part of the island at the time. When they got to a main road that they had to cross they spotted a German on a bicycle and ducked into the long grass clutching their heavy spanners. Fortunately, they had not seen them and they crept across the road and continued on their way.
Their first objective was to reach a small dinghy which was hidden on the small tidal islet of Houmet Benest, circled in red on the photograph, at Bordeaux harbour.
Very grateful to Zac and his dad Tim for producing this video not least because it saved me climbing over the rocks! Well worth subscribing to his YouTube Channel.
Herbert Bichard and Frederick rowed out to the boat named ‘Tim’ which was on an outer mooring. They then rowed back and collected the others from a group of rocks where they had agreed to meet them. Having returned to the ‘Tim’ they made fast the dinghy and rowed for about half a mile before they caught the tide and raised the sail.
This would have been risky as, by this point, there would have been Germans based at Vale Castle. The castle is on a hill and has an excellent view out over Bordeaux Harbour. Also there would have been sentries along the coast.
Frederick was worried about making any noise and attracting unwanted attention. Just a noisy splash of the oars could have given them away.
They were just north of the Platte Fougère lighthouse, which is a mile off of the north-east tip of Guernsey when three German aircraft flew overhead and flares were dropped. Incredibly they weren’t spotted despite the flares coming very close to the boat. One flare landed in the water only twenty yards from the stern of the boat.
They were unsure if the aircraft had been sent to look for them or if they were doing something else. What they did know was if they had been caught they would have been in serious trouble. If they had been caught they would have been sent to prison for a long time, probably in France. Realising that the noise of the aircraft engines would mask the sound of their boat engine they decided to risk starting it.
Just after passing the Casquets Lighthouse, twenty-five miles north of Guernsey and just eight miles from Alderney, their engine broke down and they had to repair it. This must have been a very nervous four hours drifting at sea, in waters that have strong currents, along with the risk of being spotted by a German aircraft or a German E-Boat, particularly given their encounter with aircraft dropping flares earlier.
Once they repaired the motor they headed for Dartmouth unmolested. Upon their arrival they were unable to attract attention to be let through the boom in the harbour so proceeded to Brixham where they were towed into the harbour by a customs launch. In total, their journey had taken some nineteen hours.
Unlike later escapes from the Channel Islands, they weren’t interviewed by MI 19 but were instead dispersed to their families around England. Frederick Hockey Senior had thirteen Children and all bar his eldest sons, who escaped with him, and his daughter, who wouldn’t leave with him when he escaped, had previously been evacuated.
One thing that did surprise them when they arrived was that the south coast of England ports had not been flattened as reported in the German-controlled newspapers.
Even before the Germans admitted that there had been an escape rumours were circulating around the island that there had been an escape and that the men had been picked up by a British destroyer. This is recorded in Ralph Durand’s diary.
Newspaper reports
This escape received extensive newspaper coverage, indeed probably the most detailed coverage of any escape from Guernsey.
Initial reports appeared in some newspapers, The Daily Sketch and Daily Mirror, on 27 September 1940. These articles are all relatively short. They didn’t really contain much of any interest.
The Daily Herald ran several days of detailed articles in October about the escape and life in occupied Guernsey. This provided details as to life in the run-up to and under the Germans in the first few months of the occupation. There are some interesting observations within these articles which are worth sharing.
In the first article5 on 16 October, the reporter, Dudley Barker, announced that through the interviews with Frederick Hockey, he would be able to provide for the first time the story of the occupation by the Germans.
After the fall of Paris and the Germans getting closer to the French coast, there was much unease and talk of evacuation, although nothing had been announced. One day Frederick was sitting in his office at the White Rock, St Peter Port harbour, and he got the first hint that things were really wrong. At two o’clock, he noticed that the British garrison was starting to embark on ships. They took everything men, guns and transport. By six o’clock that evening, they were gone and the harbour was quiet again.
Guernsey was now completely undefended. The Royal Guernsey Militia had been disbanded and the Home Guard as they would have been called in England had been disarmed.
Many had not known, with the exception of some in government, that the British were pulling out until it happened; there was a bit of an uproar with people wondering what was going on. This is referred to by Douglas Ord and Ralph Durand in their diaries.
For two days nothing happened. Then it was announced that all women and children under fourteen years old were to be registered for evacuation. Frederick was at work in the signal station when his wife and youngest children left. Interestingly Frederick notes that the boats were by no means full as some people changed their minds. He saw one ship leave which he thought could have carried four thousand and he doubted that there were more than thirty people on it.
On Saturday morning his son Harold came to see him at work and said that he was not going and neither was his girlfriend or his sister and her boyfriend. They had heard a rumour on the Friday night that those that had reached England were being compelled to sleep in public parks so the girls didn’t want to go. He did try to persuade his daughter to join the escape but she was worried that it was too dangerous so would not leave Guernsey and he could not press her to do so.
Another reason that some didn’t go was that on the Saturday the Bailiff and other leading men of the island climbed onto platforms and urged people not to leave. They said trade would carry on as usual, there would be no worry or trouble and if it came to the worst they would see that everybody got safely away. They had cars going around with posters saying ‘Don’t be yellow’. There was no compulsion but they persuaded thousands of people not to leave; he booked out large ships the government had sent with only a handful of people aboard.
Example of the posters that were placed around Guernsey
The following week the island shook itself back to normal. The tomato boats that had ceased running during the evacuation week started running more busily than ever. The lorries pulled up to the quayside in St Peter Port and the mail boats came in again as usual. He had never had such a busy week. Everything seemed so normal that a few people who had gone away to England came back again on the mail boats, although some others decided to evacuate after all though this time they had to pay their own fares.
Throughout that week he saw various German aircraft fly over the harbour initially high in the sky and then later at low level, so low he could see the pilot in the cockpit. Then on Friday 28 June 1940 the Channel Islands were attacked by German bombers. You can read about this in the article below.
After the air raid they knew that the Germans would be invading the Channel Islands they just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.
In the next article on 17th October6 Frederick talks about the arrival of the Germans in Guernsey on Sunday 30th June. He, like most people, was not aware of the arrival of the Germans until the next day. On the Sunday afternoon, he had seen a German plane in the distance and had seen it dip but then rise again. Later in the afternoon, he saw another, and this time he did not see it take off again.
In the evening, he rode his bicycle to work. On the way, he saw people gathered on doorsteps chatting and some called out to him to see if he knew what was happening, but he didn’t have any news for them. The rest of his ride was not unusual except he felt that it was quieter than normal and those that he did see were quite nervy. He did not see any Germans.
When he arrived at the signal station his colleague asked him what he thought of things now, and Frederick told him that he didn’t like the look of it because he thought that a German plane had landed at the airport. His colleague went home, and he was alone, not that he was busy, as no ships were coming in or leaving the harbour.
It was deadly quiet except for the drone of the troop-carrying planes that started to come over about 18:00 and kept it up all night. At midnight one of the local police officers came to relieve him. This was because one of the signalmen had slipped away at the last moment on the pig boat from Alderney. The police officer had no definite news either. He asked what things were like and Frederick said very slack except for those planes going over and he didn’t know quite what to make of that. The police officer said all they could do now was hope for the best and it was his belief that the Germans had arrived.
He got on his bicycle and went home and still, there was nothing unusual to see. The island was very still except for the sound of those planes and the sound of the sea. It was a lovely night. Everything was alright when he got home, so he just went to bed.
The next morning he went down to the seawall at Bordeaux Bay which was the usual meeting place for the area and there were about one hundred people there sitting on the wall, talking and looking out to sea. They knew he had been on duty at the harbour so they asked me for news but he had none to give them. Then two German officers drove by in a car. They were the first they had seen and they were too surprised to do anything but stare at them.
The car was a Guernsey car that they had commandeered. They were driving along cool as you please in the sunshine towards Fort Doyle. Everyone stared at them, and they smiled and saluted and drove on. Frederick muttered something about there go the square-headed pigs. That encounter answered all of their questions. The Germans were here all right, so the meeting on the sea wall broke up, and he went home for breakfast. While he was sitting at breakfast in his kitchen two more Germans went by on motorbikes that they had brought with them in the aircraft.
By noon, the place suddenly seemed to be full of Germans. By nightfall, they were all in their positions, and the German patrols were out on the roads, and that’s how the Germans occupied Guernsey. It made people laugh a day or two later to read the German communique about it, which was printed in our newspapers. It said the British island of Guernsey was captured in a daring coup de main by detachments of the German Air Force. It also reported that in an air fight, the Germans reconnaissance aeroplanes shot down two RAF Bristol Blenheim bombers. There appears to be no record of these aircraft being shot down!
You can read in more detail about the arrival of the Germans in my article below.
The next instalment appeared on 18th October, where he detailed the initial days of the occupation and the impact that it had.7 The first thing he knew on Monday morning, after the encounter with the two Germans, was that the island’s two newspapers were being distributed free. They kept that up for three days, and their front pages were covered with the new German regulations for Guernsey. These new regulations were one of the things that were to spur him on to escape.
The regulations were extensive. All weapons, guns, ammunition, daggers and bayonets had to be handed in immediately to the Royal Hotel. It was forbidden to sing God Save The King; the penalty for doing that was 15 years of penal servitude. Nobody was to be outside their home at night between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00.
No fishermen were allowed to leave the port initially, three weeks later this was altered and they were allowed to go out to a limit of two miles from the shore. One or two fishermen broke this rule and they got a shot across the bows as a warning and then a launch went out to bring them back. Afterwards, their boats were hauled up on the beach for the duration of the war. What is more, if three or more fishermen went out in one boat they had to take a German sentry with them, and he sat with the machine gun across his knees.
Other regulations published on that first day said all motor transport was stopped except for absolute necessities. The chief tradesmen, for instance, were allowed to use their vans for deliveries. All petrol had to be handed into the Germans at once. This was, of course, a problem when they later needed to obtain petrol to escape.
There was to be no talking in groups, and severe penalties would be imposed for that. Nobody was allowed to buy another man a drink in a pub every man had to pay for his own. All sales of spirits were banned, and the spirits were to be handed over to the Germans. Larders had to be cleared of stores of sugar, tea, bacon and any tinned food. It had to be handed over to the Germans at the Channel Islands Hotel. He decided to risk not handing in his food and was lucky that his house wasn’t searched, unlike others.
These were just the first restrictions that impeded normal life. In the next article8 he explains how difficult it made life.
It was surprising, really, how things settled down on Guernsey on the surface, at any rate, after the Germans had been there a few days. After the shock of finding them there at all the islanders were pleasantly surprised at first to discover that the occupation did not seem to mean any particular hardships. It was not long before things began to get sufficiently intolerable for these eight men at least to risk their lives in escaping to England.
Initially, the most difficult thing was getting used to observing all of the regulations. Early on, some people were caught out just two minutes after the curfew. They were taken to a hotel for the night before appearing before the German court in the morning. They were fined and made to pay for their hotel accommodation.
The Germans imposed much stricter blackout restrictions than had previously been in place and Frederick tells some interesting stories. Before the occupation, you might get a ticking off from the local police officer; under the Germans, things were much stricter and slightly bizarrely different!
Old Bob, the police constable, got a shot through his window that nearly hit him because his wife had left a tiny crack in the curtains. Another man was shaving, and there happened to be a faint glow through a window. A German officer walked into the room, smashed the electric bulb with a revolver shot and then walked out again without saying a single word!
He said that the most difficult thing of all to get used to was ‘the attitude of the square-headed pigs themselves’. That is what Frederick said most people usually called the German soldiers.
They offered cigarettes, drinks and even packets of coffee to him. They were always mixing with locals in the pubs. Frederick said he would say ‘Look out here are the square-headed pigs,’ but they took no notice of that. Men would turn their backs, but the Germans would force their way up and offer drinks. Frederick and his friends would say that they had enough or make any sort of excuse but it was no good. They would buy the drinks put them down in front of them, and we had to drink them. Then, they would bring out cigarettes and cigars and compel them to accept them. If you refused the drinks that were offered, there was trouble. They were just so damn polite. This attempt to ingratiate themselves with islanders really got to him.
Sometimes, we just couldn’t stick it any longer and had to revolt. Frederick remembered one night he and some friends had got a bit merry in the London House and then they went home and stood outside his house and sang God Save The King as loudly as they could. Then his friends cycled home after midnight, more than two hours past the curfew. There were plenty of sentries about, but he thought that they must have looked as though we were spoiling for a bit of trouble that night, and none of them spoke to them.
The next instalment in the Daily Herald appeared on 21st October. This article dealt with the difficulties following the first few weeks of occupation.
A couple of weeks after the occupation, the Germans decided to prove that things would be better and happier under occupation. The idea was we should have no rich or poor, and all men would be equal except, of course, the Germans.
It was duly announced in the Guernsey newspapers that, henceforward, all businesses would belong to the States of Guernsey9, which in turn, of course, though this was not emphasised, temporarily belonged to Germany.
It was not exactly compulsory to hand your business over to the States, but if you did not there was nobody in Guernsey that could afford any longer to buy your produce. You could not export it, and you could not draw enough money to pay your employees even if you had it in the bank. This meant there was not much choice about it. A week later, all wages on the island were regulated as well. It was announced that every single man who was employed, and the Germans saw to it that they were employed if only for forced labour at the airport, would draw thirty shillings a week from the States.
Married men would get an extra 30 shillings a week with one shilling extra for each child up to the number of five and sixpence extra for each child over that number. Foremen and people who previously owned their business received two shillings a week extra and people with dependent relatives also got a little bit more. It was surprising how quickly you can put this sort of organisation into force, providing nobody is allowed to express any opinion about it and nobody is allowed to argue against it for they had it running in Guernsey within a few days.
They appointed overseers in each district to go around and make sure that everybody was working properly. Then, they set up local court officials in the school rooms in each parish to pay out the government wages collected each week by the foremen and the owners of businesses.
People of independent means were no better off because no matter how much they had in the bank, they were not allowed to draw out more than their 30 shillings each week, although they did not have to do any work. That was why no man could carry on his private business, as he could not get the money to pay his expenses. The Germans of course, wanted all businesses to be handed over to the States so they themselves could control them. Most of the Guernsey businesses were glass houses for growing tomatoes or grapes. The Germans made the growers turn many of them over to other crops, particularly maize and beans. It was thought that they wanted the seed to be sent to Germany for next year’s sowing.
Now, this idea of everybody having an equal income, even if it was a rather small income, sounded alright in theory, and some people got taken in by it at first. Frederick heard several of them say so in pubs and sitting on the sea wall of an evening. Even these people soon began to realise that things did not work out quite the way they thought they would. Everybody is working, everybody is equal, everybody is happy and so on. What happened was the Guernsey people were paid in Guernsey money that was the same as English money. At the same time, the Germans flooded the island with German money; at first, it was Marks they brought from Germany, but a week or two later they started printing them in Guernsey itself.
The Germans were paid in Marks, and the Germans decided how many Marks went to their Guernsey pound. The way it worked out was that the German private soldiers were getting three pounds a week in Guernsey money, and their NCOs and officers were rich men. Then, locals began to find out that it didn’t matter so much what their incomes were, but it did matter if there was nothing to buy with them. Nothing was imported into the island for the use of islanders, whilst the Germans got everything they wanted.
One of the first results was one by one the shops were closing down, despite the German order that business should carry on as usual. They were closing because they had exhausted their stocks. They could not get any more, and they had nothing left to sell. Then, the shopkeepers went out to work on the land or at the airport for thirty shillings a week. That was what his father-in-law had to do for one.
The Germans tried to cover all of this up by starting a little gaiety. They reopened the cinemas twice a week and at first, they showed one German and one English film. But when they had used up all the English films that were in the Channel Islands, they had to be all German films for which they put English subtitles. They also started showing propaganda films.
The article on the 22nd of October continued to tell the story of the difficulties faced by the local population.
Soon there was no bacon, no coal, and they were having to make potato bread. Frederick said that he feared that this winter, people in Guernsey would be existing on little else except potatoes and bread. The bread itself was at least half potato flour already. The Germans even got at people who had vegetable gardens and people who owned a field of potatoes to make a little pocket money. They published an order that these people could only keep for themselves five perches10 of potatoes each, and that had to last the winter.
The other great trouble was clothes; they were rationed too, and nobody was allowed to buy any clothes at all, not even a pair of bootlaces, without the consent of the Kommandant. If you wanted to buy something, you had to take the old worn-out article along with you when you applied for permission to prove that it was really unwearable. Nearly always, they would hand it back to you saying you can wear it for a few weeks longer. You even had to get a permit to have your shoes repaired and you had to take the shoes to prove they needed it. As for buying a new packet of razor blades, it simply couldn’t be done.
There was of course a strong regulation that nobody could say anything against the Germans or Germany. One day a girl walked into a shop to buy something or other, and they could not sell it to her. She got a bit annoyed and said something about the Germans having everything and the Guernsey people having nothing. She went on that like that for a few minutes just an ordinary bit of grumbling.
As she stepped out of the shop door, she was arrested by one of those men in plain clothes who had been standing outside listening. They took the girl to prison, and though he didn’t think a charge was ever brought against her she was still in prison when he left the island. That taught people to be much more careful about what they said in public, and they started looking over their shoulders to see who was about before they said anything at all.
Early one morning, about fifty German soldiers, all dressed up for battle and carrying their guns, went off with a few boats and a film camera crew to the little island of Herm, which lies off the east coast of Guernsey. They put the camera person ashore on the deserted beach, and then the German soldiers made a gallant landing from their boats. Then they got back into the boats again and made the landing again and again. They landed on that beach hundreds of times that day. They then had a film which looked like thousands and thousands of German soldiers fully armed landed on a beach. He supposed they had already taken a film of German troop ships leaving Germany.
Not all their activities were just propaganda, though; one reason why islanders were not allowed to be out of doors at night was that they were practising all sorts of things, landings on the coast amongst them. There didn’t seem to be much doubt in his mind that if the Germans ever did really try to invade England, they planned part of the invasion to come from the Channel Islands.
They certainly had a lot of guns and ammunition there, and he saw the boats bringing them in and was held to secrecy about it under the threat of the most severe penalties, which may have included death. Frederick said the German propaganda was on the wrong tack when they tried to prove the British were bombing us. The reason was the Guernsey folk would have welcomed it.
Most had grown to hate the Germans, in spite of their soft soap methods, that they would willingly have taken a chance if the British started bombing the Germans out of the island. He had heard scores of Guernsey folks say that. Indeed they were delighted when the British bombed the airport. His father-in-law was up there at the time and he was delighted as the rest of us when we heard the news. Incidentally, as it happens, the RAF killed Germans in that raid and not a single Guernsey-man.
The reaction of the Guernsey people towards the Germans after three months of this polite invasion was that they loathed them like poison. A few people may have been partly won over by the propaganda but most of the islanders would give their lives to see the Germans driven out. For now they were powerless to do anything but to submit to German orders, but that is how they feel about it.
The final article dealt with the escape which I dealt with earlier in this blog post. The poignant thing at the end of the article is where Frederick says ‘One day we will go back to Guernsey, with luck, in the British expedition to recapture it’.
Leaflet drops & bombing raids
Following the escape, and the early reports of it in the the Daily Mirror and Daily Sketch, there were a number of bombing raids which were also leaflet drops.
The raids didn’t kill any locals but left Guernsey covered in leaflets blowing around with the Germans desperately scrabbling to collect them. The locals were reminded that being caught with these leaflets was an offence. You can see an example of the leaflets below.
The escape had serious consequences for islanders. The Germans published a notice that all boats whether moored around the coast or on dry land must be brought to to St Peter Port harbour. This severely impacted the ability of islanders to fish and therefore provide vital food for the island.
At the time it looked like they were there for the duration, however, later in the war the Germans relented and fishing was permitted from St Peter Port, St Sampson and Portelet. Those fishing trips were policed by the Germans under strict rules.
The first official notification of the escape came in a notice published in the Guernsey newspapers.
It must now be known to a good many local inhabitants that some eight persons recently left this Island in a boat with a view to reaching England. As a direct result, drastic control of boats has been instituted by the German Authorities, resulting in fishermen in the northern and western parts of our Island being unable to follow their vocation, and depriving the population of a very large proportion of the fish obtainable.
Any further such departures or attempts thereat can only result in further restrictions. In other words, any persons who manage to get away do so at the expense of those left behind. In the event of a repetition of any such incident there is a grave possibility that, by way of reprisal, the male population of the Island will be evacuated to France.
To any who may be contemplating running away (for that is what it is), we urgently address the order to put it out of their heads as an action unworthy of Guernsey men. I am officially informed that, before the incident, the local German command had been at pains to communicate to their headquarters the cooperation of the Island authorities and the exemplary behaviour of the whole of the civilian population, and, for their part, they hope no further incident will compel them to take the drastic action which would follow the departure of any other boat. (Signed) A.J. Sherwill
Notice published in the Guernsey News papers 28th September 1940 by A. J. Sherwill who was President of the Controlling Committee which represented the Government of Guernsey.
The Reverend Douglas Ord noted in his diary11 on the 28th September that he had been to town and groups of people were discussing the notice. Durand notes in his book that some people were critical of the use of ‘running away’ and an ‘action unworthy’ of Guernseymen. The more level headed realised that Sherwill was having to walk a difficult line to do the best for the population without provoking the Germans.
I hope you have found this an interesting story. I will be dealing with other escapes in the future.
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 I am working on researching some in depth articles I thought it might be worth sharing this video. It was made as part of the Imperial War Museum film Project in 2018. There is some video footage from the occupation in Sark and from Guernsey.
It features the story of a Sark girl Phyllis Baker & Werner Rang a conscripted German medical orderly who went to Sark to treat the sick.
After the war whilst Werner was a POW in England they kept in touch and they were later married.
I met both of them a number of times when I visited Sark in the 90s and early 2000s. I didn’t know their story, I just knew that they were incredibly friendly people who ran a jewellery shop in Sark. This video is well worth a few minutes of your time to watch.
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.
