OPERATION CONCERTINA – RECAPTURE ALDERNEY! 1943

If you have read my previous posts about proposed raids on Alderney then you will understand why this blog post could have had a multitude of titles! As with the other proposed operations this one was very much the brainchild of and driven by Lord Louis Mountbatten.

This operation was a sub operation of Operation Constellation the others were Operation Coverlet against Guernsey and Operation Condor against Jersey.   In this blog post I will be dealing with Concertina. I will deal with the other operations in future posts.

The previous blog posts are Operation Attaboy (1941) which you can find here and Operation Blazing which (1942) which is here . If you haven’t already read these I would read them first starting with Attaboy then Blazing. This will give you a good background to how Constellation and then Concertina came about.

I considered “Operation Concertina – third time’s a charm”, “Alderney here we go again or not as the case maybe!” or just a graphic of Alan Brooke shouting “Oi Mountbatten no!”. Anyway enough of being flippant and on with the story.

Having read those you may well be wondering why on earth they were considering what looked like a very similar operation to what had been proposed in February & March 1941 and 1942. This is especially pertinent as they had evaluated the Islands as being “of no strategic importance to either us or the enemy.” as early as mid 1940 and an assessment that was repeated almost every year thereafter.

At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 the possibility of a large-scale raid on the Channel Islands was again discussed.    This was to be given the name Operation Constellation, the sub operations were Operation Coverlet against Guernsey, Operation Condor against Jersey, and Operation Concertina against Alderney.  

On 17 January 1943 Mountbatten, at the Joint Chiefs of Staff 53rd meeting, made the very bold statement that “He would capture the Channel Islands without help from the United States.”1

On 22nd January 1943 a note by the Combined Chiefs of Staff was presented for cross Channel Operations.  Part of this was to undertake “Small scale amphibious operations, such as the progressive reoccupation of the Channel Islands. (Note: Raids are already adequately taken care of by the existing organisation.)”2   The note suggest that such a raid should be along the lines of Dieppe. We all know how Dieppe ended!

At the meeting on 23rd January 1943 the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, asked about the dates proposed for the operations.  In his reply Mountbatten said that the date for the Channel Island operations had been chosen so as to fit in with Operation ‘Husky.’3  The difficulty being the number of landing craft that the Americans required for ‘Husky’ some of which would need to come from the British Channel Assault Force.4

Mountbatten later goes on to explain that the landing craft resources would only permit an initial assault by 2 brigade groups with an immediate follow up of one brigade group with some armour. This could only be increased with American assistance.  This the Americans declined to help with this as they required all their landing craft for ‘Husky.’    

Despite the lack of support from the Americans the feasibility of a large-scale operation to retake one or more of the Channel Islands continued.  On 17th February 1943 a memorandum was produced by the Chief of Combined Operations, Mountbatten, for the War Cabinet Chiefs of Staff Committee and the name Operation ‘Constellation’ appears.5   It refers to an outline plan for an operation against Alderney. Regarding the other islands, he states that “examination has not yet reached a stage when it is possible to say that attacks on Guernsey and Jersey are practicable.”   The attached outline plan refers to ‘Constellation’ as a whole but the operation against Alderney as a sub operation ‘Concertina.’  The sub operation against Guernsey was named ‘Coverlet’ and Jersey was called ‘Condor’ although these names are not mentioned in this plan.

Interestingly for the first time, having previously been discounted, the plan to retake one of the Channel Islands, specifically Alderney, is referred to as “strategically desirable.”  The plan records that the reason for this is that it would assist with ‘Husky’ because the Germans would become nervous of a landing on the Cherbourg peninsula.  This would also prevent them from moving men and equipment away from France.

It also notes that ‘Concertina’ would have an impact on the proposed, but never enacted, Operation ‘Lethal’ the capture of the U-boat bases in the Brittany peninsula of German-occupied France and Operation ‘Hadrian’ combined operations attack to seize Cherbourg.

The plan notes that if ‘Concertina’ went ahead it would mean that ‘Lethal’ would not be impacted but that ‘Hadrian’ would probably become more difficult because the Germans would strengthen their defences.

The memorandum of 17th February notes that the preliminary air bombardment of Alderney would involve the following:-

  • Night of D-2/D-1 the island is attacked by a force of 500 to 600 heavy and medium bombers.
  • D-1 daytime daylight attacks to be carried out by American heavy bombers.
  • On the night of D-1/Day the island is again attacked by a force of 500 to 600 heavy and medium bombers.   

This would be an incredible amount of bombs to be dropped on such a small target.   At the lower end this would be somewhere around 2,300 tons to 4,500 at the higher end depending on the mix of heavy and medium bombers.

The Naval force was to be:-

  • One Monitor
  • 1 AA Cruiser
  • A/S Destroyer escort
  • 8 Hunt Class destroyers
  • 12 M.T.B.
  • 12 M.L.
  • 6 L.S.I. (H)
  • Landing Craft as required for the force
  • 6 M.S. Trawlers
  • 6 A.S. Trawlers
  • One Boom Defence Vessel

The memorandum considered that the military force required would be:-

  • One Brigade Group   
  • Two Commando Units
  • One Field Company R.E.
  • Two Heavy and two light A.A. Batteries
  • One  Battery of 4.5” Gun Howitzers for coast defence
  • One Squadron tanks
  • Ancillary units

Apart from the bombers they would require:-

  • One Squadron A.S.V. Aircraft
  • One Squadron striker aircraft – torpedo and bomb
  • Forty to fifty squadrons of S.E. fighters
  • At least two aircraft of P.R.U.

This memorandum was discussed at the War Cabinet Chiefs of Staff Committee meeting on 19th February 1943.6 Mountbatten said that he had come to the conclusion that the only option was Alderney given the discussions in Casablanca, referred to above, because of the requirements for landing craft for ‘Husky’ and the Americans requirements.

As with its forerunner “Blazing” Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, thought the plan unsound feeling that the peculiar granite construction of the island that the bombardment would be unsuccessful.  Sir Charles Portal, Chief of Air Staff, on behalf of the RAF doubted that it would bring about the air battle predicted by Mountbatten.

The meeting went on to approve the operation being further investigated but that a raid on the submarine pens in L’Orient was also to be investigated.

On the 19th February 1943 Brooke notes in his diary a long COS meeting.

A long COS meeting at which Dickie Mountbatten gave me a heap of trouble with a proposed attack on the Channel Islands which was not in its proper strategical setting and tactically quite adrift .

Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff

At a subsequent meeting on 1st March 1943 the meeting noted “the Committee took note of a report from the Chief of Combined Operations, Mountbatten, on the result of a reconnaissance of an island in the “Constellation” group.7

After this mention of “Concertina” dries up and it is likely to have been killed off by that final meeting and the lack of available landing craft or crews for them as well as the unwillingness of the Chiefs of Staff.   

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

Footnotes

  1. United States Joint Chiefs of Staff –  https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/History/WWII/Casablanca3.pdf   page 371
  2. United States Joint Chiefs of Staff –  https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/History/WWII/Casablanca3.pdf   Page 113
  3. Husky was the operation to take Sicily.
  4. National Archives – CAB 80. Memoranda (O) Nos. 1-100 – War Cabinet and Chiefs of Staff Committee Memoranda – page 131
  5. National Archives – CAB 80. Memoranda (O) Nos. 1-100 – War Cabinet and Chiefs of Staff Committee Memoranda – page 331
  6. War Cabinet Chiefs of Staff Committee 19th February 1943 – National Archives Reference – CAB 79/59/24
  7. War Cabinet Chiefs of Staff Committee 1st March 1943 – National Archives Reference – CAB 79/59/31

THE WWII GERMAN OCCUPATION OF SARK – TIM’S GUIDED WALKS TOUR

Last weekend I went on Tim Osborne’s guided walk around Sark. This was an interesting tour covering multiple events that happened between 1940 and the liberation in May 1945.

The tour is a full day in Sark leaving on the first boat in the morning and returning from Sark at the end of the afternoon. Tim is very knowledgable about the occupation of Sark and really brought the stories to life. He had also secured access to private property to enable us to see some of the key sites not normally open to the public.

During the day we walked in the footsteps of the commandos that undertook Operation Basalt and Operation Hardtack 7. This is the start of the tour after refreshments upon arrival.

The site of the Operation Basalt and Operation Hardtack 7 memorials is a great spot to admire the stunning views out over the Sark coastline.

Photo © Nick Le Huray

We walked from there through Dixcart Valley and up to a fairly steep path up the side of the valley.

Photo © Nick Le Huray

This took us towards La Jaspellerie, the white house in the photograph below. We stopped at various key points along the way and Tim explained the story of the raids as they happened.

Photo © Nick Le Huray

After this we followed in their steps to the Dixcart Hotel and then on to Stocks Hotel for a brief refreshment stop before going into a tunnel in the grounds.

The second tunnel was just up the hill and a little more challenging as there was no lighting and it was a little muddy. Despite having walked by this tunnel many times I was completely unaware of it.

Photo © Nick Le Huray

Following this we walked up to the top of the valley to the visitor centre and then on to a delicious lunch at the Island Hall.

After lunch we visited the site of a Lancaster crash landing. Following this we visited the graveyard at the church and Tim told us about some of the people that were buried there.

The penultimate stop was at the former German headquarters and the cottage adjacent to it where they surrendered on 10 May 1945.

The final visit was to a house where a murder took place and a complicated investigation ensued. A really fascinating murder mystery story!

Following this we made a beeline to the top of the hill and had time for a quick drink before heading down to the boat to return to Guernsey.

This tour not only tells you the history of the occupation of Sark but also allows you to enjoy walking around car free Sark and enjoy the views and enjoy the peace and quiet.

I have given an overview of the tour and a few photos to give a flavour of what you can expect if you go on this tour in the future. I haven’t gone into great detail as that would spoil the tour should you wish to go on it.

Tim is running this tour again in September so give his page a follow on Facebook and look out for it, the link is below. He also does other walking tours in Guernsey and Alderney.

https://www.facebook.com/events/272337598527136/?ref=newsfeed

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

LIBERATION OF ALDERNEY – 16th MAY 1945 – “PLAN MERIT”

The 16th of May marks the anniversary of the liberation of Alderney. Alderney had been almost completely evacuated save for the family of Alderney resident George Pope. There were therefore few Alderney people there to see the liberation.

Force 135 had bypassed Alderney as there were estimated to be some 3,000 Germans there as well as some political prisoners and slave workers, although many of those had been removed from the island in late 1943 and 1944.

On 16th May “Plan Merit” was undertaken to liberate Alderney. An armed trawler HMT Beal set off for Alderney along with two LCI’s, Landing Craft Infantry, carrying approximately two hundred men of all ranks.

A view from a landing craft sailing towards a jetty, looking up towards a group of German soldiers standing in on the quayside. © IWM Art.IWM ART LD 5594

Brigadier Snow A.E. Snow accepted the surrender of the Alderney garrison from Oberstleutnant Schwalm, who was the Island Commandant, at a property which is called Peacehaven which was used as the Officers’ Mess.

The picture below shows five German officers in uniform sitting around a table within the interior of an Officers’ Mess. One of the German officers, Schwalm, signs a document on the table in front of him, watched by a British naval officer who is sitting on the same side of the table, two British officers sitting at the end of the table and a crowd of British officers gathering at the door behind them.

© IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 5595)

Once the document was signed the Union Flag was duly raised.

Alderney had been left in a terrible mess by the Germans who had destroyed many of the buildings by stripping them of wood and other materials to burn as well as causing other damage.

Some of the Germans were kept back to clear up the mess they had made and deal with removal of land mines and other weapons but a large number were removed within a few days and taken to England as prisoners of war.

Birmingham Mail – Thursday 24 May 1945
Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

As I mentioned above there were only a handful of Alderney residents there at the liberation. The islanders had almost totally evacuated in the summer of 1940 and were not to return in any numbers until 15 December 1945, which is now celebrated as “Homecoming Day” you can read about that in my blog post below.

ALDERNEY HOMECOMING DAY – 15 DECEMBER 1945 – BITTER SWEET EXPERIENCE

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

THE BRITISH CORPORAL WHO EVADED CAPTURE FOR THE WHOLE OCCUPATION!

Whilst researching material for another blog post I came across a newspaper article about Corporal John Dennis, Royal Army Service Corps. This article tells the story of how he managed to evade detection by the German authorities for the entire five years of the occupation of the Channel Islands.

His reason for appearing in this article was because he had been invited back to Ramsgate, where he had been previously based in 1940, after returning from Dunkirk. Dennis was bringing a message of thanks for the Red Cross parcels that were received by Channel Islanders.1

Dennis was at home in Guernsey, on leave, when the Germans arrived. I have previously written about visitors that found themselves caught up in the occupation of the Channel Islands, but not military personnel. You can find that blog post here.

There were other military personnel home on leave who were caught up in the capture of the islands and they were taken prisoner and held at Castle Cornet before being sent to P.O.W. Camps in Germany.

Dennis had other ideas. When the enemy arrived he burnt his battledress and wore civilian clothes. He appeared on the “other ranks casualty list” in September 1940 as missing.

WO417/18 Casualty Lists (Other Ranks) 304-322 page 20 held at the National Archives.

By 1941 he appeared on a list of the missing circulated around POW Camps to try and locate missing personnel.

I was intrigued by the newspaper article as I had never heard of anyone doing this, and had not heard of John Dennis. Having asked around it seemed that nobody else had heard of this story either, apart from one possible post war lead that turned out to be a dead end.

I checked the many books and publications that I have and still turned up nothing, other than a Private who presented himself at the Royal Hotel to meet with Lieutenant-Colonel Stoneman of Force 135 on 9 May 1945. That was Private Le Goupillot, who had initially been detained by the Germans for eleven weeks in 1940, before being released back into the civilian population due to ill health.2

One of the regular readers of the blog is Alan Dennis so, although a long shot, I asked him if by any chance John Dennis was a relative. It turned out he wasn’t a relative but Alan had been told about Dennis by his Grandmother. His Grandmother had lived near where John Dennis lived during a large part of the occupation.

This spurred me on to find out more, armed only with the newspaper article this wasn’t going to be easy. My next port of call were the ever helpful staff at the Island Archives to see if they knew anything of Corporal Dennis. They didn’t know of a Corporal Dennis but they did have a registration form for a John Dennis.

They pulled out the documents for me and I went along to see what leads they would give me. Having looked at his registration documents I noted that he had a wife Adèle Dennis with whom he seems to have lived for part of the occupation. Having found her registration form in the same folder I was able to ascertain that, whilst she now had British nationality, she was originally from Austria.

John Dennis shown from the picture on his registration form held at the Island Archives.

The documents held at the archives reveal that he moved around a lot during the early part of the Occupation, although remaining in St Peter Port. Living at Truchot House, Le Truchot, then 29 Havelet, 29 Hauteville, 4 Sir William Place and then 3 Vauvert Terrace.

After this he was looked after by a Scotswoman for the remainder of the occupation and lived in Mount Durand. Initially at 1 Mount Durand from July 1943 then at 2 Mount Durand from 28 December 1943. Curiously in the article in the newspaper he says that the he was looked after by a Scottish lady for the whole five years.

For five years I was cared for by a Scotswoman at Mount Durand, Guernsey, and had it not been for her great help I probably could not have fooled the Nazis.

Cpl. John Dennis – Interview with the Thanet Advertiser & Echo, Tuesday 12 June 1945
Numbers One & Two Mount Durand, St Peter Port, Guernsey. photo ©️ Nick Le Huray.

One thing that nobody picked up on, or if they did they didn’t act on it, was that on his registration form he had entered the date of leaving the British Army as 8 July 1940, some 8 days after the Germans had occupied Guernsey.

Extract from John Dennis’s registration form from 1940. Held at the Island Archives.

At various points throughout the occupation the Germans were convinced that there were British soldiers hiding here, particularly after commando raids. They were successful in rounding up all that didn’t escape after the raids. Dennis and those that helped him were putting themselves at great risk. They risked being deported to camps in mainland Europe or worse shot.

Example of one of the notices published when the Germans were looking for Members of the British Armed Forces. Photo of display at the German Occupation Museum ©️Nick Le Huray.

His updated registration form dated 22 December 1942 lists him as judicially separated from his wife and and working as a lorry driver for for a German firm Ruby. You may be wondering why he is working for a German firm. Frankly those that lived in the Channel Islands had little choice as if they refused they would imprisoned, not be able to obtain food or escape the island. Unlike France they couldn’t disappear from the area.

The form had a number of slips attached to it updating details of where he worked and lived. From October 1943 until February 1944 he worked as a labourer for the German Forces. After this he became a docker working for Blum & Co until November 1944 when he returned to being a labourer.

The report in the Thanet Advertiser & Echo records that he told their reporter “a harrowing story of the misery he had seen, and experienced himself, and some of the details of the Germans’ behaviour are so revolting that they are unprintable”.

The remainder of the article tells of the hardships faced by the civilian population. He talks about the difficulties in obtaining food and that the Red Cross ship Vega delivering food saved many from starvation. I wrote about that in a blog post here.

I also found a small article which recorded him talking about the cost of obtaining rabbits and chickens on the black market being £20. That is the equivalent of £1,105 at the time of writing this in May 2023.

Kentish Express – Friday 15 June 1945
Image © KM Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

As well as shortages of everyday items medicines had all but run out. As a result of this he reports having had twenty two teeth extracted without anaesthetic.

He appears again on the casualty lists from July to August 1945 as reported not missing.

WO417/95 Casualty Lists (Other Ranks) 24 July 1945 to 14 August 1945 page 6 held at the National Archives.

The article finishes by providing the address that he was staying at and inviting those Channel Islanders in England seeking news of relatives to contact him.

So what else do we know about Corporal Dennis? Sadly the answer to that is not a lot. If you are reading this and are by any chance related to him or know something about his time in Guernsey or the Scottish lady that helped him I would love to know more.

Massive thanks to the following people for their assistance with locating information on Corporal Dennis.

Alan Dennis for passing on the story that his grandmother had told him about this gentleman which spurred me on to keep looking.

The team at Island Archives for searching their records to see what they could find on anyone called John Dennis. This enabled me to find more about who he was, where he lived, and what he did.

Pierre Renier for tracking down the service number of Dennis and that he had appeared in a casualty list as missing and then a later list as no longer missing. This helped me to track down some more information.

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

Footnotes

  1. Thanet Advertiser & Echo – Tuesday 12 June 1945
  2. Lamerton, Mark, Liberated by Force 135 An account of the Liberation of the Channel Islands after World War 2. Volume 2 page 180.

A PLOT, AN EXILE AND THE LIBERATION OF HERM – 12 May 1945

Oberstleutnant Hans W von Helldorf was the former aide-de-camp to Graf von Schmettow who was Commander of the Channel Islands until February 1945. You can read about how von Schmettow was ousted by Vizeadmiral Friedrich Hüffmeier here. Helldorf was part of the undermining of von Schmettow along with Hüffmeier.

Despite this he was implicated in a plot to assassinate Hüffmeier in April 1945. Each day Hüffmeier used to walk to Castle Carey and have a glass of milk. Along with others von Helldorf had planned to poison Hüffmeier but they were betrayed.

Castle Carey. Photo © Nick Le Huray

As a result von Helldorf was stripped of his rank and banished to the island of Herm pending a court martial.

The eight people who lived on the island saw him put ashore on April the 28th 1945. He was carrying a parcel containing a few personal belongings and with his head bowed walked slowly up the hill from the harbour in search of a place he might sleep.1  Accounts record him as having stayed at the Manor House on the island but was hardly ever seen to leave the house.

It was fortunate for him that the war ended before he could face the court martial as Hüffmeier, an ardent Nazi, would likely have had him shot.

The Germans only briefly had a garrison on Herm and they had left in 1942 after their flak battery had shot down one of their own aircraft. Other than this brief period where Herm had a garrison they mainly used it as a place of recreation including shooting pheasants and rabbits.

As the only German on the island on the 12th May 1945 he surrendered to a British officer that came to Herm.

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

Footnotes

  1. Liverpool Echo and Evening Express 1 April 1965.

“OCCUPATION. AN ISLAND STORY” – FILM BY TRISTAN TULL

Today I came across a tweet from The History Islands (@HistoryIslands) highlighting this film by Tristan Tull. (@RegentsMedia) from 2021.

The film is about life in Jersey during the Occupation. Surviving islanders telling their stories interspersed with archive footage, animations and photographs.

Whilst there have been a number of other documentaries over the years this one has a different style. It doesn’t trot out the same old footage. I really enjoyed watching it and recommend it. Tristan has kindly made this free to watch on Vimeo. You can click the link below to watch 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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

CAN WE LIGHTEN THE LOT OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDERS?

Just a short blog today to share an article from 4 October 1941. You can read the article below.

If you have read any of my blog posts you will know that one of the things that irritates me is that many people think, and repeat, the story that we were totally forgotten about during the war. This is far from the truth. 

You just have to look at some of the calls to action that were raised by many in the UK. Take Lord Portsea for example, whom I wrote about here and here. I also wrote about how the idea that Churchill had forgotten about the Islands is frankly rubbish. You can find that here. 

It is of course understandable that those who were trapped in the Channel Islands would feel that way. Channel Islanders had little or no news from the outside world aside from underground news services and illicit crystal radios. Again you can find more here.

In the Sphere of 1941 another article proves that we were far from forgotten. Islanders would have of course been unaware of this at the time and would have not seen it until after the war.

The Sphere – 4 October 1941 © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

I hope that the article above is of interest.

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

JERSEY GOVERNMENT PROVIDING FUNDING FOR FILM ABOUT OCCUPATION RESISTANCE!

A quick post to highlight the excellent news that not one, but two films are in the process of being made. They are about two ladies that committed acts of resistance in Jersey during the German Occupation.

At least one of the films has received funding from the Jersey Government. Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore put notes in German soldiers pockets or left them in German cars inciting them to revolt. They created many of these messages under the German pseudonym Der Soldat Ohne Namen, or The Soldier With No Name, to deceive German soldiers that there was a conspiracy amongst the occupation troops

They were arrested in July 1944 for listening to the BBC and inciting the German Garrison to revolt. Imprisoned until May 1945 it is amazing that they survived the war as they were sentenced to death.

Bailiwick Express have written an article about this which is well worth a few minutes of your time to read. Follow the link here to read it.

You can read more about Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore here as there is an ten page article here from Jersey Heritage with photographs.

It is great to see that these films are going to be be made to tell their story.

I have a number of long blog posts in the works which will be out in the coming weeks.

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

LOVE AND WAR ON SARK – PHYLLIS & WERNER

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.

There is an in depth article about them here.

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray

GUERNSEY APPEARS ON “FORTRESS BRITAIN” ON CHANNEL FOUR

Channel Four has a new series “Fortress Britain” with Alice Roberts. Episode two features Guernsey and Alderney. From thirty two minutes in you can find the bit that deals with Guernsey and Alderney.

It features various things including Pierre Renier of Festung Guernsey talking about the Underground Hospital, an interview with Roy Burton who was here as a child during the occupation, and Colin Partridge talking about the camps in Alderney.

Well worth a watch and you can find it on the link below. Apologies to those readers that can’t access Channel 4 from where they live.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/fortress-britain-with-alice-roberts/on-demand/74745-002

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.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

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 Le Huray