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.   

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 categorized 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 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 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

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.

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 categorized 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 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 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

FILM – JACKBOOTS, BUCKETS AND SPADES

Things have been a bit quiet on the blog for the last few weeks as I have had a bad dose of the flu! Hoping to get things back to normal soon because I have a lot of research from the archives to write up for forthcoming blogs.

In the meantime you might enjoy this film that I found from 1995. Fronted by the late Hugh Scully it features some great archive footage and interviews with people that were here during the occupation of the Channel Islands. This includes some German personnel, islanders and slave workers.

A few of these are people that I have written about before, click the links to go to the blog posts about them.

Hubert Nicolle – M.C. – Hubert comes home, the first commando landing in Guernsey and A secret mission 3/4 September 1940 – Nicolle returns with Symes.
Dame Sibyl Hathaway (recorded in 1974) – What Happened in Sark and Rose Cottage and the liberation of Sark.
Bob Le Sueur MBE – A truly remarkable man.

Topics covered include distribution of news from the BBC, secret photos sent to the british intelligence service, a secret transmitter, deportations and a lot more.

Well worth a watch if you want to hear some first hand accounts of life under occupation.

I have a list of other films that you can find here.

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 categorized 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 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 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

ALDERNEY HOMECOMING DAY – 15 DECEMBER 1945 – BITTER SWEET EXPERIENCE

Of the Channel Islanders that had been evacuated in June 1940 it was those from Alderney that had to wait the longest to return home. The reason for this was the sad state that the island had been left by the occupying forces.

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”. In advance of this there was much work to be done. Things were already moving apace with the British Army having arrived in late May 1945 and German POWs being supervised clearing the island of mines, ammunition and barbed wire.

The first to return to Alderney was Judge French who, along with a few small groups, arrived in the island on 2nd December 1945 to prepare for the return of the population. Judge French was the crown appointed leader of the island who had been in charge when the island was evacuated.

A number of women from the W.V.S. went to the island as part of these advanced groups. They were sent to prepare to help with feeding and rehabilitating those that were to return. Miss Dunn-Pattison of the W.V.S. is reported in the Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail – Friday 24 May 1946 of telling her local W.V.S. group of her experiences. She told them of the trials and tribulations and the ultimate success of their task.

Another W.V.S. lady that went to the island, Miss Cicely Fosbrook, was interviewed by the Leicester Evening Mail and their 9 February 1946 edition reports that she had gone to Alderney in November as part of the W.V.S. team of twelve.

The team was well equipped with all kinds of provisions and equipment, including two goldfish for the officers’ mess for the Army personnel occupying the island.

Miss Cicely Fosbrook 9 February 1946

Her team were housed in the convent as she recalls most of the houses were ‘flat’, more of that later, and most of the remaining structures were of German construction. She recalls that all houses which were standing and any furniture left on the island were pooled.

They established a transit camp for returning islanders where they stayed for two or three days before being dispersed gradually. Throughought this time the convent became the centre of life and activity for them.

About forty children arrived before Christmas and a big party was arranged for them, while a Christmas tree was also brought over for the church and decorated with every candle they could find – they numbered seventy. A padre was brought from Guernsey.

Miss Cicely Fosbrook 9 February 1946

The final note in the article recalls that when she left Alderney there were positive signs of normal life returning with signs indicating that shops were reopening shortly.

Homecoming Day

Western Morning News – Saturday 15 December 1945 Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

The Salvation Army in Guernsey sent all three of their bands to welcome them home. The British Army provided a guard of honour to welcome them back.

Lieut.-General Phillip Neame’s, Lieut.-Governor of Guernsey, welcomed over a hundred war-time exiles of Alderney on their return to the Island on 15 December 1945 . In the course of his address he said:

On this great day, when you are returning to your own dear island, I want to quote to you some lines of Rudyard Kipling’s which have always appealed to me in regard to my own corner of Kent.

I am sure they will express the feeling for Alderney which is in your hearts today –

“God gives all men all earth to love,

But since man’s heart is small,

Ordains for each one spot shall prove,

Beloved overall.”

Lieut.-General Phillip Neame’s address as reported in the Faversham News and East Kent Journal 4 January 1946

Islanders were overjoyed to finally be returning. The Bradford Observer of 15 December reports an interview with Mr & Mrs F.C. Orderie who had run the bakery and confectionery shop in Alderney before the war. Their bakery had been destroyed by the Germans but they were still hopeful that they could reopen using a German constructed bakery.

This joy turned to a bitter sweet experience though as mentioned in the account above by Miss Fosbrook many of the houses had been flattened or had the interiors destroyed as the Germans ripped any wood out to use for fuel.

As there were all bar a handful of residents left after the evacuation, those that remained were the family of George Pope, the Germans had free reign to do as they wished. At least in the other islands the civilian authorities could protest and in some cases prevent some actions of the Germans.

George Pope had refused to leave as it would have meant that his cattle would have been left untended. Aside from the Pope family the only other Channel Islanders on Alderney were occasional working parties sent from Guernsey.

Whilst it became possible to return to other Channel Islands without a permit from 31 March 1946 it was not that easy to return to Alderney. By the end of 1946 only 459 islanders had returned. This was approximately one third of the population.

Belfast Telegraph – Friday 22 March 1946

The damage to the island and the difficulties of restoring some form of normality went on for a number of years causing all sorts of difficulties and arguments. It eventually led to an enquiry by the Home Secretary and a fundamental overhaul of their system of government. I will deal with that in a future blog.

If you would like to know more about the homecoming and hear from some who were there the film below is worth a watch.

A film made by David Earl about the 60th anniversary.

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 categorized 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 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 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

ALDERNEY FORTIFICATIONS – FILM WITH DAN SNOW

If you have read any of my blog posts about Alderney, and even if you haven’t, you might find this short film interesting.

Dan Snow takes a look around some of the fortifications and explains the history. Well worth a watch and provides some context for other blog posts which are linked below.

My blog posts about Alderney can be found below.

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 categorized 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 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 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

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